A Two-Mile Missouri Trail Winds Past Hoodoos, Slot Canyons, Arches, And Waterfalls
Two miles does not sound like much until the trail starts throwing hoodoos, arches, narrow canyons, and waterfalls at you. This...
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New Jersey Has A 205-Acre Park Designed By The Family Behind Central Park
Central Park has a little cousin hiding in New Jersey. Okay, maybe not literally, but the family resemblance is hard to miss. This...
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This New Hampshire Thrift Warehouse Is Where Resellers Go Before the Public Even Knows
There is a particular kind of shopper who knows exactly when new inventory hits the floor, and they are usually the first ones through the door. This New Hampshire thrift warehouse...
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New Jersey Has An Off-Road Playground Built For People Who Love Getting Dirty
Clean shoes are wildly overrated here. Mud, dirt, roaring engines, and flying dust are much more appropriate. This off-road...
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Everyone Goes to Deep Creek But This Nearby Maryland Town Might Be Even More Charming
Some destinations get all the attention. They draw the crowds, the traffic, and the weekend rush. Meanwhile, a quieter spot sits...
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The Most Stunning White-Sand Beach In Oregon Isn’t Where Most People Expect
White sand rarely gets associated with anything except a coastline, yet the most striking example here has nothing to do with the ocean at all.
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New Hampshire’s Fall Colors Are About to Pop And These Are the 10 Best Spots
Foliage season in New Hampshire is short, and missing the peak means waiting another full year. The timing changes slightly depending on elevation and location, but the window...
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This West Virginia Italian Festival Fills Downtown With Live Bands, A Parade And Italian Food
I expected a few food booths and a folding-chair crowd, but the smell of meatballs and warm bread reached me a full block before I saw a single tent. What I found was an entire...
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This New Jersey Market Packs Four Beloved Jersey Shore Food Spots Under One Roof
Choosing what to eat gets considerably harder when several local favorites are waiting under the same roof. Ah, delicious problems.
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A Tiny North Carolina Stone Village Has 27 Miniature Buildings, Including a Church, Theater, School and Hospital
Stone churches no taller than a shoulder sit in a side yard in North Carolina, glittering with white quartz. What was meant to be a quick peek turned into half an hour crouched...
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A Historic Mountain Cabin Sits Next to This Alabama Valley and You Can Rent It for Around $100 a Night With a Fireplace Inside
A fireplace changes the entire math of a cabin. Suddenly, rain is good. Cold weather is good. Staying inside for three hours...
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This Remote Oregon Bar Is Hidden Inside a Single Grain Silo
Remote doesn't begin to describe how far this stop sits from anything resembling a main road, tucked into a landscape most travelers only pass through quickly.
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10 Blue-Collar New Hampshire Restaurants That Serve Huge Portions For Cheap
Not every good meal needs a reservation or a dress code, and some of the best food in New Hampshire is served in places that never bother with either. These are the spots where...
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10 Virginia Riverwalks Made For A Relaxing Change Of Scenery
Water has a way of slowing things down. Standing beside a river, even for a few minutes, does something to the nervous system that a parking lot never will.
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The Smell Of Fresh Sausage Hits You First At This Old-School New Jersey Pork Store
Your nose may decide what you're having for dinner before you've had time to look around. That is the danger of walking into a proper old-school pork store.
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This Tiny Maryland Airport Is Becoming a Haven For Affordable Flights
Big airports have their advantages. But they also come with long lines, expensive parking, and the general feeling of being herded.
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10 Spanish-Style Architectural Gems You Wouldn’t Expect To Find In New Jersey
Red tile roofs. Arched doorways. Stucco walls. Courtyards that look like they belong somewhere much sunnier.
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This Old-School Missouri Butcher Shop Started As A Rolling Meat Market In 1945
Before there was a butcher counter, there was a meat market on wheels. This Missouri shop started in 1945 by bringing fresh cuts directly to neighborhoods, and that old-school...
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Bad Farming Accidentally Carved 150-Foot Canyons Into Georgia Farmland, and the Damage Became a State Park
Pink and orange cliffs rising out of rural southwest Georgia are not what anyone expects to find at the end of a dirt road, which is exactly why laughing out loud is the only reasonable...
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This Tiny Minnesota Airport Is Becoming A Haven For Low-Cost Flights
Small airports rarely make headlines for good reasons. This Minnesota airport's building a following anyway, mostly by keeping ticket prices refreshingly low.
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Seven West Virginia Old-Time Candy Counters That Taste Exactly Like Your Grandparents’ Five-And-Dime
You probably drove past it a dozen times without a second look, just a plain storefront on a quiet street. Then one day you step inside, the door swings shut behind you, and the...
