Media | Articles
What’s the Best Stop You’ve Ever Made on a Road Trip?
Be it for business or pleasure, we often find ourselves seeking a destination far away from home. The road trip happens for many reasons, some are more fun than others. But any excursion can be made enjoyable in its own right, and stops (of the planned or unexpected variety) are essential to the experience.
We should all be so lucky to have a Buc-ee’s travel center en route to our destination, but that’s just the bias of an automotive journalist who was born and raised in Texas. As gas stations/conveninece stores go, I openly admit to also liking both Sheetz and Wawa on road trips (don’t roast me in the comments one way or the other, East Coast readers) but sometimes the best stops are further away from the interstate. Here’s my contribution to this question for you loyal Hagerty Media readers.
Will Rogers’ Birthplace, Oologah, Oklahoma
Many years ago, I was a corporate suit. And as a loyal business drove, I rented cars across this great nation. Thanks to the handy Google Maps app on my trusty iPhone 4, I learned that the birthplace of Oklahoma’s Favorite Son was a worthwhile stop on my road trip from Tulsa to Kansas City. The historical building did not disappoint, and the experience even made me enjoy my rental car (a Ford Fusion Hybrid) even more. This diversion was beautiful and enlightening; it did a fantastic job keeping my mind off the fact I’d been on the road for 10 days and I was getting a bit homesick.
The road trip was so enjoyable that I was inspired to write an early Vellum Venom column about a rental car that kinda looked like an Aston Martin from the front. That was back in 2013, but the fact that I still vividly remember it proves the juice was worth the squeeze. Side excursions on road trips are worth the effort, provided you have the time for them. And if not, maybe you should make the time.
Now the question comes back you, dear Hagerty Media reader:
Marketplace
Buy and sell classics with confidence
What’s the Best Place You Visited On A Road Trip?
Find more values
Search for prices of other cars, trucks, vans and motorcycles
My mind is racing at the moment, recalling all of the “best” places I could bring up for my answer. Some of them would not be family-friendly, however, so I’ll work on paring down my responses. For now, I think I’ll pick The Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas. My wife and I were returning from the East Coast via I-70, and saw an exit for the Road To Oz Highway. Being fans of all-things-Oz, we were like moths to a flame. The museum itself was fun, albeit not anything spectacular, but the ever-running sit down theatre with the original movie going was original. The gift shop was the high point, and our daughter enjoyed her bottle of Squished Witch wine greatly. I still sport my “I went to see the Wizard about a brain, but all I got was this stupid t-shirt” attire sometimes in summer.
We’d been on the road for over three weeks at the time, and the Kansas stretch of I-70 can be a little monotonous, so the fun little stop was a welcome respite and gave us a recharge to get us through to Colorado where we were going to visit family.
YES! The Oz Museum!
There have been many. But the one that stands out the most was not a road trip as much as was just going for a drive.I was going along a stretch of route 46 around Columbia N.J. A particularly nice stretch of road that I’d been on before. It was soon after a snowstorm .Excepting the asphalt everything was covered with snow and the trees were incased in ice. It all shimmered. The bluest of blue skies, no wind but a bitter cold that you took in and exhaled with every steamy breath. I stopped at a place called ‘King Cole’s’, got a cheeseburger and a cup of coffee. Took it outside to eat. The hot coffee warming one hand and the last true plain waxed paper burger that I ever had warming the other. Deadly still, deadly silent. One of those few and far between moments where everything is eerily perfect.
Sounds great!
The museum of the United States Air Force.
This is a stop you have to make if you are near it.
In one place you can see nearly every significant America military air plane ever made. Many famous and one off planes. B2, F117, SR71, Apollo capsule, B52, B17 Memphis Belle the real one. Boxscar B29 the plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. Even mist of the Air Force one planes from Roosevelt to the Kennedy 707 and you can walk through them.
It takes a day to see much and two days to see all.
Best yet the cost is FREE!
So if near I70 and I75 near Dayton Ohio stop in and check it out.
I have been to many aviation museums and this is the best by far.
Fully agree, this museum is fantastic.
While i9n Dayton, also go to the Packard Museum downtown in an old Packard dealership. It’s just one of the good auto museums we’ve encountered on the way to other destinations.
The Museum of the United States Airforce was my first though when I saw the headline of this article. Fantastic place!
Having not yet completely recovered from knee surgery I was glad to know the museum has both wheelchairs and electric scooters, free and lots of them. I’ve been there several times and could still spend several days there. My wife liked the B29 since her grandfather was an inspector on it. He said they had a small run with just one big hook instead of the usual bomb racks that to me look a lot like the inside of a coke machine. It was top secret but being a defense plant everybody knew it was for a fire bomb. They were partially right.
