Here's a personal summary we created as an exercise, while we're still out here. I added in my experiences from travelling to the USA almost 50 times for business and pleasure.

Space, terrain, beauty, wildlife, heat: common things are the space - this is a BIG country and the space outside of cities is impressive. There are many stunningly beautiful places in the US, especially Washington state, the Catskills and Taconic areas of NY and some parts of Vermont among the places I've visited. There are also many ugly places, such as virtually all of Houston and many towns where little care has been taken over telegraph poles and the general look of the place. Temperature-wise, you can have the temperate-to-cold of Seattle (my preference), to the hot-to-searing heat of Houston. NYC gets a lot of snow and some towns, like Rochester, can snow so much in one night that you cannot find your car in the morning. There is more insect life generally, and a lot of creepy-crawlies everywhere. Nowhere has the wonderful temperate weather of the UK, with its narrow temperature swings.

Property, cost of living, food: it's all good, with housing approximately half UK prices here in Texas for a house that's larger in size. The cost of living is overall lower with food, clothing and fuel being the obvious areas lower than Europe. However, we have noticed a very significant rise in costs in the last couple of years, especially in the cities. No wonder the Americans are complaining about costs, they're not used to what we have been seeing. Tax is an annoyance such that you never know what you're going to pay as it's added at the checkout.

People, friendliness, insularity: there is no doubt that Americans are overall friendly, smile and are courteous. The only exceptions are in the cities where sullen service can be displayed. I punish them by not tipping but unfortunately the locals spoil things by tipping regardless. It's generally a pleasure to visit places, go shopping and dine out. However, be prepared for sometimes shocking levels of ignorance and insularity, especially when it comes to other countries. I have met people who didn't know whether I had flown or driven there, or who didn't know what language we speak in England.

Litigation, gun law: this is a litigious nation and it appears to bite everyone sooner or later. You have to be insured for everything - twice! It's also mostly peaceful, but you do have to be careful where you go and there have been moments in my life where it was best not to argue or look someone in the eye, because unfortunately they are allowed to openly carry weapons and I wanted to carry on living.

Medical costs: there is precious little welfare state! If you get taken ill, they will ask you in the ambulance for insurance. If you don't have any, they will drive out of their way to dump you in a third world hospital where you will not be well cared for. For someone like me, who is diabetic and an ex cancer patient, medical insurance would be crippling for the rest of my life but would be absolutely essential. Don't even think of travelling here without medical cover.

Cars, distances, public transport: many of the cities have great public transport, such as NYC, Washington DC, Chicago, Boston and Seattle to name the ones I've used. There are also Greyhound buses for long distances. That's about as far as it goes. They rely totally on cars. There is no public transport of any kind worth a damn in Houston. Americans use their cars for all travel, including popping down to the shops for a pint of milk, which could be 10-15 miles away.

Technology, entertainment: archaic. I'm sure they believe that their mobile phone system, internet cable and TV broadcast systems are the best, but they are 10-15 years behind most of Europe. The mobile system is extremely patchy, the cost of data is prohibitive and you won't even see 3G outside of the cities. Internet provision is prone to crashing and freezing. TV, whether satellite or cable, is simply terrible, with weird proprietary user interfaces, inability to fast forward through adverts and general crappiness. At least there is wi-fi to be had in shopping malls, Starbucks etc. Cinemas are good but not widespread. Theatres are non-existent in most towns and live music really depends on where you are. Generally, you can forget most culture unless you are in a big city. Availability of music is poor, CDs offered in big shops like Best Buy are of limited range. I've hardly seen any vinyl anywhere.

Religion & politics: I've left the worst until last. This is a highly religious country. There was an article in the BBC website recently about the impossibility of there ever being an atheist president. A survey said that Americans trusted atheists less than rapists. They invoke their god in much conversation, which makes me embarrassed for them. Sunday mornings are deserted everywhere as they all go to church.  It all leaves me very depressed. On the positive side, they do have good freedom of the press if not very inspiring main newsstand titles. As for their two-party politics, it simply causes constant gridlock in any attempt to move things forward.

Despite the latter sections, there is much to commend the USA and Americans are very lucky to live in such a relatively free and open society.