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39 Days on the Road 6,141 Miles (9,883 kilometers) 13 States Our Route We left from Virginia, taking about six days to reach our destination: the TBEX Travel Blogger Conference in Keystone, Colorado. The route took us through some places I had never been: northern Arkansas and Oklahoma, along with some for familiar stops [...] Read more »
I always try to schedule a little less than I know I have time for at a destination. That way there’ll be time to squeeze in something spontaneous. I followed this rule while loosely planning my recent U.S. road trip. We were on the way to White Sands National Monument after spending the previous day [...] Read more »
What’s in Oak Ridge Tennessee? The short answer to this question is that a good friend of mine has parents that live in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. I had never met them, and he suggested we stop to visit. But Oak Ridge had a far more interesting story than I could have imagined. Before 1942 Oak [...] Read more »
Navigating our road trip to the Very Large Array At dusk the evening before, we made a scramble for free camping in The Box. There is little information for The Box Canyon along Route 60, both online and at the actual site. It is Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, and that should be information enough. [...] Read more »
History and Superlatives of Santa Fe We somehow brought the July monsoon with us from the north. It rained in Taos and continued in Santa Fe. There they were grateful for it. Santa Fe sits at 7,199 ft. (2,194 m.), making it the highest capital in the United States. It’s also the oldest capital in [...] Read more »
New Mexico: Land of Enchantment We left Great Sand Dunes after an early morning climbing to the top of these tallest dunes in North America. By 11am I saw the gigantic dunes shrinking in my rear-view mirror as Blanca Peak neared on my left. On the southern edge of the Sangre de Cristo range, [...] Read more »
Interior Design at Northern Quest I’m not an interior design expert nor do I know very much on the subject. I’ve only briefly touched on the topic when I wrote about malls in Singapore. I do know, however, when I’m inspired by interior design. This happened most recently at Northern Quest Resort and Casino, where [...] Read more »
Somewhere west of Tulsa the landscape really opened up. Long rolling hills stretched under grazing cows and the occasional oil pumpjack dotted the view. We’d later learn from Debbie in Perry that the wheat was about ready. Most of the fields were already cut but we saw a few of the enormous combines working to [...] Read more »
We left Lake Charles State Park before breakfast and made a quick stop at Lynn Supermarket in the small town of Lynn, Arkansas. It’s the kind of business that advertises “Old Fashioned Hometown Service!” in their window and greets each customer as he or she walks in the front door. They’ve also got the checkout [...] Read more »
We got a late start out of Nashville, chatting around the breakfast table until nearly noon. We stopped at one of Nashville’s oddities that is the Parthenon—an exactly two-thirds-sized replica of the real thing in Athens. The interior is closed Sunday and Monday, but it’s still cool to check out from the outside. We drove [...] Read more »
Even though I make an effort to avoid the interstate highways, we couldn’t avoid Interstate 81 through Virginia. It took us in exactly the direction we needed to go and it’s got to be one of the prettiest stretches of highway in the country. The part we drove paralleled the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway [...] Read more »
I’ve been road-tripping my whole life. It’s one of the quintessential American experiences. It’s something I want to revisit at different stages of my life. The road trip always manifests itself differently depending on your companions, the region of the country, and the speed at which you take yourself. In the tradition of Steinbeck, country [...] Read more »
Philadelphia is making some huge strides in recent years on becoming a foodie destination. Here are some of my latest favorites from the City of Brotherly Love: Breakfast Darling’s Diner is good anytime of day, not just for breakfast. In fact it’s open 24 hours/day (and has a full bar). They are known for their [...] Read more »
The trip from Ouray to Durango, Colorado is one of the most scenic in the United States. There are two ways to see it: by the famous Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and by road along US Route 550. The 45-mile rail line began in 1882 to haul gold and silver ore out of [...] Read more »
The Connecticut River Valley seemed to be filled with off-the-beaten path interesting sites. I already wrote about the Cornish-Windsor Bridge, and visiting the Harpoon Brewery over in Windsor, known as the birthplace of Vermont, where their state constitution was signed. On the other side of the river in New Hampshire, just north of Cornish, some [...] Read more »
The Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge spans the Connecticut River between the towns of Windsor, VT and Cornish, New Hampshire. It was the longest covered bridge in the United States until the Smolen–Gulf Bridge opened in Ohio in 2008. Cornish-Windsor is still the longest covered bridge to carry automobile traffic. The bridge was built in 1866 at [...] Read more »
During the first Friday of each month, the Old City art district in Philadelphia has an open house for its galleries. Each of the galleries is open to the public, many with beer or wine on hand, as well as art vendors who spread themselves along the sidewalks. It’s one of the best cultural experiences [...] Read more »
The Egg and Corning Tower of the Empire State Plaza Empire State Plaza The grand vision of Nelson Rockefeller, the Empire State Plaza was constructed between 1959 and 1976 at a cost of $1.7 billion. The 40-block zone displaced thousands of residents but is credited with the revitalization of downtown Albany. Some of its 11 [...] Read more »