Unique digital nomad travel adventures from around the U.S.
R and I spent five and a half days driving around and exploring São Miguel Island in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. Locally, it is referred to as The Green Island. I just called it stunning. Turns out the Azores make a great micro …
Last July, B and I ventured to St. Louis, Missouri, to attend the Antiques Roadshow. While there, we were pleasantly surprised by several attractions and left with a very positive view of this city, which, to be honest, we weren’t expecting much out of. This …
Welcome to the all fifty states club part 3! Parts 1 and 2 got us most of the way through the all fifty states club of America. This last post will pick up where we left off in North Carolina and highlight interesting/fun things I saw/did whilst exploring the USA. Funny thing–turns out I’m not so good at remembering all of the states. I was supposed to go through the Ns but I forgot two. Whoops.
Asheville is a little pocket of weirdo in a seemingly normal state. It was delightful to explore this cute town located in the mountains and trees in Western North Carolina. B and I just happened to hit town on October 31, so we decided to dress up and find somewhere to spend Halloween with the natives. We ended at a concert (no idea who the band was) and had a great time partying with all of the other be-costumed revelers. The best moment of the night was when the main act came out and five hairy, bearded, scrungy fellas proceeded to play and sing for the next few hours dressed up as Disney Princesses. Yikes.
North Dakota is typically one of the last states that people hit on their quest to see all 50 states. It’s isolated, kinda empty and there’s not much to do. I had very low expectations for this northern state when I headed out for a solo trip to Fargo. I didn’t see anyone chopped up in a wood chipper, but I did see a surprisingly cute downtown road with a few fun boutique-y stores and good restaurants. Who knew? The 20ish-year-old kid who checked me into my hotel gave me a map of downtown, just for funsies (that last part is a direct quote, people). So visit North Dakota, friends, just for funsies.
One of my life goals was accomplished in 2015: I saw the Rolling Stones in concert. When I learned they were touring the U.S., I knew this was my moment to make it happen. I booked a trip to Columbus, Ohio, and even though I just went by myself, when Mick, Keith, and the boys took the stage, I was in the company of 60,000 of my new besties, dancing and singing our hearts out. I tell you what, when Keith played the intro to “Paint it Black,” I knew I had made the right decision to fly across the U.S. Ohio State has a huge stadium, easily the biggest I’ve ever been in. I can only imagine what it is like when it is packed with die-hard football fans.
Well, it had to happen sooner or later–I’m adding a sad item to my 50 states list. The Okie City National Memorial is a poignant reminder that one misguided person can change the lives of countless others. The memorial is at ground zero of the bombing that happened in 1995. Instead of a tall Federal building, there is a grassy area with metal and glass chairs, 168 in number, with the name of each person who lost their lives during the bombing. B and I went at dusk and the chairs were lit up, making the memorial even more haunting. It is sad, but very moving.
B did a great write up of this, one of the most famous of the Western Rodeos. If you aren’t familiar with rodeos, A) you are definitely missing out and B) they are events that highlight the prowess of cowgirls and cowboys and the speed and beauty of animals. The Pendleton Roundup is unique in that it takes place on grass instead of dirt. If it rains, like it did when C, B and I went last year, it adds an element of excitement to an already exciting venture because every animal (human and not) slips around on the wet grass.
Not many cities are renowned for an item of food. Being as Philadelphia is, B and I knew we were going to have to make a special stop at a sandwich shop to partake of the signature dish. We were not disappointed. After researching ‘best cheese steak’ and coming up with several places that locals seem to swear by, we realized it was probably just a matter of preference of the people being asked. They were probably all good. Heaven knows the shop we ended up at was quite tasty. Good meat, grilled peppers and onions (for me, not B) and cheese on a grilled bun. How can you go wrong with that combo?
Around the beginning of the 1900s, the rich and famous on the east coast needed a place to get away when city life became a little too much. Hence, the Vanderbilts, Astors and other richy richies built gi-normous mansions on the coast of Newport, Rhode Island. You can take the Cliff Walk and explore some of these truly incredible houses and dream about what it was like to live like a king during this time.
While solo travel can be good because you get to do whatever you want, it is also fun to travel with friends because you end up at places you never would have by your own accord. Like when B got the idea to visit rural South Carolina on a quest for some Healing Waters that bubbled up from a natural spring. God’s Acre Healing Springs is in fact a spigot poking out of the ground, but believers drink it to cure their ailments. We drank some and quenched our thirst and got moving down the road.
