Deep In The Mountains Sits A West Virginia Dish So Big Its Size Rivals A Football Field
My phone lost its signal miles before I spotted it, and honestly, I thought I had taken a wrong turn somewhere in the West Virginia hills. Then the trees opened up, and a gleaming...
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A Half-Scale Lewis And Clark Keelboat Sits Inside This Free Missouri Museum
A boat inside a museum is already a good start. This free Missouri stop has a half-scale Lewis and Clark keelboat sitting right inside, and it grabs your attention fast.
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Everyone Goes to Fredericksburg, But This Nearby Texas Town Might Be Even Better
Fredericksburg gets all the attention. And it deserves it. But there is another Texas town nearby that might just be even better....
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This Missouri Breakfast Spot Serves A 3-Pound Cinnamon Roll The Size Of A Pie
A three-pound cinnamon roll is not breakfast. It is a challenge. This Missouri spot serves one that is literally the size of...
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The Pastrami Sandwiches At This New Jersey Deli Are Almost Too Big To Handle
Pastrami this big should probably come with instructions. Grab with both hands. Lean forward. Accept that keeping your shirt...
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Every Weekend The Engines Still Scream At This West Virginia Drag Strip Locals Refused To Let Close
Some of the best memories in West Virginia smell like hot rubber, burgers on the grill, and sound like thunder rolling off the hills. Picture a quiet country road and a few open...
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This Huge New Jersey Greek Festival Is Four Days Of Food, Music And Dancing
Come hungry. Seriously. This is the kind of festival where “just one bite” turns into a full-blown food mission before...
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Indiana’s Biggest All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Serves Legendary Amish Comfort Food And 30 Varieties Of Fresh Pie
The belt notch is not optional. It is part of the strategy. This Indiana restaurant has built an entire day around the dangerous...
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Locals Say This Growing Indiana City Is Being Secretly Bought By Out-Of-State Investors
The farmland is disappearing. The cranes are multiplying. And somebody is making a lot of money off the transition. That is the...
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This Former Missouri Corporate Retreat Now Hides Two Lakes And Rustic 1930s Lodge Buildings
Executives once came here to get away from work. Now, everyone gets to enjoy the place. This Missouri park grew out of a private...
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11 Hobby Stores in Texas Where You Could Easily Lose Track of Time
A hobby store is a dangerous place. Dangerous in the best way. You walk in for one thing, a specific part, a particular color,...
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There’s an Oregon Observatory Where the Night Sky is Almost Completely Free of City Lights
Darkness this complete feels unfamiliar to most visitors, phones dimmed instinctively the moment eyes start adjusting to just how many stars are actually visible.
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This Small-Town Missouri Grocery Has Been Family-Owned Since 1959 And Still Hand-Cuts Its Steaks
A grocery store with a real butcher counter already feels like a win these days. This Missouri market has been family-owned since 1959, and it still keeps that old-school part...
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This New Jersey Soul Food Spot Serves Fried Chicken With A Side Of Serious Comfort
There are meals you eat politely, and then there is fried chicken. That first crackle of crispy coating tends to make table manners feel considerably less important.
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This New Hampshire Overlook Delivers Panoramic Mountain Views Without The Hike
Not every incredible view requires a long climb, and this New Hampshire overlook proves that point convincingly. The viewing area sits close to where you park, which means you...
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New Jersey Has An Art Museum With The World’s Largest Collection Of Soviet Nonconformist Art
An ordinary museum visit can take an unexpected turn very quickly. One minute, you are wandering through galleries. Then suddenly,...
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One Maryland Restaurant Brings a Top Chef Finalist’s Cooking to a Surprisingly Casual Setting
A Top Chef finalist usually means a certain kind of restaurant. White tablecloths, high prices, and a waitlist. But this Maryland...
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This Oregon Lake Was Built on Top of a 900-Foot Canyon Where Three Rivers Meet
Nine hundred feet down, three rivers used to carve their own separate paths before a dam changed everything above them completely.
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Seven West Virginia Meat Markets Where Folks Stock Their Freezers Cheaper Than Any Chain Store
You can drive past a little West Virginia butcher shop a hundred times before you finally pull in and wonder why you waited so long. Inside, the counters are full, the butcher...
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Spooky Season Lasts All Year At This Horror-Obsessed New Jersey Cafe
This place apparently did not get the memo that spooky season is supposed to be temporary. One quirky New Jersey cafe keeps...
