Presidio La Bahia – Goliad, TX
Nine flags, six wars, one massacre, a chapel in continuous use since the 1700s, and the birthplace of the man behind Cinco de Mayo. The most fought-over fort in Texas will even let you spend the night inside the walls.
Places
Every museum, cave, castle, and world's-largest-thing we've pulled over for: one post per place, rated, photographed, and mapped.
Fannin Memorial Monument: The Texas Mass Grave Almost Nobody Stops For – Goliad, TX
Everybody remembers the Alamo. The bigger mass grave is at Goliad, under a shaft of pink granite that only exists because some Boy Scouts found bones in the dirt. Most days you’ll have it to yourself.
Easter Island Heads – Victoria, TX
Five concrete moai, one Victoria eccentric with a pile of library books, and two 7-ton statues that vanished into thin air between our visits. Somebody in South Texas knows something.
Cincinnati Union Terminal – Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati’s Temple to Transportation: a 1933 Art Deco half-dome hiding four museums, a working Amtrak stop, and the best ceiling in the Midwest. Pick one museum, or lose a whole glorious day to all of them.
Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center – Cincinnati, OH
Most museums are built to house history, but the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center is built inside of it. Located on the lower level of the Cincinnati Union Terminal, this is the only Holocaust museum in the United States with an authentic connection to its site. It stands at the very location…
National Underground Railroad Museum – Cincinnati, OH
This is not a “walk through, snap a photo, buy a magnet” stop. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is the kind of museum that makes you slow down, read more than you expected, and leave quieter than you arrived. If you’re doing Cincinnati, it’s one of the most meaningful things you can put on…
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens – OH
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is popular for a reason, but you’ll like it a lot more if you time it right, use the app, and build your day around the animal chats. The surprising combo: Zoo first, garden second, but it works On paper, “zoo + botanical garden” sounds like one of those labels…
Smolen-Gulf Covered Bridge – OH
If you punch “Smolen-Gulf Covered Bridge” into your nav, you’ll probably end up in a spot where you can see a giant covered bridge from above. You’ll think, “Well that was easy.” You’ll take the photo. You’ll leave. And you’ll accidentally skip the best part. This stop is a two-for-one: the massive Smolen-Gulf bridge up…
National Civil Rights Museum – Memphis, TN
The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis isn’t just another stop on a history tour. You feel that the second you see it. The museum is built into the former Lorraine Motel, the exact place where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. That knowledge hangs over everything, and it adds a constant, quiet weight…
American Sign Museum
I have a NEW FAVORITE Museum!!! If you love colors, and art, and design, this place is mecca! And it’s absolute sensory overload because there are signs everywhere! In fact, there are over 800 signs on display, and over 2500 objects in total. The American Sign Museum is a 40,000 square foot shrine to commercial…
The Andy Warhol Museum – Pittsburgh, PA
If you want to understand how a pale kid from Pittsburgh turned soup cans, tabloid photos, and movie stars into an entire way of thinking about art, you go to The Andy Warhol Museum. Sitting on Pittsburgh’s North Shore in a former warehouse, it holds the largest collection of Warhol’s work and archives anywhere on…
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – Cleveland, OH
If you grew up with guitars, mixtapes, MTV, or playlists that never quite sit still in one genre, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is basically your mothership. Sitting on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, the museum is part archive, part shrine, and part playground for anyone who thinks music is…
Stax Museum of American Soul Music – Memphis, TN
If you care about American music at all, Stax needs to be on your pilgrimage list. The Stax Museum of American Soul Music sits on McLemore Avenue in South Memphis, on the original site of Stax Records, the little neighborhood studio that helped define the sound of the 1960s and 70s. Built by a brother…
Hatch Show Print – Nashville, TN
Hatch Show Print – Nashville’s Living Letterpress Legend Founded in 1879, Hatch Show Print is one of America’s oldest working letterpress shops, still rolling ink and pressing posters the old-fashioned way. Nestled inside the Country Music Hall of Fame in downtown Nashville, the shop continues to produce bold, hand-crafted designs for concerts, events, and brands…
Country Music Hall of Fame – Nashville, TN
The Country Music Hall of Fame is actually kind of difficult to write about because there was SO much to see, it’s difficult to organize and share the experience. So lets just get this out of the way up front – YOU SHOULD VISIT FOR YOURSELF! Now, having said all that, here are just a…
Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid – Memphis, TN
The Largest Bass Pro in America is Inside a Giant Pyramid Imagine walking into a 32-story glass pyramid on the banks of the Mississippi River, and discovering a wilderness-themed hotel, 600,000 gallons of indoor swamps and aquariums, and the biggest outdoor-gear store in the United States. Welcome to Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid in…
National Ornamental Metal Museum – Memphis, TN
Of course, we had to take a detour to see the Metal Museum! John’s been a fan of all things metal since …. forever. The National Ornamental Metal Museum has a few small historical collections as well as displays of local artists and metalsmiths. Both ornamental as well as abstract. Its grounds also include blacksmith…
National Corvette Museum – Bowling Green, KY
Who doesn’t appreciate the low, deep roar of an American muscle beauty classic like the Corvette?! Although the Corvette was introduced in 1953, its looks impressed but its performance didn’t. Fortunately, engineer/race car driver Zora Arkus-Duntov saw its potential and wrote an impassioned plea to Chevrolet Head of R&D Engineering to give the Corvette the…
Lost River Cave – Bowling Green, KY
Overview Lost River Cave offers one of the most unusual natural experiences in Kentucky, a cave system that’s almost entirely underwater! The entrance opens to a subterranean river, and depending on recent rainfall, even that entryway can sometimes disappear beneath the surface. In 1986, the cave along with the 25-acre wooded, surrounding valley was donated…
Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden – Little Rock, AR
It’s official. The Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden is now my favorite sculpture “museum” anywhere. And it is criminally underrated everywhere! This beautiful park has more than 100 sculptures you can walk around and get up close and personal with. Sure, there are plenty of other sculpture gardens across the country, but I’ve never seen such…