I’m probably just choosing this because it is one of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs. However, regardless of The Boss, the Badlands in South Dakota are pretty dang cool. It is eerie land, nothing much seems to grow and all you see are sand colored hills that look kind of decrepit as wind and water have eroded them greatly over the last few millennia. I enjoyed hiking around Badlands National Park and seeing the complete absence of what you normally see on hikes (trees, flowers, etc.).
Okay, Pigeon Forge is actually a horrifying little town, but it does have one gem that is well worth putting up with the town to see: Dollywood. This is the amusement/theme park that is jointly owned by the diva Dolly Parton. Since Dolly Parton is awesome, it just goes to show that Dollywood is also. The theme of the park is old timey, so it feels like you climbed back into the 1800s Appalachia, except of course for the giant roller coasters sprinkled here and there. We went on a wooden roller coaster that tossed me around like a rag doll–I had stuffed my sunglasses into my tight shirt and by the end of the ride they were on the ground by my shoes. No idea how that happened.
My folks spend the winters in Texas, so I have a lot of good memories of this giant state. FYI: it takes 467 days to drive from one side to the other. For reals. Anyway, a few years ago, B and I had the opportunity to visit a Texas institution, John T. Floore’s Country Store. This is a good ol’ fashioned honky tonk and for two nights we rocked out to the Randy Rogers Band as they recorded a live album. My one regret is that I didn’t try the famous Floore’s Hot Tamales. Luckily, this gives me a perfect reason to go back.
Utah is one of the most incredible states when it comes to geological kick-buttness. There are some beautiful red rock formations in several national parks: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef. These parks are must sees, must hikes, and must make time to visit before you die. The word is out though. In the news recently there was an article about how Zion might start having a daily limit of visitors because so many people want to visit. Here’s a tip: go outside the summer months. It is still strikingly beautiful–maybe even more so because white snow contrasts with the red rock and blue sky.
B and I visited Vermont during a freakish cold snap in the middle of January. We used the totes adorbs town of Woodstock as our home base and splurged on a B&B. Excellent decision. Our B&B was in a historic farm house outside of town. The hosts were true delights and we had the whole house to ourselves (this is saying something–this place was huge). Instead of watching TV in our room, we opted to spend our time in the music room. I’m not sure if our hosts appreciated our performances, but we had a great time playing the guitars and piano. And when the show was over, we worked on a puzzle. We stayed warm and toasty inside with our hot beverages while it dipped into negative digits outside.
On another solo trip, I ventured into rural Virginia. I wanted to get a feel for what life was like outside the big cities so I reserved a room at a quaint hotel in a town that I can’t actually remember the name of. (Pretty much closed my eyes and pointed at a town on the map. I don’t feel like my experience was unique, though. I suspect any number of small towns on the Blue Ridge Parkway belt would be cute and have antique shops.) The next day I visited several of the town’s antique stores, purchasing a ceramic cream and sugar set. Unfortunately, on the flight home the lid to my sugar bowl fell out of my bag, probably under the seat in front of me. Perhaps it made it to the Unclaimed Baggage store in Alabama, but most likely it was chucked by the cleaning staff.
My sister lived on the opposite side of the Puget Sound from Seattle for many years. To get to her house, I would typically take the ferry across the sound. During one visit, her friend was taking out his sailboat and asked if we would like to join him. Heck yes, I would. I learned how to steer a sailboat with the Seattle skyline in front of me. Once I got the hang of it I did pretty well, managing not to hit any other boats or sea life. That I know of.
Before Abraham Lincoln emancipated slaves, a white abolitionist in West Virginia attempted to set them free. He failed, pretty spectacularly, but will go down in the history books as someone who took a stand. The town of Harper’s Ferry has been preserved to look the way it did back in John Brown’s day. I was lucky enough to visit during the fall, so I was able to see history and the beautiful fall colors turning on the trees.
I don’t drink beer, but I can appreciate the mechanical prowess that is required to bottle and ship millions of bottles of beer. On a visit to Milwaukee, we toured the Milwaukee’s Best factory. It was pretty awesome, even if I didn’t taste the samples at the end.
In the middle of a Wyoming prairie, a giant column of igneous rock juts out of the flat landscape. This column is made of magma that cooled and the rest of the sedimentary land eroded around it, leaving a big tower. Like 1,200 feet out of the ground. Mom and I took a road trip across the U.S. and stopped at Devil’s Tower right around dusk. We had enough time to hike around the base and enjoy the pink and red hues that the Tower turned as the sun set.
