Grab a canoe because these 6 Ohio rivers make an easy paddle with the kids
Some of the best family memories in Ohio happen not on a screen but on the water, with a paddle in hand and a kid giggling in the front of the canoe. The state is stitched together...
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This Texas Garden Center Has A Cafe Hiding Between The Plants And Flowers
Plant shopping becomes significantly more dangerous when coffee and lunch are waiting somewhere between the flowers. Texas...
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You can walk behind a thundering waterfall at this Ohio state park near Logan
Some places in Ohio surprise you the moment your shoes hit the trail. Imagine walking through a cool, shady gorge, crossing little stone bridges, and then stepping right behind...
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This West Virginia Butcher Shop on Shepherdstown Road Beats the Big Chains on Both Price and Quality
Somewhere in West Virginia, tucked along a quiet road that's easy to blow right past, there's a meat counter that folks drive an hour to reach. The parking lot fills, a line forms,...
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Ride Through Texas Hill Country On A Vintage Train With Historic Cars And Scenic Views
Road trips are great, but they rarely come with restored railcars from the 1930s through the 1950s and the satisfying excuse to let somebody else handle the driving.
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This West Virginia Tea Room Serves Afternoon Tea With Fresh Scones And Tea Flights To Sample
Tucked inside an old glass factory in West Virginia, there's a little spot where the teapots outnumber the tables and the scones come out warm. You might walk in curious and leave...
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A Texas Restaurant Brings Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken To The Table With Sauces You’ll Want On Everything
Rotisserie chicken sounds simple until Peruvian cooking gets involved and suddenly everybody at the table is arguing over the sauce cups.
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We Found A Secret Sandy Beach Hiding In The Middle Of Oklahoma
A sandy beach in the middle of Oklahoma? It sounds like a mirage, but it is real. Tucked beside a quiet lake, a stretch of shoreline...
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Long Before Smartphones, This New Jersey Site Helped Revolutionize Communication
Before WiFi, before cell towers, before you could text your friends from the couch, there was a moment in a New Jersey factory that changed everything.
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This Charming West Virginia Small Town Feels Like A Living Postcard You Never Want To Leave
Some places in West Virginia sneak up on you. You roll into a quiet little valley town expecting nothing special, and by the time you leave, you are already planning your next...
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This New Jersey Park Is An Easy Answer When You Need A Low-Key Day Outdoors
They say New Jersey has traffic, but they obviously have never seen me try to find a quiet walking trail. This park is the...
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This 101-Year-Old Small-Town Factory Is Believed To Be Indiana’s Last Independent Creamery
The churns keep turning. That is the whole story. Except it is not. Behind those ordinary sounds is a 101-year-old Indiana...
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This Moody Indiana State Park is One of the Best Places to Track Real Glow-in-the-Dark Mushroom
“Turn the flashlight off.” Bad advice, under normal circumstances. Here, it might be the best advice of the night. Give...
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Dig Through Ancient Ocean Sediment And Keep The Fossils You Find At This Free Texas Park
Most free parks give you a walking trail and maybe a picnic table. This Texas spot lets you head down to a fossil-rich riverbed and potentially leave with a piece of prehistoric...
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This Oklahoma Barbecue Joint Serves Fried Chicken So Good It Steals The Spotlight From The Smoked Meats
The menu says barbecue. The locals say fried chicken. At this Guthrie joint, the smoked meats have plenty of fans, but the...
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These Oregon Places Feel Like You Found Them First
Discovering somewhere before anyone else talks about it hits differently than following a crowded recommendation list. A handful of spots across Oregon still offer exactly that...
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This 1.6-Mile Missouri Trail Climbs To A 120-Foot Bluff Above The River Valley
That view from the top of a Missouri bluff caught me completely off guard. The drive out runs past farm fields and quiet county roads, so the moment the land starts folding into...
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This New Jersey Butcher Shop Is So Clean And Fresh Locals Won’t Buy Meat At The Supermarket Anymore
Fresh meat. Spotless counters. A family-run shop where the owner greets you by name and steers you toward the perfect cut....
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This New Hampshire Korean Lab Is So Good Jessica Saba Says You Have To Drive And Try It
When a respected food writer tells you to drive and try a restaurant, you pay attention. This New Hampshire Korean lab has earned that kind of praise, and the food is exceptional.
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This New Jersey Hiking Trail Looks Easy At First But Gets Wildly Different Once You Reach The Woods
A gentle stroll around a pond. Then the trail laughs and shows you what it is really made of. Rocks, ledges, and a climb that...