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This New Jersey Beach Town Was Just Named One Of America’s Trendiest Fall Getaways
Summer crowds gone? Ahhh, now we’re talking. One New Jersey beach town is getting fresh attention as a fall getaway, and suddenly...
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Once A Crumbling Relic, This West Virginia Mountain Resort Now Glows Again With Rustic Charm
I went looking for a quiet weekend in the West Virginia hills and expected nothing more than a creek, a cot, and maybe a decent breakfast. What I found instead was a whole hollow...
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This Georgia Landmark Took 1.3 Million Volunteer Hours to Build, Yet the Entire Project Was Finished in Just 17 Months
White stone spires rising above the trees on a Georgia road make you question whether you took a wrong turn. Barefoot on cool marble a few minutes later, staring up at ceilings...
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This Alabama Italian Restaurant Is Keeping The Old-School Tradition Of Sunday Gravy And Homemade Meatballs Alive
Some recipes are measured. Sunday gravy is negotiated. A little more tomato. Another meatball.
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This Intimate Oregon Restaurant Serves Modern Mediterranean Cuisine With Farm-to-Table Elegance
Mediterranean flavors rarely feel this connected to a local farm, yet this restaurant blends both influences into something distinctly its own.
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12 Dog-Friendly Virginia Hikes That Get Even Better In The Fall
Fall changes everything about a hike. The air cools down, the leaves turn, and the trails that felt brutal in July suddenly feel inviting.
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An Entire Virginia Warehouse Is Packed With Architectural Salvage Waiting For A Second Life
Some buildings get torn down and everything inside disappears. Doors, windows, mantels, tiles, hardware. All of it ends up in...
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Good Luck Choosing Just One Treat At This Longtime New Jersey Pastry Shop
Walking past the display case without changing your order deserves some kind of award. There is simply too much happening behind that glass.
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A Maryland Roadside Market Is Hiding Fresh Fried Chicken Where You’d Least Expect to Find It
Roadside markets are usually good for produce, maybe a jar of local honey, and a quick stretch of the legs. Fried chicken is not what you expect to find.
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A South Carolina Couple Built a 30-Room Castle by the Ocean With an Indoor Studio Big Enough for Bears and Horses
Tall square towers poking above palmettos keep an eye on the beach at this South Carolina park. Sand and sunshine were the plan. Half...
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This Missouri Fabric Store Has Been A Crafter’s Treasure Trove Since 1952
A fabric store does not stay around for decades unless people keep finding reasons to come back. This Missouri shop has been...
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7 Oklahoma State Parks Worth The Drive From Tulsa For Fall Color Hikes
There's a particular kind of surprise that comes from pulling off a two-lane Oklahoma highway, expecting a quiet patch of woods, and instead finding a ridge that glows orange for...
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This California Desert Building Has Been a Homestead, Theater, Dude Ranch, Hollywood Set and Museum
Wooden Swiss chalets perched on giant granite boulders in the Mojave Desert are not something you see every day. The car slowed before the brain caught up, because this building...
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The Minnesota Restaurant That Put Hmong Cuisine on the Global Culinary Map
Global recognition rarely starts at a restaurant this size, yet somehow it did, launching an entire cuisine onto a much bigger stage.
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This European-Style Christmas Market Has Been Bringing Holiday Magic To New Jersey For 25 Years
Christmas shopping in a fluorescent-lit store? Hard pass. Give us twinkle lights, wooden stalls, warm treats, and enough holiday...
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Ohio Rebuilt One of America’s Largest Wooden Walled Forts on the Ground Where Thousands of Soldiers Gathered in 1813
Wooden walls run on and on along the Maumee River in Ohio, and what was expected at this site was a small log stockade. The rebuilt fort covers about ten acres, and its timber...
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A 17-Ton Bell Cast in Korea Crossed the Pacific and Now Hangs Above the California Coast
Glowing bronze and painted columns rise above the ocean in California, where a 17-ton bell traveled across the Pacific to rest on a hilltop. Wind tugs at jackets and kites dance...
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12 Virginia Shops Where You Can Find Fall Decor Without Blowing Your Budget
Decorating for fall can get expensive fast. A few pumpkins, some wreaths, a couple of candles, and suddenly the seasonal budget is gone.
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This Virginia Thrift Warehouse Is Where Resellers Go Before the Public Even Knows
There is a certain kind of shopper who knows where the good stuff shows up first. They are not browsing mall racks or scrolling online.