Well, that’s it. All 50 states. There are technically five more permanently inhabited U.S. territories that I could venture to (hey, I’ve already been to one, Puerto Rico); maybe when I hit the other four I’ll write an addendum post. What I’ve learned through all these travels is that America is incredibly varied and diverse. I can honestly say that I enjoyed a long road trip through the Southern states as much as I enjoyed going to many international destinations (and in some places, they felt just as foreign to me!). So if a big trip overseas isn’t in the cards or the budget, you can have just as much fun exploring new areas of your own country.
Work brought me to Kansas City twice in the course of one month. Lucky for me, I have a good friend (we will call her AA) who lives in and loves KC. She provided me with helpful hints and suggestions about what to see and …
The all fifty states club part 2 picks up where we left off in the first part of this series. This series explores interesting things to see and do in all fifty of the United States of America. (You can also go here to read …
Lucky for us, we have both visited all fifty states and have become members of the all fifty states club. We both had a very strong start independently at checking off the states, but when we became friends, we made a couple trips to finish things up. This post is about our efforts to join the all fifty states club part 1. Go here to read part 2 and here to read part 3.
Deciding what counts to be able to check off a state on your list is a matter of personal preference. Some people run a marathon (crazy) or climb the highest mountain (my brother) or visit the state capitol building; the list goes on and on. It really is up to you to decide how you want to define it, although pretty much everyone agrees that a layover at an airport shouldn’t count.
For me, I decided that I had to have done something or seen something specific in that state to count it. The list is pretty random, but if you are looking for things to do so you can check off a new state, you might want to try some of them out.
Have you ever left something on an airplane and wondered what happened to it after you exited the plane, never to see it again? Well, all the forgotten books, headphones, and sweaters go to rest is a strange little store in northern Alabama called Unclaimed Baggage. We had a good time browsing through the shelves of random goods, but I couldn’t help feeling a little sad for all of the lost treasures and the people who looked all over for them, to no avail.
Alaska is one of my favorite states. I spent two glorious summers there avoiding real life before and after graduate school. It’s pretty hard to pick out just one experience there, but I would highly recommend taking a helicopter ride in the Denali National Park area. You’ll be able to see for miles and miles and get swept away by the white mountain peaks and blue water of the glacier pools.
This stretch of the iconic Route 66 is pretty rad–you’ll drive through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. Depending on the time of day and weather, the Painted Desert might be all sorts of colors. When we drove through, the red in the sand contrasted fantastically with the bright blue sky. Petrified Forest National Park is chock full of pieces of, you guessed it, petrified wood. You want to make sure not to take any home as souvenirs though. The Park Headquarters gets pieces sent to them in the mail every day from people who have picked up a piece of wood and brought it home, only to have their life take a turn for the worse. It’s bad juju to steal a piece, and the only way to reverse the curse is to send it back to it’s rightful home.
When B and I were making a grand loop of the Southern States, we spent the night visiting my cousins in a suburb of Little Rock called Pine Bluff. We took a tour of the town and saw my cousin’s university. It wasn’t an earth-shattering visit to the state, but I did (re)learn an important travel lesson: after a few weeks of go, go, go, it is really nice to just stop and take it easy. And eating a home-cooked meal after all the restaurants and fast food places was amazing!
I have had a lot of experiences in California. I was born there. My parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, all pretty much live in California. I have put in a lot of time making the drive from B-town across Donner Summit and into the Sacramento Valley. But if I’m picking experiences that readers might be interested in, I would probably have to go with the Northern California coast. This water is pretty cold, so you might not want to go swimming. But man, is it pretty. There’s a street named after my family in the town of Mendocino which, if you visit, you might just recognize as the setting for the “Murder, She Wrote” television series. (Maine, my eye.)
Imagine skiing all day and watching concerts all night. Now imagine doing that with about 40 bands and 6,000 (mainly) drunk Texans. It is a party. After two years of attending the craziness, B and I decided we couldn’t keep up with the shenanigans. (We had a REALLY good time those two years, though!)
I had fond memories of watching “Mystic Pizza” when I was younger (although to be honest, I don’t remember the plot at all). So when I was in Connecticut, I decided to go to the town of Mystic. The Seaport is the largest maritime museum in the U.S. and there are lots of cool ships you can check out. Ironically, I didn’t eat pizza while I was in town.
B and I both needed to visit this tiny little (2nd smallest) state. We purposefully got train tickets in and out of Dover, but when we got there we didn’t actually see that much we wanted to do. We walked along a riverfront and explored a bustling food market. After a stop at a brewery, we loaded back up and headed out again.
On the way to Ecuador, B and I decided to stop for a few days in Miami (because why not?). Our shuttle dropped us off at the hotel on Miami South Beach around 2:00 a.m., but you wouldn’t have guessed it was that time by the number of people milling around, eating, drinking and looking all fancy. Talk about not fitting in! The next day we spent chilling on the white sand and swimming in the warm water (and picking up a Cubano for B). Funny thing: Miami felt just as foreign to us and Ecuador did, once we got there.