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This Maryland Shrine Has a Historic Stone House, a Beautiful Basilica, and a Story Dating Back More Than 200 Years
More than 200 years of history can make one Maryland stop feel like several completely different destinations rolled into the same afternoon.
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This Oregon Motel Brings Back the Road Trips of the 1950s
Neon signs and vintage cars used to define the American road trip. Somewhere along the way, most motels traded that character for generic chain sameness. This one refused to follow...
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This New Hampshire Restaurant Looks Like A Tiny Local Joint But People Drive Miles For The Food
The building is small and unassuming, the kind of place you might pass without a second look. But this New Hampshire restaurant is hiding something special.
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This Little-Known West Virginia Zoo Lets Your Family Get Close To Exotic Animals On A Back Road
Some of the best days out in West Virginia hide at the end of a winding country lane, where you least expect them. Picture turning off the main road and spotting kangaroos and...
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You Can Eat Handmade Pasta Then Stock Up On Italian Specialties At This New Jersey Gem
This place does not make you choose between a great meal and great groceries. You walk in, sit down for handmade pasta, and...
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A South Carolina Church Was Abandoned More Than 150 Years Ago, but Its Stone Walls Never Left
Fieldstone walls rose behind a low wall of trees, looking as stubborn as they must have looked two centuries ago, and I pulled off a busy South Carolina road expecting a quick...
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This Coastal Alabama Pastry Shop Serves Pillowy $6 Authentic French Beignets Piled High With Powdered Sugar
The powdered sugar gets everywhere. Shirt. Table. Phone. Somehow, even...
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Oregon Has a Tree With So Many Trunks Nobody Knows How It Happened
Trees aren't supposed to look like this. Multiple trunks spread outward from a single base, twisting in directions that seem to defy whatever rules trees normally follow.
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This Exclusive New Hampshire Island Has Pristine Sandy Beaches, Majestic Mountain Views, And Water So Clear You’ll Never Want To Leave
The water is so clear that you can see the rocks at the bottom. The mountains rise up in the distance, and the sand is soft and white.
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This New Hampshire Progressive Kitchen Is So Good The James Beard Foundation Says You Have To Drive And Try It
The James Beard Foundation does not hand out praise lightly. When they say a restaurant is worth the drive, people listen. This...
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These 9 Maryland Pizza Joints Are So Good You’ll Plan A Whole Day To Satisfy That Craving
Pizza cravings have terrible timing, mostly because once they arrive, a sad frozen pie suddenly feels like a personal betrayal. Fortunately,...
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This Historic New Jersey Restaurant Is Said To Be Haunted By Three Resident Ghosts
What is better than a good meal? A good ghost story to go with it. That is exactly what you get at this historic New Jersey spot....
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This Oregon Coffee House Is Famous for Desserts, Weird Decor and a Very Strange Atmosphere
Walking in here means abandoning every expectation about what a coffee shop should feel like. Mismatched furniture, dim lighting, decor that seems chosen specifically to unsettle...
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10 South Carolina Places Where Entire Towns, Mills, and Settlements Nearly Disappeared
Piles of old bricks never seemed like much until I started finding them in South Carolina's lowcountry marshes and upstate foothills, scattered across places where thousands of...
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This Free Oklahoma Wildlife Refuge Lets You Search For Bald Eagles Along A Six-Mile Driving Loop
Some of the best wildlife viewing in Oklahoma happens without you ever leaving the car. A six?mile gravel road winds through wetlands, meadows, and lake shore, and the view from...
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This Missouri Vegetarian Cafe Makes Its Own Seitan And Turns It Into Crispy Chiken Katsu
A vegetarian cafe that makes its own seitan is rare enough. One that turns it into crispy, golden chikn katsu is something else entirely.
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This West Virginia Drag Strip Is a 300-Foot Track Run by Mopar Racers Where the Family Atmosphere Is Hard to Beat
Some of the best afternoons in West Virginia happen at places you'd never spot from the highway. Tucked into a quiet corner of the state sits a little racing strip where engines...
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This Surprisingly Affordable New Jersey River Town Is Quietly Winning Over Retirees
It is not flashy. That is exactly the point. This New Jersey river town has been quietly winning over retirees who want a slower...
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This Massive West Virginia Antique Shop Lets You Lose Yourself For Hours Among The Past
Sometimes the best surprises in West Virginia hide behind a plain storefront on a quiet street. You walk in expecting to peek around for ten minutes, and suddenly two hours have...
