Every cross-country driver eventually has to deal with St. Louis. You can skirt it on the outer ring, sure, but if your route puts you anywhere near the middle of the country, odds are you’ll thread the needle where the Mississippi bends west and the Gateway Arch rises out of the riverfront like a silver … Read more
On November 11, 1926, a bureaucrat somewhere in Washington signed off on a number, and a legend got its name. Route 66 was commissioned that day — 2,448 miles of asphalt and gravel stitching Chicago to Los Angeles through eight states that had never before been connected quite like that. A hundred years later, almost … Read more
Some numbers refuse to compute until you’re standing in front of them. Nine million gallons of water an hour is one of those numbers. That’s how much pours out of Mammoth Spring, the second-largest spring in the Ozarks, every sixty minutes — enough to fill the Spring River, stock it with impatient rainbow trout, keep … Read more
Every August, without fail, my inbox starts filling up with the same question from friends and readers: when should I book my fall trip? And every August, I give the same answer — wait for the forecast. This year we didn’t have to wait long. The Old Farmer’s Almanac just released its 2026 fall foliage … Read more
I smelled Hot Springs before I saw it. Rolling into town on a September evening, the windows down and the Ouachita Mountains turning the color of bruised plums behind me, there was sulfur in the air — faint, mineral, not unpleasant once you stop thinking about it. My itinerary had this stop penciled in as … Read more
There’s a moment on the Cabot Trail, somewhere between the 40th and 50th lookoff of the day, when you stop reaching for your camera. Not because the views get worse — because your arms give out. This is the road Nova Scotians have been quietly bragging about for a century, a 185-mile loop around the … Read more
There is a particular kind of Florida that doesn’t make the brochures anymore. It lives on the thin ribbon of land between the Atlantic and the Indian River Lagoon, where the speed limit is 35, the radio comes in half-static, and every few miles a beach access road tempts you into stopping before you meant … Read more
There is a moment, halfway across the bridge that leaves Jupiter and angles toward the barrier island, when the mainland noise simply stops. The Intracoastal opens up beneath you, the water goes from channel-deep green to the impossible turquoise of the shallows, and ahead stands a thin green ribbon of land that most Floridians have … Read more
There’s a moment when the ferry pulls away from Mackinaw City and the engine noise fades into the wind off Lake Huron — that’s when it hits you. No cars. No traffic lights. No honking. Just water, limestone bluffs, and the distant clip-clop of horses on a dirt road. I’ve traveled to a lot of … Read more
There’s a particular moment on the Multnomah Falls viewpoint bridge when the mist hits your face and the 620-foot cascade drowns out every other sound. I’ve stood there in July, shoulder-to-shoulder with two hundred strangers all jostling for the same selfie angle. But last September, I had it to myself for nearly ten minutes. Just … Read more