Places to see!

[ibdilbert01]

Seems like I'm always keeping my eyes and ears open for neat places to visit.   

A list of my current favorite places:

1. Elkhart Indiana

Obviously the RVMH Hall of fame is a MUST SEE!  You'll easily spend a full day in the museum going through all the old campers!  The National New York Central Railroad Museum is in down town Elkhart, not very far from the museum.  "The Museum's goal is to tell the story of the vast New York Central System, and its predecessors and successors into the modern era."

2. Cass, by God West Virginia!

Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, found out about this place at a Amish furniture store.  Seems the Amish like to pile into their Yoder vans to visit this place for vacation!   You'll have to take your rig over the river, through the woods, around a mountain, and um, around some more mountains.  But its worth every minute of the white knuckle driving experience.    Cass is a logging town, and to log the steep mountains, they used specially designed engines that were all wheel drive.   They look like no other steam engine, and if you pay enough, they'll take you to the second most highest point in WV.   There is a lot of history to be learned, and the local folk are really nice.   There are a few really nice campgrounds near by too.  Because of the lack of nearby civilization, this is a GREAT area for stargazing and dueling banjos.

3. Downtown Baltimore

Sounds obvious, but you can spend a whole day on the harbor.   You'll find everything from the National Aquarium, The last Civil War Vessel Afloat, the USS torsk and many more cool places to visit!  I highly recommend taking the duck ride, it was a very nice historic ride through downtown Baltimore and a nice ride in the harbor.   But don't throw quarters at the homeless and take their pictures, they don't take to kindly to it. 

4. Cumberland, Maryland

If you happen to be traveling on rt68, The Western Maryland Scenic Railroad is worth a stop.    They have a nice train ride that takes you up to a little town called Frostberg, where they put the engine on a turn table and spin the engine around.   Check their web site out for mystery theater.

5. Gatlinburg / Pigeon Forge TN

This is another obvious tourist point, but worth mentioning.   If your looking for a place to camp thats in the middle of the action, look for the KOA in Pigeon Forge.    Its within walking distance to the Trolley Depot.   From there, you can travel just about anywhere fairly quickly for a small handful of change.  And if you happen to leak all of your transmission fluid into the parking lot of Dollywood, don't bother cleaning it up, the maintenance guys told me its ok for oil to leak into the ground, after all, thats where it comes form.   

A Quick traffic tip.  Sunday mornings Pigeon Forge is a complete nightmare to get out of town.   The golden tip, take Veterans Blvd (449) out towards Sevierville, you'll miss all the traffic.

What are some of your favorite places to visit?

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Tombstone, AZ. 

The Alamo, Natural Bridge Caverns, Natural Bridge Safari Park, Ripley's Museum, San Antonio, TX.

Tonto National Forest, AZ.

Hot Wells Dunes, Safford, AZ.

Luray Caverns, Luray, VA.

Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT.

Plymouth Plantation, Plymouth, MA

Sturbridge Villiage, Sturbridge, MA

St. Augustine, the whole town, St. Augustine, FL

Just to name a few...lol!

Kev

[TommyM]

Durango, Colorado, but don't tell too many people.  Be sure to take the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad ( www.durangotrain.com ) to Silverton while you're here.

[Oz]

San Antonio, Texas

The main "city" doesn't remind you of a city at all.  It's compact and loaded with things to see and do!  Take the bus or the trolly bus and walk to the sights and you'll cover so much in remarkably small time. 

Ripley's Believe it or not Museum is right next to the Wax Museum, across the street from the Alamo (which is really no big deal).

Market Square will just boggle your mind.

The restaurants which abound are fantastic!

The Tower of the America's has a great dinner at the rotating top.

The river walk simply can't be described.  You just have to do it!

Up to the northeast is the zoo.  That's neat.  There's also the Botanical Gardens.

There's the Stone Bridge Caverns - That's neat too!

You gotta stop at the Outdoor World (maybe it's a Camping World, I don't remember now) just to the northwest of the outer loop... just to see the animal displays throughout the store and restaurant.

Go a little farther northwest and you'll hit some cool rodeos, horseback riding and donkey diving.

To the northeast, there's a drive through safari.  Watch out for the Zebras.  They've got begging down to a science and will actually block you from moving your car ... don't open your windows too far for them OR the ostriches!

That's all I can think of for now but, that's just a small portion of what's there.  Oh... there's a Six Flags or other BIG theme park to the northwest on the outer loop too.  WHEW!  It's a great time. 

[Stripe]

San Antonio is a great place to visit indeed.  I was able to get to a few street markets as well as do the riverwalk while I was there in 03 attending K9 Handler School at Lackland AFB...

And yeah, the Alamo was a bit of a anti-climatic visit. I remember the old movies I watched with my Grandpa and this was soooo different. Much smaller than I had imagined it to be.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

At least they preserved the Alamo as best they could given the condition and the changes made to it before it became a national landmark.

We enjoyed the Alamo and the few things we got to see while there, which is why we are going back this winter to see the rest, including the river walk.

While the Alamo seemed a bit anticlimatic, it was still sobering to read the names of the men who died there...definitely a worthy piece of history to see while there.

Kev

[TommyM]

the Alamo (which is really no big deal).

Them's fightin' words right there!

Yeah, the structure (or what's left of it) is kinda anti-climactic.  But that's as much because the event was so large, as that the building is unimpressive.

A very brief history of it is that 200-ish Texians held off a Mexican Army numbering in the thousands for several days, all because they understood that the cause of liberty was greater than their self-interest, even to the point of dying just to buy General Houston's Army a few extra days to prepare for the Battle of San Jacinto, which secured Texas' Independence from Mexico.  The dead at the Alamo included such legendary figures as William Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett.

So yeah, even though what's left of the Alamo (only the chapel still stands) appears unremarkable, if you're in the area you should stop in to remember the events of that battle.

Remember the Alamo!

[Oz]

Let me qualify:   my statement was not in regard with it's historical/patriotic significance.  It's a quick stop right in town, across from the Ripley's and Wax museums, a place you can get your photo taken in old west garb, shops, restaurants, and a lot more.  The first time I went, I expected to see it out in the country somewhere.  Somewhere it would look and feel like it was a moment in time preserved.  A somber, sobering remembrance of what took place there... like Masada.  But no, it was more like a typical tourist attraction.  It's too bad; it really should be isolated from everything else... sort of like, in a "zone of reverence and remembrance." 

[OldEdBrady]

Three places actually impressed SWMBO, LSWMBO, and two separate granddaughters:  Mount Rushmore, the Pacific Ocean, and Avenue of the Giants.

The last one is a redwood forest that you don't hear a lot about.

Although this is an old tale, when we went to the Avenue of the Giants, Ty (who was much younger then, and who is Little She Who Must Be Obeyed) asked, "Where are the giants?  (As she was surrounded by monstrous trees.)  "I simply said, "It's lunch time.  They'll be back later."

[TommyM]

sort of like, in a "zone of reverence and remembrance."

That's more like it!

I know you didn't mean it that way, Mark.  I was just tryin' to to be funny about it.

Even though I live in Colorado now, can you guess where I'm FROM?  Ha!

Tommy

[OldEdBrady]

One of the places I always liked was Route 66 in Albuquerque, N.M.  Although there isn't a lot there from the 50s/60s, there are some places along the route that still have that "flavor."