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Which small American cities are actually worth the detour?
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items Most of the people reading my lists are not in New York or LA, they are in places like Owensboro, Bismarck, and Pawtucket. So I went looking for the one thing in each of those towns that would actually make me pull off the highway, and I found more t...
Map
I did not expect a real waterfall in the middle of a downtown, but the Big Sioux River drops right over pink quartzite here and the whole park is free to walk. Go up the observation tower first so you can see how it all connects before you wander. It...
Falls Park, Sioux Falls SD
This is a 120 foot sinkhole with little waterfalls running down the sides, about fifteen minutes from downtown Gainesville. You take 132 steps down a boardwalk and the temperature drops noticeably at the bottom, which in Florida is the entire appeal....
Devil's Millhopper, Gainesville FL
I ducked into the DIA for a rainy afternoon and ended up sitting in Rivera Court for forty minutes. Diego Rivera covered all four walls with frescoes of the Ford Rouge plant in 1932, and standing in the middle of the room does something no photo of i...
Rivera Court at the DIA, Detroit MI
Helene took out most of this district in 2024 and the studios that came back did it the hard way, so this is the part of Asheville I would spend money in now. You can walk between working studios and actually talk to the people making things, which I...
River Arts District, Asheville NC
They light more than eighty braziers in the middle of the rivers downtown after dark, play music over it, and thousands of people just walk the banks. It sounds like a small town gimmick and it is one of the strangest and best things I have seen in N...
WaterFire, Providence RI
This is the 1793 mill where the American factory system actually started, and it is about ten minutes from downtown Providence so you can do both in one day. The tour walks you through three buildings with the machines running, which made the history...
Old Slater Mill, Pawtucket RI
On-A-Slant Village here has reconstructed Mandan earthlodges you can walk inside, and the fort with Custer's house sits on the same grounds above the Missouri. I came for the Custer part and the earthlodges were what I actually kept thinking about on...
Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, Bismarck ND
Owensboro does barbecued mutton, which basically does not exist anywhere else in the country, and Moonlite is where you go to try it. Get the buffet so you can taste the mutton and the burgoo without committing to a full plate of either. Be honest wi...
Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn, Owensboro KY
This is a rebuilt Appalachian village with about fifteen log buildings, artisans actually working, a petting zoo, and ziplines if your kids need to burn something off. We got close to four hours out of it, which almost never happens for us. It is up ...
Heritage Farm Museum & Village, Huntington WV
There are more than forty houses here older than two hundred years, in what is the oldest continuously lived in neighborhood in the country, and walking it costs nothing. I did the self guided route in about an hour and finished with coffee at Arthur...
The Stockade District, Schenectady NY
I stopped bringing a real backpack on days like these because this one lives in my glove box folded down to about the size of a paperback. It holds water, snacks, and a rain layer for a half day of walking without wrecking my shoulders. The straps ar...
4Monster Packable Lightweight Daypack
Between maps, photos, and my kids watching things in the car, my phone was hitting twenty percent by early afternoon on every one of these drives. This is small enough to sit in a jacket pocket while it is charging, and the built in cable means I sto...
Anker PowerCore 10K Portable Charger
I learned this one the hard way walking the Stockade in shoes I had not broken in. These are the gel kind that seal over the blister so you can keep going instead of ending the day early and limping back to the car. They are expensive for six of them...
Band-Aid Hydrocolloid Blister Bandages
I bought this after losing two cheap umbrellas to wind in a single summer, and this one has survived three years of getting thrown in and out of a trunk. It folds down small enough to sit in the daypack and the auto open button works one handed while...
Repel Windproof Travel Umbrella
The two spouts are the reason this one stuck around, I sip from the straw while walking and chug from the wide opening once I have stopped. Ice was still ice after a full day out in Florida, which is what actually sold me on it. It is annoying to was...
Owala FreeSip Insulated Water Bottle, 24 oz