Index

Index

This page lists where one can visit, see, and eat at the most important cultural artifacts in America (given unlimited time and money). I created this page as “bucket list” so that even if I can’t visit each one and perhaps enjoy on-site, I can still visit their web pages. Someday soon everyone can see treasures from anywhere using VR (Virtual Reality) glasses.

NOTE: Content here are my personal opinions, and not intended to represent any employer (past or present). “PROTIP:” here highlight information I haven’t seen elsewhere on the internet because it is hard-won, little-know but significant facts based on my personal research and experience.

It’s a large country, so sites here are listed by each state of the union, along natural geography:

Journeys on water as she flows toward the Equator:

Journeys Northward on Cattle Drives in the 1880s.

Journeys Westward on land (The Pony Express

BTW, finding where each site is located resulted in a great geography and historical lesson for me.

Do you have a roadtrip map or story? Please send it to me for posting here.

National Parks

America’s greatest treasure is the 63 national parks managed by the U.S. National Park Service.

The map above is missing White Sands National Park (New Mexico), Indiana Dunes, and Gateway Arch (St. Louis).

Many “Western” movies were filmed in iconic “Mighty 5” parks below Salt Lake City in Utah: Las Vegas from the South and Denver from the North

322 miles in 5 hours without stopping (click for Google Map)

:

1. Bryce Canyon VIDEO
2. Capital Reef
3. Arches
4. Canyonlands

One couple visited the most significant parks in this order:

CAUTION: as COVID lockdowns relax, reservations are at all-time highs at recreation.gov/, KOA, ReserveAmerica.com, and state camping sites.

Route from Machine Learning

The above route was optimized for least driving time using Google Maps API driven by Machine Learning algorithms run in a Python Jupyter Notebook as described by Randal S. Olson.

Refueling and ReCharging

The number of Tesla Supercharger locations jumped to 2,966 in Q2 2021 from 1,587 at Q1 2019:

A map of stations offering Ethanol-free premium gasoline is at pure-gas.org/extensions/map.html. My wife used it to figure out where I should stop along a route from Florida to Montana. It was difficult because we had to figure out where I was on the website’s map. She also had to calculate how much further I could go with remaining gas. Somehow we managed to stay married after that.

Civil War Confedrates

When the Civil War ended in 1865, The Confederacy included the 11 Southern states of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.

The 5 “Border States” were Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri.

States in white (Oklahoma) did not fight for either side. Idaho volunteers did not fight against the Confederacy. Areas in Arizona and New Mexico were claimed by both sides.

Down the Atlantic Eastern Seaboard

This is where the United States of America began as colonies of England.

Freedom Ride

The planned route of the courageous Freedom Ride May 1961 through the “Jim Crow” South to test a Supreme Court ruling against “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters at bus stations:

The Woolworth lunch counter in downtown Greensboro, NC is now a museum.

The ride stopped on May 14 in Anniston, Alabama where the bus was burnt by segregationists.

Maine

New Hampshire

Massachusettes

Boston:

Cambridge (North of Boston):

• Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge
• Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, Cambridge
• Fogg Art Museum
• MIT Museum
• Arthur M. Sackler Museum
• Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, Waltham
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow House, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Western Mass Turnpike 90:

• Edith Wharton's The Mount, Lenox
• Museum of Bad Art, Dedham
• McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College, Chestnut Hill
• Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, in Wellesley, MA
• Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham
• Worcester Art Museum
• Old Sturbridge Village
• Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge
• Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley
• Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield
• Herman Melville's Arrowhead, Pittsfield
• The Springfield Museums at the Quadrangle
• Dr. Seuss Memorial, Springfield
• Site of Thoreau's Cabin, Walden Pond, Concord
• Wayside (home of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, and Margaret Sidney), Concord
• Ralph Waldo Emerson Home, Concord
• Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House, Concord

Northward Mass up 95:

SouthEast of Boston on 3 to the tip:

Western Mass up 91:

Southern Mass:

Rhode Island

Connecticut

New Jersey

New York

• Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park

New York City (Manhattan)

New York City (Brooklyn)

DUMBO = Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass is home to 25% of New York based tech firms, including Etsy. [tour]

• Walk the Brooklyn Bridge
• River Cafe (Jackets required of men)
• Brooklyn Museum of Art
• Rotunda Gallery

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia:

Pittsburgh:

Delaware

Maryland

Washington DC

• Dumbarton Oaks Collection
• Freer Gallery of Art
• National Air and Space Museum
• National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Ave. 202-357-5000 See the US Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. But the Emancipation Proclamation is open to the public just 4 days a year around MLK Holiday Jan. 13-16 Friday-Monday 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
• The Smithsonian Institution: The Freer Gallery of Art and The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
• Sackler/Freer Galleries
• Art Museum of the Americas
• Corcoran Gallery of Art
• Dimock Gallery at George Washington University
• Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
• Hillwood Museum and Gardens
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• Howard University Gallery of Art
• Kreeger Museum
• U.S. National Gallery of Art
• National Museum of African Art
• Smithsonian American Art Museum
• National Museum of Women in the Arts
• National Portrait Gallery
• National Statuary Hall
• Phillips Collection 1600 21st Street, NW 20009 Closed Mondays
• Smithsonian Institution
• Textile Museum
• U.S. Capital Art Collection
• U.S. Navy Art Collection
• US Holocost Memorial Museum 10-5:30 every day, but timed passes are necessary for visiting the permanent exhibit (20 each day from tickets.com for $1.75)
• White House, 1900 Pennsylvania Avenue

West Virginia

Virginia

Williamsburg:

• Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary
• Abby Aldrich
• Rockefeller Folk Art Collection
• Colonial Williamsburg Villege

North Carolina

South Carolina

Georgia

Atlanta:

Florida

St. Petersberg Northwest on 75 up the Gulf coast

• John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota
• Fort Myers Edison Winter Home
• Tampa Museum of Art
• University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa
• Bern's Steak House, Tampa
• Florida International Museum, St. Petersburg
• Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg
• Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg
• Florida State Museum, Gainsville
• Harn Museum at the University of Florida, Gainesville
• Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala
• Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science, Tallahassee
• Pensacola Museum of Art
• Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee
• NASA Kennedy Center, Merritt Island </ul> ### South down the East coast ### Miami: ## Down the Mississippi River At

2,300 miles, the Mississippi River is the 4th longest in the world (after Nile, Amazon, Yangtze):

Viking River Cruises has, an 8 day "America Heartland" cruise from St. Louis upstream to St. Paul:

Viking also has a Hearth of the Delta" cruise from New Orleans to Memphis, with stops in the Vicksburg battlegrounds.

> Illinois

### Chicago:

> Missouri

### Kansas City:

### St. Louis:

> Tennessee

### Nashville:

### Memphis:

> Arkansas

> Mississippi

> Louisiana

> Alabama

---

## Journeys Northward on Cattle Drives

The TV series "1883" is about one of the cattle drives that brought Texas back from economic collapse after the end of the Civil War in 1865. The drive went from Fort Worth North toward Montana and Portland. Although a fictional story, the script mentions real locations: Doan's Store Red River Crossing, established 1878 along the Western Trail to Dodge City, Kansas where trains carried cattle East.

In 1881 the Doan's Cross reached a peak of 301,000 cattle driven by to Kansas shipping points. This was before the "Chisolm Trail".

In 1884 an annual picnic, celebrating the cattle drives and cowboy tradition, began near Doan's Store.

In 1885 long cattle drives was eliminated by both the construction of railroads across north Texas and the fencing of the West using newly invented barbed wire.

The TV series "Lonesome Dove", is set in late 1870s. Just like the "1883" TV series, it is also about cowboys seeking to drive cattle North to settle along Montana's Yellowstone River. Several other movies have characters doing the same.

## Journeys Westward on land

The Western frontier, even today, is separated by the 100th Meridian line of Longitude near (from the South) San Antonio, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Wichita, Omaha, Souix Falls, and Fargo. VIDEO (using NASA's BlackMarble satellite images of the nigh sky worldwide):

"that line separates wetter climate to the East and the drier air in the West blocked by the Rocky Mountains"

"Go West, young Man, and grow up with the country!" is the advice widely (but wrongly) attributed to New York Tribune Publisher Horace Greeley, who visited the West only once.

### The Pony Express

Pony Express riders (who include "Calamity Jane") delivered mail less than 2 years: from April 3, 1860 to October 24, 1861. Their 1,900-mile (3,100 km) route went along 184 stations (10 miles apart) from St. Joseph, Missouri on the Missouri River to San Francisco, California:

Map by William Henry Jackson, American artist. Text: Howard Roscoe Driggs. Scan: US Library of Congress. Photo image obtained/rendered by Gwillhickers. Restoration by Crisco 1492, Public Domain.

## Westward from Vermont to Kentucky

> Vermont

> Upstate New York

### Albany/Rochester:

### Adirondacks

### Buffalo:

> Michigan

### Detroit

> Ohio

### Cincinnati:

• Cincinnati Art Museum
• Museum Center of Union Terminal
• American Neon Sign Museum</a>
• Creation Museum (is closest to the Cincinnati airport)
• Ark Encounter (44 miles South in Kentucky from the Creation Museum)

### Cleveland:

> Indiana

### Indianapolis:

> Kentucky

---

## Down the Pacific West Coast

• The Coast Starlight line on Amtrak has coastal portions between Seattle and Portland, and along the middle of California.