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Georgia’s Last Stagecoach Inn Still Stands Beside the Mountain Road Travelers Used in the 1800s
The brown historical sign on a quiet road almost went unnoticed, and passing it would have been a mistake. The long white porch appeared through the trees, stretching farther than...
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You’ll Want to Get to This Alabama Market Early Before the Best Polish Pierogies and Sweets Are Completely Cleared Out
The pierogies are on borrowed time. That is the first thing to understand. A tray comes out. People notice.
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Oregon Has a Historic Lighthouse That Sits at the Edge of a Forested Cape
Wind hits this lighthouse harder than almost anywhere else along the coast, strong enough that visitors sometimes brace against railings just to keep steady while looking up.
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11 Rural New Hampshire Destinations You’ll Wish You Had Discovered Sooner
Big attractions get all the attention, but the places people remember most are often the ones nobody talks about. Across New Hampshire, there are rural destinations that quietly...
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There’s A Salt Cave In New Jersey That Promises Natural Healing And Deep Relaxation
Shoes off. Phone away. Ahhh, now we’re getting somewhere. One New Jersey wellness spot has built an entire room around pink...
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8 Maryland Fabric Shops Packed With Trims, Notions, And Bolts You Won’t Find Online
Online shopping has its perks. But some things are better in person. Fabric is one of them. You need to feel the weight, see...
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This New Jersey Pizzeria Dares You To Finish An Entire XXL Pie In 30 Minutes
Thirty minutes. One enormous pizza. And absolutely nowhere for your appetite to hide.
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Seventy Taffy Flavors Keep Road-Trippers Pulling Over At This Missouri Candy Factory
There are a lot of reasons to stop on a road trip, and candy is a pretty good one. This Missouri factory has been drawing travelers in with saltwater taffy, fudge, chocolates,...
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Three 1840s Plantation Buildings Still Stand on This South Carolina Island After Everything Around Them Disappeared
Live oaks close overhead like a green tunnel, and tires crunch over packed dirt before the foot even touches the brake. The famous beach full of bleached, fallen trees draws the...
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This Minnesota Train Turns A 3-Hour Ride Into A Fine Dining Journey Through The Countryside
Three hours on a train doesn't usually come with white tablecloths and a full dining service. Here, it does, scenery included as a bonus nobody complains about.
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Walking Into This West Virginia Penitentiary Feels Like Stepping Back Into The 1800s
I nearly drove right past it the first time, thinking it was some odd old church tucked along a quiet street in West Virginia. Then the stone towers and jagged rooftops came fully...
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This 10-Mile New Jersey Road Is One Of The State’s Most Infamous Drives
Ten miles should not come with this many creepy stories. Yet this lonely stretch of New Jersey pavement has accumulated enough strange legends to fill an entire campfire session.
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Taller Than The Washington Monument, This West Virginia Bridge Lets You Walk Its Catwalk Underneath
I pulled off a mountain road in West Virginia expecting nothing more than a quick stretch and a gas station snack, and I left with the most jaw-dropping story of my whole trip....
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A North Carolina Farmer Started a Business in a Corn Crib That Eventually Became the Largest of Its Kind in the World
Weathered outbuildings and a white farmhouse sit on a patch of green that a dozen drives had passed without a second glance. Then one afternoon, a stop was finally made, and everything...
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The Sprawling All-You-Can-Eat Seafood Feast at This Coastal Alabama Staple Is Worth a Cross-State Road Trip
The seafood plate has hit the table. Nobody is talking. That is because everyone is trying to figure out where to start. Shrimp?
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11 Hobby Stores In Oregon 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 Virginia Hikes With Views That Look Like They Should Require Much More Effort
Some views feel earned after hours of climbing. Others feel like a gift, offering a stunning payoff without the punishing ascent. This...
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This Is One Of The Last Authentic Drive-Ins In Virginia With Carhop Service
Drive-ins used to be everywhere. Carhops on roller skates, burgers and shakes delivered to your window, neon signs glowing after dark.
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This New Jersey Italian Shop Makes Its Own Fresh Mozzarella And Puts It On Almost Everything
There are worse problems than having too much fresh mozzarella. Frankly, we’re struggling to think of one. At this little...
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Maryland Has a Tiny Bakery Where Fresh Bread Is Made Daily Just a Block From the River
Some bakeries are big operations. This one is small, the kind of place where you can see the racks and smell the bread before you even reach the counter.
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One California Man Spent 24 Years Building a 35-Room Desert Pueblo Almost Entirely by Hand
Scrap wood, salvaged doors, and adobe bricks dried in a courtyard came together over decades to form a four-story pueblo that looks like a pile of sun-baked boxes stacked by someone...
