There are a lot of places along Route 66 that claim a special connection to the Mother Road, but Springfield has one of the strongest: it’s widely known as the birthplace of Route 66. In 1926, a telegram sent from the Colonial Hotel in downtown Springfield confirmed the highway’s now-famous…
Our Route 66 trip officially began from our home base in the Chicago suburbs, but we intentionally skipped Illinois (for now). After exploring much of Illinois Route 66 over the years, we’re planning a separate summer road trip (without the RV) to properly revisit and document those stops. We also…
The Weldon Spring Site is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management–controlled nuclear waste disposal site with a public interpretive center. That combination alone makes it memorable. During our Route 66 Centennial road trip, we were staying at Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park just outside of…
We spent a long weekend in Madison while Josh was working a vendor booth, and in between coffee dates and exploring with friends, I carved out a Saturday morning for something a little different, a free tour of the Wisconsin State Capitol. What I expected to be a quick, “sure,…
Washington, DC is packed with incredible museums, and while everyone knows the big-name federal stops like the White House, U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court, National Archives, and Library of Congress, there’s a whole world of lesser-known federal museums and visitor experiences hiding in plain sight across DC, Northern Virginia, and nearby…
Charleston, South Carolina is one of those cities that completely pulls you in, where centuries of history meet coastal charm, Spanish moss hangs over quiet streets, and every corner seems to tell a different story. From Revolutionary War sites and Civil War landmarks to quirky museums, historic cemeteries, nature preserves,…
Tucked right across from Union Station, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum is one of DC’s most underrated gems, a place dedicated to telling America’s story through the mail we send, the stamps we collect, and the journeys letters make along the way. As the museum describes it, “through the preservation…
There’s a stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline where time feels like it folds in on itself, where five futuristic houses from the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair now sit perched above the dunes like colorful postcards from the past. These Century of Progress homes, once built as showpieces to preview the…
Planning a trip to Philly can be a lot. Between historic sites, museums, all the amazing food (so much food), and trying to decide which neighborhood to start in, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed fast. So! I did what any Type-A traveler would do- I made a Google MyMap loaded…
If you’ve spent any time scrolling through “most haunted places in America” lists, chances are the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum has popped up more than once. This massive stone building in Weston, West Virginia, has been standing for more than 160 years, and its history is every bit as layered as…