> Alaska

NOTE: Driving from Alaska to Washington state requires travel through Canada.

> Washington

### Spokane:

### Seattle:

• Bellevue Art Museum

> Oregon

 

> California

### San Francisco Bay: #

### San Jose:

### Santa Barbara (Central Coast):

### West Side, Los Angeles:

### Downtown Los Angeles:

### East Los Angeles:

### South Bay, Long Beach:

### Orange County:

### Inland Empire:

### San Diego:

> Hawaii

Just so we include all the states:

---

## Westward through Northern states

Going from New York City to Seattle,takes 2,852-miles on Interstates 80 and 90, crossing 11 states.

### Northern Rail #

Amtrak's Empire Builder train between Chicago to Seattle and Portland takes 46 hours.

Amtrak's California Zephyr (named after the Greek god of the Western wind). VIDEO: from Chicago to Emeryville (San Franciso) -- 2 nights through 7 states: Naperville, Galesburg, Omaha, Denver (a one hour stop) over the moutains to Grand Junction, Reno, Truckee, Salt Lake City. With no wi-fi between stations.

### Lewis and Clark Trail Westward Ho

Historically, there are names for wagon trains traveling through the Northern United States:

The Lewis and Clark Trail today is a set of hiking trails that commemorates the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 to 1806. The "Corps of Discovery" took a 8,000 miles trip to the Pacific, then return with maps and scientific specimens for President Thomas Jefferson:

### Oregon Trail to the Pacific

The Oregon Trail was established during the 1830s by mountain men in their fur trade, before motorized transportation. It favors valleys to minimize going over mountains:

The trail begins from St. Louis and Independence, Missouri through Kansas and Nebraska to Fort Laramie, Wyoming. It then goes through Boise, Idaho to Portland, Oregon. The map of it in 1907:

> Kansas

> Iowa

> Wisconsin

### Milwaukee:

> Minnesota

### Duluth (North coast of Lake Superior)

### Minneapolis:

### St. Paul:

> Nebraska

> South Dakota

> North Dakota

> Montana

> Idaho

• Boise Art Museum

---

## Westward through the Southwest

VIDEO: Route 66 was one of the original highways within the U.S. starting in 1924. Thus its colloqual name the "Mother Road". It served as a military transport corridor during WWII. During post-war years, motels, diners, and gas stations along Route 66 became popular vacaction destinations. From 1956, interstates built provide a road without the need to slow down through towns.

Route 66 begins in Michigan Avene in Chicago. Eat at Lou Mitchell's diner The route goes to St. Louis, Missouri, then through smaller road-side towns on the way to Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Amarillo TX, Alberquque New Mexico, then over mountains to Flagstaff AZ before ending on the Santa Monica pier in Los Angeles, California.

### Chisolm Trail

The Chisolm Trail was used between 1867-1884 to drive cows to market from various cowtowns in Texas through Oklahoma Indian Territory to Abilene and other railheads in Kansas. The Lonesome Dove TV series depicts that time.

Since Illinos and Missouri are already listed in our Mississippi route, we begin from Oklahoma and take a long detour North to avoid too much desert along the way.

> Oklahoma

> Texas

### Dallas:

### Austin:

### Houston:

> New Mexico

### Santa Fe:

### Taos:

> Colorado

### Denver:

> Wyoming

(Southern Idaho)

> Utah

> Arizona

> Nevada

• Nevada Museum of Art, Reno
• Harrah's Auto Collection, Reno

## All the sights

In addition to "museums", also included here are grand natural sights:

* historic landmark hotels * Restaurants with unique interiors/art * Breakfasts at B&Bs

* Cool Architecture - churches * Gardens and Farms

* National Monuments * US Presidential libraries, museums, and birth places

* New Media art festivals and notable galleries

* Iconic movie locations of note [map] * Caverns * Zoos

* Factory tours * Experiences sold by Viator, The ONE Thing You Must Do In Each U.S. State

* Amusement parks * State Fairs * Tripadvisor Excellence award winners * Most scenic restaurants according to OpenTable, Zagat, Michelin

## Technical Footnote #

This rather large list was originally created to be intentionally large in order to test how well the system handles a large file (how quickly it can download and display).

This is an upgrade of my terrible Roadtrips to visit museums across the USA from 2005.

Next, I'd like to display a Google map of coordinates from a public Google spreadsheet like Jessica Lord's hack-spots site implemented from a github repo which uses the sheetsee.js and Mapbox libraries.

> "I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list." -- Susan Sontag

was published on August 10, 2022.