You know when you have an idea about something and when you get there, it just doesn’t live up to what you had imagined? Well, that did not happen when I visited Savannah. There is a main road that runs from downtown into a residential area with huge mansions, and when you walk down it the sun is blocked by gigantic moss-covered trees lining the street. I could practically see Kevin Spacey walking around in “The Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” Actually, I’m pretty sure we saw the house where that was set.
Hawaii was the last of my 50 states I visited and I wanted to go out with a bang. So, B and I opted to splurge and we rented a Mustang convertible for our week on the Big Island. If that sounds too warm, I have three words for you: air-conditioned seats. We put down the roof, cranked up the ac on our bums and had a fantastic time feeling like ballers.
One of my favorite things about my hometown is that the foothills border Boise. Outsiders might think they are ugly and brown. (To be fair, they are. Boise is in a desert, after all.) But when I look at them I see hiking and mountain biking and freedom from my cares, all about five minutes from downtown.
On the way to Eastern Europe, B, C and I stopped off in Chicago to visit some of our friends who had moved there to attend school. We had a great time and our hosts were so wonderful. We walked across the river that gets turned green in March, ate tapas at a hip restaurant, saw the “Adventures in Babysitting” building, and rode rented bikes along Lake Michigan. All in all, it was a great vacation on the way to a great vacation.
When traveling anywhere with my dad, I’m sure to get off the beaten path and see things most people have never heard of. Such was the case in Indiana when we visited the town of New Harmony. This town was founded twice by two different groups of people trying to live communally in the 1800s. Neither worked.
Iowa was a tricky state to visit. I have crossed the U.S. multiple times driving, but somehow never managed to hit up the great state of Iowa. After a lot of driving and a lot of corn fields, I ended up staying the night at a retro motel in Spencer, Iowa. For dinner, I went to one of the few restaurants open and a man from Texas bought my dinner because he thought I was a movie star…playing it cool. Sure, this experience has more to do with the story and less to do with the state. But you know what? I’m not going to forget the time I spent in Iowa.
If you’re wondering why a military prison stands out to me during my time in Kansas, you’ve probably never tried to drive across this state. It is Capital F flat and all you’ll see for hundreds of miles is soybean plants and corn stalks. So when we took a drive around the United States Disciplinary Barracks (aka ‘Leavenworth’) facility, it left an impression. This is the place that the keeps serious offenders who have been convicted in the military courts, and it was pretty intense to see it. We visited the small cemetery where interestingly, there are unmarked graves for 14 German POWs who were convicted of crimes while being POWs.
No, I wasn’t there for the Kentucky Derby. But I did visit Churchill Downs and was impressed by the size of the place. I went on a tour of the facility and could practically smell the money that was won and lost at this racetrack. Did you know that in 2017, $200 million was wagered at this place…during one race…that lasted two minutes? Crazy.
Well, when I started writing this post I planned on getting through all fifty states. Turns out I had a lot to say. Stay tuned to future posts to learn about the other states. This country is pretty great and has lots of amazing things to see and experience. Get out there, check off another state and get working on your own all fifty states club part 1 list.
If you read that title and are asking yourself, “Why would I do Disney World as an adult?”, I want you to know that you are asking a fair question. Disney is not for everyone and if the idea of visiting the ‘happiest place on …
I grew up about an hour west of Sun Valley and Ketchum, Idaho. Yes, I saw plenty of celebrities and I made a lot of money cleaning houses in the summer. But I rarely did anything fun. I was either working or running errands, and …
When B, C and I spent a few weeks in Eastern Europe, we allotted several days for Estonia. We didn’t really know much about this little country, but we’d read that Tallinn was awesome and figured we’d be able to find things to keep us entertained. We were correct. I had read that biking through the countryside was a lovely way to spend your time, so we found a few recommendations in Rick Steves and made our way down to City Bikes. This post tells our story about that time we went biking in Estonia.
We walked into the shop and found two hunky men and a bunch of bikes. Since it was early May, the bike season hadn’t actually started yet. But after talking to one of the handsome fellas (Australian, I think), he disappeared into a backroom and came out with the bossman, Toomas (also a hunk) who decided he would take us on a tour–I think mainly so he could check out the route himself in anticipation of the upcoming season. Toomas described what the ‘tour’ would entail and after some convincing, B and C agreed to go along. (Have we mentioned the importance of good travel buddies?)
