Dave and I are taking an all-American road trip around this fine nation of yours. Where do you feel we MUST go? Tell us in the comments! (Contiguous states only, please. Hawaii deserves its own trip, and let’s face it, Alaska is just Canada’s skin tag.)
The Atomic Tour
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Adding to your other list on Glark…
You must stop at Yosemite National Park. It will astound you, I promise.
Swing on up to Way-NW MN to Lake Itasca State Park – the headwaters of the
mighty Mississippi! And while you’re there, visit the large Paul Bunyan &
Babe the Blue Ox statues in Bemidji. MN kitsch is the best kind.
My two faves:
Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC– America’s largest home Graceland
If you think you can stand the fundamentalist horror, may I suggest the Creation Museum (http://www.creationmuseum.org/) in Petersburg, Kentucky , and the Holy Land Experience (http://www.theholylandexperience.com/) in Orlando, Florida? I believe the latter has daily re-enactments of the Crucifixion (weather permitting!) and I suspect either of these venues will provide you with unparalleled photo ops and guffaws aplenty.
Okay, I hadn’t read Glark’s post before I responded to yours, Tara, so my suggestions don’t fit in with the Atomic Age theme. (I still think these are worth making an exception!)
My family did a lot of the posted list in one single trip 20 years ago, which may color my impressions, but if memory serves, Mt. Rushmore/the Black Hills is not a good effort-to-payoff ratio.
Alcatraz is pretty cool (and there’s some great people-watching on the ferry out there).
Yellowstone is beautiful but give yourself a few days there.
Dallas/JFK stuff is a tough one; there’s a whole JFK industry down there, and it’s kind of interesting to see Dealey Plaza with contemporary cars on it when you’ve seen the Zapruder footage so many times, but I don’t know if it’s a whole trip segment unless you’re a true-crime nerd like myself. (Although I will most likely be in Dallas at some point this summer, so go for it.)
Other suggestions: Buffalo Bill Cody’s Ranch/Resort (Cody, WY) and The Mystery Spot (AZ somewhere, I think).
You must needs to go to Carhenge in Alliance, Ne. It is Stonehenge, but with cars.
As a St. Louisan I have to chime in to tell you to visit the Arch. It’s pretty atomic looking!
A trip to the Anheuser Busch Brewery is fun too…because the clydesdales are so pretty!
And Forest Park is lovely…okay, enough about StL.
If you go to Mt. Rushmore be sure to visit the Badlands on the way…they are breathtaking.
I love road trips – I’m a little jealous.
you will have such a grand time!!
if you’re going to memphis to see graceland, stops at the stax museum and sun studios are MUSTS. the stax museum has a dance floor AND isaac hayes’ custom-made caddy.
grand old opry and parthenon replica in nashville
there is a creation museum in texas, too, just outside glen rose, where there are tons of dinosaur tracks.
if you stay over in marfa, tx (where they filmed giant!) you might see the marfa lights
there’s a world-famous snake farm between austin and san antonio (you’ll see the billboards)
May I suggest a stop at the Monroe landmark Chao Camp on your way down I-20 between Dallas and Graceland?
Excellent suggestion! Assuming Dave survives the weekend, we will be in touch!
If you’re going to Tennessee, stop in Oak Ridge and see the American Museum of Science and Energy (originally the American Museum of Atomic Energy). I haven’t been there for about 10 years, but I can’t imagine that it’s changed much from the military propaganda machine that it still was in the late 90s. Plus, they have a big old Van de Graaff generator, and what’s not to love about that? You might also arrange to visit Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Oh yeah, and Dollywood is nearby. Also, Gatlinburg. Both worthy, kitschy stops.
In my current home state, Virginia, you have Shenandoah Caverns in Shenandoah, Dinosaur Kingdom (imagine dinosaurs vs. the Union Army, circa 1863) in Natural Bridge. Let’s see…Stonewall Jackson’s arm (or burial thereof) in Fredricksburg. Lots of Civil War sites everywhere, probably best at Bull Run in Manassas. Bedford has “Virginia’s Holy Land USA”. If you get down to Chincoteague, on the Eastern Shore, for the last Wednesday of July, you could see the annual Pony Swim (they round up the excess wild ponies to auction off). If you read Misty of Chincoteague when you were small, you would enjoy that. Also, if you like ponies.