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This Cozy Alabama Italian Restaurant Serves An Absolutely Mind-Blowing Chicken Parm
The dining room is quiet for exactly one reason. Everyone is eating. Then conversation starts again. A chair scrapes.
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Peanuts Hit the Floor While Steaks Hit the Grill at This Old-School California Roadhouse
Smoke curled out from the back of that California steakhouse and drifted across the parking lot, reaching me before the sign or the door ever came into view.
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10 Highest-Rated Italian Restaurants In Minnesota Right Now According To Locals
Ratings shift constantly, but a handful of Italian spots in Minnesota keep landing at the top no matter how often lists get refreshed.
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This Virginia Farm-To-Table Gem Is So Good Alice Levitt Says You Have To Drive And Try It
When a respected food critic tells you to go somewhere, you listen. Alice Levitt, known for her sharp palate and honest reviews, says you have to drive and try this Virginia farm-to-table...
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10 Virginia Towns Where Almost Nothing Is Open After Dark And Nightlife Barely Exists
Some places in Virginia wear their quietude like a badge of honor. Long after the sun dips behind the mountains or melts into the Chesapeake, these small towns simply go still,...
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This New Jersey Buffet Looks Easy To Miss But It’s Often Packed With Hungry Diners
Do not let the outside fool you. A quiet storefront on Route 9 that looks easy to miss. But step inside and you will find a...
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This Texas Preserve Protects A Rare Forest Filled With Trees That Can Live For Hundreds Of Years
These trees were built for the long game. Longleaf pines can survive for centuries, with historic stands containing trees more than 250 years old, yet only a small fraction of...
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At this Ohio trampoline park in Dayton, kids bounce off the walls until they crash for the night
Somewhere in Ohio, tucked into a quiet stretch of road you might drive past without a second glance, sits a place where kids leave with rosy cheeks and heavy eyelids. It looks...
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An Underground River Runs Through This Ohio Cave Before Reappearing in the Woods
Water echoed somewhere below my boots the day I climbed down into a crack in the earth in northern Ohio, a sound that changed the way I think about the farm fields I have driven...
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This Oregon Waterfall Looks Tiny On The Map But Feels Completely Different In Person
Photos rarely do this waterfall justice. On a map, it looks like a minor stop, barely worth the detour. Standing in front of it tells a completely different story.
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This New Oklahoma Restaurant Lets Anyone Dine Above Lake Hefner With Panoramic Water Views
A meal with a view is one thing. A meal with a view that makes you feel like you are suspended above the water is something else entirely.
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This 700-Acre Missouri Resort Has Private Cottages And An Outdoor Saltwater Pool For An Easy Lake Weekend
The road narrowed into trees the moment I passed through the gate, and the noise of the highway just disappeared behind me. I had come for a lazy lake weekend, the kind where you...
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This Tiny New Jersey Creamery Sells Farm-Fresh Milk And Cheese Around The Clock
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, this New Jersey creamery has fresh milk and cheese waiting for you. It is a family-run...
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Dinner Comes With a Ride Down an Incline at This Pennsylvania Restaurant High Above the City
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania spread out below us like something out of a movie, three rivers folding together under a row of bridges, by the time the little wooden car creaked to a...
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This Buffet Was Just Voted The Most Mouthwatering All-You-Can-Eat Destination In Indiana
Three states have apparently agreed on something. That is impressive enough before mentioning the food. People make the drive...
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This Historic Indiana Market Is Basically A Little Slice Of Old-School Italy Hidden In The State
The family recipe did not come with measurements. It came with instructions like “use the good cheese” and “you will know when there is enough.” Finding the good cheese...
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This Virginia Restaurant Looks Like A Tiny Local Joint But People Drive Miles For The Food
The building is small, the sign is modest, and the dining room is cozy. But this Virginia restaurant looks like a tiny local joint for a reason, because the food is what matters.
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This Virginia National Park Has So Many Snake Species Visitors Are Told To Watch Their Step
The trails are beautiful, the views are stunning, and the wildlife is abundant. But this Virginia national park is also home to so many snake species that visitors are told to...
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The Unassuming Texas Restaurant Serving Portions Big Enough to Guarantee Leftovers
Leftovers are not an accident when the menu includes a one-pound burger, giant buttermilk pancakes, and a bone-in ham described as Texas size.
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An Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike Still Disappears Into Miles of Dark, Empty Tunnels
Cracked pavement that once carried thousands of cars a day now holds nothing but wind in the trees, and I still remember the first time I walked that stretch in Pennsylvania. Thirteen...
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