The next morning, Toomas picked us up in a van loaded with four bikes. We headed out in the direction of Lahemaa National Park, where we would be riding that day. Toomas decided to jazz up our ride by showing us several Estonian landmarks and explaining a lot about this country. Our first stop was the Jagala Waterfall, the largest in the land. School children come here on field trips and I was (per the ushe) amazed at how few restrictions there are in places compared to the U.S. No way would there not be fences, signposts and handrails everywhere if that was in, say, Ohio. And you know what, the school kids survive their visiting the falls without the regulations. Go figure.
Our next stop was the beginning of the bike tour in a town called Palmse. Let me explain what that meant: Toomas pulled over, took our bikes off the van, handed us a bottle of water and a photocopied piece of paper that had a hand-drawn map on one side and useful phrases in Estonian on the other. Phrases such as, “Help me, I’m lost” and “Please call the police.” He pointed in the direction we should go and circled a town on the map and said he’d pick us up in four hours. C looked a little uncomfortable; it probably didn’t help that when she had texted her sister the night before about our day’s adventure, her sister’s response was not terribly encouraging…it ended with ‘it was nice knowing you.’
The day was just about perfect for a ride through an unknown land, a little misty but not raining. We were riding on a paved road, one of many in the national park. Lahemaa is in the center of the northern coast of Estonia and is about 300 square miles. Luckily, we were only biking a short portion of that (around 35 kms.) The majority of the landscape is forested with lots of trees like what we see in our mountains back home; there are also lots of areas of bogs, something we definitely do not have in Idaho. It took us a while to figure out when we were looking at a bog actually, but we got the hang of it eventually.
Our first stop of the tour was at the Sagadi Manor. This manor was built in the 1400s in the Baroque style by a German family. There are several buildings that comprise the manor, but we only toured the main house. I’ve read that this is one of the most visited manors in Estonia, but not all of us were that impressed…as we rode off B described it as creepy.
Our next stop was in the town of Altoa. Town is pretty generous, actually. There were a few deserted buildings and a giant wood swing (the reason why we stopped). There was a sign that explained that swings like this were an important part of the countryside’s culture and people gather together and sing and swing on them during festivals and celebrations. The three of us easily could all fit on this thing. Side note: this swinging tradition has found itself in a new extreme sport in Estonia called kiiking. People in giant swing pump their way up and eventually swing over the top. Youtube it.
By this point in the journey we were a bit hungry so we stopped in a seaside town of Vosu for some lunch. This town is on the edge of the Baltic Sea and reminded me of an old summer resort in 50s America, kind of like on Dirty Dancing. Except without Johnny. B went with a seafood soup since we were so close to the ocean, and I went with a Russian soup, since we were so close to Russia. Hers turned out much better than mine…a strange red color with hot dog like pieces floating around.
We then took a stroll down to the Baltic Sea, the northernmost body of water I’ve ever been to. If the weather was warmer, this town would be quite nice. The beach was pretty and I could imagine lots of kids splashing around for the two weeks of the year that it was above 80 degrees. (Not really sure if this is true, but it seemed very cold!)
At this point we were getting pretty tired of biking, but our final destination was only a few kilometers away. Toomas caught up with us and offered to go get the van and bring it back to us, but our pride wouldn’t allow such a thing. We huffed and puffed our way to the van and climbed off our bikes for the last time. (Thankfully!)
Our ride back to Tallinn was interesting. Toomas pointed out the Tallinn TV tower, where, in 1991 a few Estonians stood up to the Soviets in a bid to protect the freedom of media. He also explained that the old, derelict-looking buildings we saw were communist-era housing complexes and talked about how there is a lot of tension with Estonian-Russian relations. Lots of Russians moved to Estonia during the communist era and they relate more with Russia, whereas the younger generation consider themselves Estonian first. Tip: if you can, get a local talking about the history and politics of the country you are visiting. You’ll learn a lot more than what you pick up in a book.
Once we arrived back at the City Bike office, Toomas disappeared inside for a while. We couldn’t figure out what he was doing, but eventually he came back out with gold medals (chocolate in gold wrappers) that we earned for completing our bike tour. All in all, our bike tour was a terrific way to see more of Estonia and Toomas and the City Bike operation was just delightful.
We didn’t know what was going to happen on this bike tour. It could have ended very badly (lost, rained on, broken bike, exhausted) but sometimes you just have to go for it while traveling. Biking in Estonia through the Lahemaa National Park ended up being my favorite thing we did in that country.
This past weekend, R and I ventured down to Jackpot, Nevada, for music, food and of course, the casino. We made the trip in order to see a band we like, but it turned into a nice little trip out of town. It got me …