You meant “Bock’s Car”.
Being an USAF/SAC veteran, I have visited the USAF Museum numerous times. The museum has an example of every plane flown by the USAF. Recently opened was an additional facility that displays the larger planes. As mentioned, it takes a minimum of two days to visit and enjoy the museum. GO USAF!!!
East of State College, PA on I-80, there is pretty much no where to dine near the highway, it’s a surprisingly desolate stretch of highway. We needed lunch and took the 10 minute detour south to Milton, PA and found the most delightful and delicious coffee shop named Tastecraft. We absolutely love it and make it a destination every time we head down to Philly to visit family. The atmosphere is cozy, the food is very well prepared, and it’s nice and quiet, a welcome little break on a long road trip.
Logans north of Clarsvill, Kty
Uranus Missouri which is on Route 66 right next to Interstate 44 on the way to St. Louis about 2 hours southwest. You will walk in and be greeted by people repeatedly saying “Welcome to Uranus”. Is it immature to go to the Uranus Fudge Factory? Not sure but everyone was giggling young and old. They have T-Shirts!
https://www.uranusmissouri.com/
Immature? All I know is that wearing my t-shirt still gets giggles years after I got it. 👍
Absolutely. I sent pictures telling my friends “My Lexus is parked in Uranus.” I’m not at all immature, it was true!
I also got a shotglass – you don’t wanna know what I say when I toast someone with it 😁
That’s funny! My son moved from San Diego to Virginia Beach VA and asked me to help him drive across the country. The trip took us past Uranus and I said we should buy some Fudge. Butt, He didn’t want to stop. A year later he moved back to San Diego and I was tasked with driving his car and belongs back to CA. I don’t know how I missed the exit to Uranus and didn’t realize until a couple hundred miles later. So, two strikes. Maybe I will get a third chance someday and I will plan the stop!
My friends and I were heading from Chicago to Minneapolis, coming from and going to, ballgames. We stopped at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville Iowa, tossed a ball on the field and had a great time. We took pictures of our group coming out of the corn fields. But on our way to the game at Target Field we passed through Clear Lake. I said, “Isn’t that where Buddy Holly’s plane crashed?” We detoured to the memorial (a giant pair of horn rimmed glasses) and made the 1/2 mile pilgrimage into the corn (now soy) field to the site of the crash. Fans leaves records, medals, photos, glasses and more to mark the spot. Quite a day.
I was going to mention this, along with the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake – the site of the Winter Dance Party and the last concert for Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. Also on the billing was Dion and the Belmonts and others. The ballroom is still very much like it was then, a large dance floor surrounded by booths for groups to socialize and still hosts events. The walls of the bar area are filled with mementos from many famous performers who felt the need to leave their guitars, drumsticks and whatnot as a tribute. It really feels like a special place!
Meramec Caverns! I’ve been there several times. You used to see signs for it all over, not so much anymore. Great stop in MO.
Buc-ee’s
South Of The Border. Mexican themed lodging. A giant neon bandido. And fireworks! Of course I was 12 at the time. Still remember the corny billboards. “Pedro sez…”
Still love it ea yr, passing thru, New England/FL.
Hearst Castle, CA.; Evil Knievel’s Snake River Canyon Jump, Idaho; Woodstock Festival, NY.; over 30 nat’l & state parks across the country, summer ’74 on a motorcycle. Nothing like good old USA! I need to go to Buc ee’s, now that I see so many of their t shirts around Orlando.
During the 80’s there was a strike at the Brewer’s Retail. Three of us were passing through a small town in Ontario (Heidelberg). One stop sign town with a hotel that had three kettles and brewed their own beer. Needless to say the road trip ended there. Also found the local butcher where I bought all my meat for the next 20 years
Mykonos – a greek island – wife and I and another couple on a cruse in a rented mercedes need to make a “pit stop” at a very rattyl looking service station (not sure if it deserved ‘station” status) – ladies headed to the rest room – returned giggling – it was a room with cinder block walls – and a single hold in the floor. Not a “good” memory – but you don’t forget it.
I hoist my glass of Mythos to your memory, Conrad – although that’s some “road trip”!
My wife will haunt me forever if I don’t say the Corn Palace – but I prefer Stewart’s chain in upstate NY.
While there’s nothing wrong with Stewart’s, I have to agree with your wife’s choice of The World Famous Corn Palace in Mitchell SD.
Mykonos – a Greek island – wife and I and another couple on a cruse in a rented Mercedes need to make a “pit stop” at a very ratty looking service station (not sure if it deserved ‘station” status) – ladies headed to the rest room – returned giggling – it was a room with cinder block walls – and a single hole in the floor. Not a “good” memory – but you don’t forget it.