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Slip on your socks because these 7 Ohio indoor water parks turn winter into splash season
Winter in Ohio can feel like one long stretch of gray skies and cold toes, but there's a warm secret hiding behind hotel doors and rec center walls all across the state. Imagine...
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This 1928 Missouri Mill Sits At The End Of A Backroad Beside A Rocky Ozark Shut-In
You really do have to go looking for this one. A narrow backroad winds into the Missouri Ozarks, and near the end sits an old mill beside rushing water and exposed rock.
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6 Oklahoma Pumpkin Patches Where Families Ride The Hay Wagon Out To Pick Their Own
Some of the best fall afternoons in Oklahoma start on a gravel road you almost drove right past. You pull in expecting a quick pumpkin grab, and suddenly you are bouncing on a...
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Vietnamese Specialties Come Out Of These 7 Kitchens In Oklahoma City
I almost drove right past it. The sign was plain, the parking lot was half-empty, and nothing about the place promised much, until a bowl of steaming broth landed on the table...
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A Furniture Millionaire Built a Stone Castle on Georgia’s Most Famous Street, Complete With a Grand Staircase and Stained Glass
Granite towers that look like they belong in Germany sit between glass office buildings in Georgia. A furniture millionaire built the home for himself and his wife more than a...
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This Family-Owned Minnesota Lake Resort Has Been Welcoming Guests Since 1930s
Grandparents who first stayed here decades ago now send their own grandchildren, same lake, same cabins, barely anything changed in between.
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11 Spots Across New Jersey Known For Their Foot-Long Hot Dogs
Apparently, a regular hot dog just wasn’t ambitious enough. Somewhere along the way, someone looked at that little bun and thought, “We can do much more damage than this.”
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One Man Collected Thousands of Cat Objects and Turned Them Into One of North Carolina’s Strangest Museums
Cats covered the outside walls of a brightly painted building along a mountain highway, and my eyes left the road without permission. What was meant to be a quick stop stretched...
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A Georgia Mansion Was Built With 45 Doors and Almost No Hallways Because Its Owner Was Terrified of Fire
Warm yellow paint glows in the late afternoon light, and a quiet corner in Georgia hides a house that rearranges how you think about architecture. Pretty porches and shady oaks...
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12 Virginia Ranches Where Beautiful Scenery Is Only Part Of The Adventure
Ranches are often associated with wide-open spaces and mountain views, but the ones on this list offer more than just a pretty backdrop. These twelve Virginia ranches turn beautiful...
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This Virginia Steakhouse Is in the Middle of Farmland, but Its Steaks Hold Their Own Against Any Big-City Chain
Location does not always determine quality. Sometimes the best meals are found in unexpected places, far from the city lights and the trendy districts.
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One California Ranch Once Covered 66,000 Acres, and Its Enormous Adobe Headquarters Is Still Standing
Two-story mud-brick giants sitting on grassy knolls in California do not usually appear where a small roadside marker is expected. Warm morning light, dry grass, and old redwood...
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Ten Toppings Turn One Pizza Into The Main Attraction At This Missouri Italian Joint
Some pizzas are happy with pepperoni and cheese. This Missouri Italian joint clearly likes to keep things busier. Its specialty...
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This Pennsylvania Factory Built Vehicles for 118 Years, and Now Its Old Assembly Floor Is Packed With the Machines It Helped Create
Brick factory buildings on a main street in Pennsylvania had been driven past more times than can be counted, always with the same promise to stop one day. When that day finally...
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9 Alabama Restaurants Where One Dish Put Them On The Map
Every restaurant wants a signature dish. These restaurants may have accidentally created a celebrity. One has sauce. One has...
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This Minnesota Bagel Shop Boils Its Bagels From Scratch And Cures Its Own Salmon
A proper bagel starts in boiling water, not a proofer set to mimic the real thing. This shop skips every shortcut that lets most bagels pass as authentic without actually earning...
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Free-Roaming Bison Wander Up To The Road At This Oklahoma Refuge Near Lawton
You round a bend on a quiet two-lane road in southwest Oklahoma, and suddenly a shaggy, two-thousand-pound neighbor is standing right beside your window, chewing grass like he...
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9 Ohio Places That Played Unexpected Roles in American History
Cornfields and truck stops were the expectation, but Ohio had other ideas. The first drive across the state with a full tank and no real plan turned into a series of detours where...
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