Fellow bloggers and lurkers. Your assistance is needed.I don't know about you, but I love a good road trip. On the map above are two trips I made. The blue one was by bicycle (2 months), the red one was by van (5 months). It has come to my attention that a fellow blogger, Megan, has done an insufficient amount of domestic travel. It is up to us to put together a kick-ass road trip itinerary for her. What I'd like to do is compile a list of potential "can't miss" attractions around our great nation so that she can decide what she'd most like to see. These can be serious or goofy (let me guess where most of you will go with this).
I'll start things off with the quintessential road trip stop. It is legendary. You guessed it. The Biggest Ball of Twine. I'll let her decide if she'd rather see the one in Darwin, Minnesota or the one in Cawker City, Kansas. See this Wikipedia entry for the distinction.
As far as a serious option, I thought the Olympic peninsula in Washington state was pretty beautiful. It's home to some beautiful coastline, mountains, and three temperate rainforests.
OK, now where else should she go?
14 comments:
There's a giant basket that doubles as an office building in Newark, Ohio. It is the Longaberger Headquarters. And down the road in Dresden, Ohio is Longaberger Village. There are lots of twee shops and baskets to be had for fistfuls of dollars.
While in Newark, she could see the Indian Mounds and then head over to Indian Mound Mall.
She could pass through my hometown and see the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but it is dreadfully boring, as is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to the north.
I recommend touring the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg, TN. It is one of the best tours I've ever been on. Course, Lynchburg is a dry town and you can't find a dram of JD for love nor money. But the tour is a wonderful walk around the grounds and it's led by a good ole boy. At the end you get lemonade.
WHereever she goes, she should take a copy of Jane and Michael Sterns' Road Food, although as aveggie person, she might find her options limited.
I did the classic Route 66 trip about ten years ago and had a wonderful time.
Lulu- Yeah! We had that book on our big road trip and tried a bunch of places they mentioned. Good call!
No road trip is complete without a jaunt on historic Route 66. Historic Route 66 begins in Chicago and ends in LA.
Now you go through Saint Louis
Joplin, Missouri,
and Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty.
You see Amarillo,
Gallup, New Mexico,
Flagstaff, Arizona.
Don't forget Winona,
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.
There is a 400’ tall illuminated cross outside of Amarillo, and Twin Arrows is a can’t miss.
Lots of fun.
I made the trip from Columbia, SC to Huntington Beach, CA with my two British friends. We had a blast. They especially enjoyed a Woolworth's dining counter in Memphis, TN. The lovely woman who waited on us still had a beehive hairdo in about 1988. It was fabulous!
Napa Valley California with a convertible can't be beat. The air actually smells like grapes (if you go before harvest) and it's awesome. Visually, the Opus One winery is amazing, the architecture of the buildings is impressive. But all of the vineyards have something interesting to offer. The Coppola vineyard has neat movie artifacts in it. The Hess vineyard has a contemporary art collection that I really enjoyed.
I like the drive west along 90, through South Dakota badlands, Wall Drug, to the Black Hills. There's even a Laura Ingles Wilder museum and home on the drive. If you go in Aug. you will hit the giant biker rally that happens every year in Sturges. Also the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone humble you with their beauty.
South Florida and Key West especially are big on my list.
Estes Park in Colorado.
Just point yourself an any direction. This country is beautiful.
A few more of my favorites:
Yosemite N.P.
Austin, TX
Everyone needs to see the Grand Canyon (I just saw it for the first time a couple years ago) and the area surrounding Sedona (not Sedona-proper)
The California Redwoods
Sante Fe, NM
Minocqua, WI
Couer D'Alene, ID
The San Juan Islands
San Francisco
Gary, IN (just kidding)
Rocky Mountain National Park (road is closed in the winter, though)
And Drive the 1 up (or down) through Big Sur, CA. Amazing.
Hearst Castle is not too far from there, and is an amazing thing to see. There is an elephant seal breeding beach near San Simeon that is awesome if you hit it in winter when there are pups.
Also Monterey Bay, with the aquarium and the whole Steinbeck history thing is nice.
I'm a Canuck. I got nothin'.
I do have a job, ya'll! But, really, thanks for all the suggestions. A road trip would be very cool.
Highway 1 is pretty spectacular, although I wiould make sure I was driving up and not down as down is WAY to close to the edge for my tastes.
You know, since this is a road trip for Megan, it might make more sense to plan it around important historical sites. She could hit Chicago for the Haymarket Square Riots, and the 1968 Democratic Convention.
Of course, there's always the Frederick's of Hollywood Lingerie Museum in LA. I know Megan loves her lingerie.
You should see the sunrise over the meth labs out here in the desert.
You don't where heaven ends and the earth begins.
Boob Lady- Hey, Canada is never off-limits. Surely there are some cool spots up there.
Megan- Job, shmob! You just sit back and we'll put the whole thing together.
Lulu- See, she can kill a whole buncha birds with one stone! (Megan, I know you are non-violent, so excuse the cruel metaphor)
Kristi- Good ones! There's also Hell, Michigan (seriously)
mixednut- When you say stuff like that it makes me long for the day when you start your own blog!
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