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North Carolina Has a Two-Ton Frying Pan Big Enough to Cook 365 Chickens at Once
Two tons of cast iron sit in a small North Carolina town square, and it is not a statue of a founder or a war hero. The pan stretches fifteen feet across and, according to local...
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This Small-Town Missouri Steakhouse Serves Prime Rib, Filet Mignon, And Lobster Tails
A small-town dinner gets pretty serious when prime rib and lobster tail are both on the menu. This Missouri steakhouse keeps things classic with filet mignon, ribeye, seafood,...
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An Ohio Carver Made 31,000 Cuts Into One Block of Wood and Somehow Created 511 Interlocking Pliers
Five hundred and eleven tiny pliers, all moving at once, form a tree that no one expects to find in a quiet Ohio neighborhood. The building sits in Amish Country, a family-run...
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11 Hobby Stores In Minnesota Where You Could Easily Lose An Entire Afternoon
Time moves strangely inside these stores, minutes stretching into hours before anyone actually notices how long they've been browsing.
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10 Upcoming Fall Festivals In Alabama You’ll Want On Your Calendar
Summer finally gets the hint. The humidity backs off. The evenings become bearable. And Alabama immediately starts throwing...
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Fewer Than 6,000 People Live In This Oklahoma Town And It Keeps Sending Champions To The Rodeo Arena
Some Oklahoma towns hand you their whole story in one afternoon, and others make you slow down and look twice. I rolled into this one expecting a gas stop and a stretch of the...
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A 1937 South Carolina Gas Station Outlived the Highway Traffic That Once Kept It Busy and Became a Museum
Old gas pumps glowing out front of a 1937 service station make you pull over before you even know why. The little building once served drivers rolling down the main coastal route...
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This Massive Wednesday Flea Market In Indiana Is Where $30 Loads Your Trunk With Treasures
Wednesday is apparently when people become treasure hunters. Not Saturday. Not Sunday. Wednesday.
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This Town in West Virginia Lets Retirees Trade High Rent For River Views And Porch Swings
Rent checks have a funny way of eating up a retirement dream one month at a time. I went looking for a spot in West Virginia where the money might stretch further, expecting a...
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This Indiana Pizzeria Is So Good, Dave Portnoy Called It “By Far The Best Pizza In Indianapolis”
There are two kinds of pizza confidence. Ordering extra napkins. And refusing to. This Indiana pizzeria makes the first strategy...
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Customers Drive From Across The State To Buy A5 Wagyu At This Unassuming Indiana Meat Market
The butcher counter has one item that changes everyone's vocabulary. Suddenly there is marbling. Then grading. Then questions...
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This Remote Missouri Mill Site Has A Giant Steel Water Wheel Beside A Cold Spring
The giant steel water wheel is the first thing that makes this place feel different. This remote Missouri site sits deep in the Ozarks, where an old mill once served a small community...
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One Tiny North Carolina Town of About 350 People Is Surrounded by More Than 80 Potters and Shops
Clay dust on sneakers and a full trunk of pottery mark a day spent in a small North Carolina town that holds more than eighty potters and dozens of shops along its quiet country...
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A Texas Restaurant Turns Dinner Into A Murder Mystery You Actually Have To Solve
Dinner and a show is one thing. Dinner and a murder mystery you have to solve is something else entirely. This Texas restaurant...
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Ed Galloway Spent Eleven Years Building The World’s Tallest Concrete Totem Pole in Oklahoma
Some of the best stops in Oklahoma are the ones nobody puts on a billboard. A couple of miles off the old highway, past pasture fence and a gravel shoulder, a 90-foot painted tower...
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Pennsylvania Built One of America’s Earliest All-Metal Covered Bridges, and Its Iron Frame Is Still Inside
Pennsylvania backroads are good at making you wonder what is waiting around the next bend. Sometimes it is another farmhouse or a stretch of woods.
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Seven West Virginia Church Suppers And Fire Hall Dinners Worth Driving Across The County For
Some of the best meals in West Virginia never show up on a restaurant sign. They happen in fellowship halls, fire station bays, and pavilions strung with lights, where a volunteer...
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More Than 450 Dealers Fill This 73,000-Square-Foot Missouri Antique Mall
This is the kind of antique mall where you stop checking the time pretty quickly. More than four hundred fifty dealers fill this Missouri spot with vintage furniture, old signs,...
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This Oregon Coast Restaurant Is a Source-to-Table Gem With a Swedish Soul
Swedish and Oregon coast don't sound like they'd naturally pair together, yet this restaurant makes that combination feel completely intentional.
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