National Geographic - 50 States, 5,000 Ideas

Once in a long while, a project comes along that seems ready-made for your skills. Thats exactly how I felt when National Geographic asked me to write 50 States, 5,000 Ideas. To quote Yogi Berra, it was like dj vu all over again, because one of my ambitions as a kid was to see as much of America as possible.

Blame it on my Uncle Emile. Visiting his home in San Diego was always a great adventure, especially digging through the drawer in his living room that was filled with greasy old gas station highway maps. Spreading them across the floor, I spent countless hours tracing my index finger along the blue highways that my uncle had followed across Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and other states, imagining what the cities, parks, and landmarks were like in each place. Along the way, my curiosity blossomed into a full-blown love of travel and a determination to explore the continent from sea to shining sea.

My parents cultivated my passionof both maps and geographywith road trips and vacations that found us roaming the wilds of the western United States and Canada. But my wanderlust didnt hit a fever pitch until college. I chose geography as my major, history as a minor. And rather than spend the summers sunning and surfing like so many of my friends in Southern California, I ventured inland with my own collection of highway maps.

Gas was cheap (less than 60 cents a gallon), roads were uncrowded, and if there werent any vacancies at a motel or inn, I would simply crash in the back of my Dodge Dart. I didnt get to see the entire continent, but the summer wanderings of my college days certainly checked off a huge portion of my bucket list.

It wasnt until many years laterwhen I started writing 50 States, 5,000 Ideasthat my quest to see all of America resumed. Out on the road again, in places as far-flung as the California redwoods, Georgias Civil War battlefields, lobster shacks on the coast of Maine, Route 66 through rural Oklahoma, and the badlands of North Dakota, I came across lands both pleasingly familiar and radically different from the ones I had discovered earlier.

And just as Id done as a kid, I started by spreading maps across my own living room floor and scouting out many of the places that appear in these pages. I may have driven my parents mad by insisting that we stop at every landmark on a given map, but it was a trait ready-made for writing this bookan obsession to leave no stone unturned in searching for the best places, experiences, and adventures in each state. Interstate highways whisked me from Point A to Point B, but it was back roads that provided many of the ideas that appear in the pages that follow.

And while it might have been more efficient to concentrate on the highlights of a given metropolis, it was marathon walkaboutsaimless wandering on footthat unveiled many of the gems in cities big and small, from Dallas, Boston, and Virginia Beach, to Jefferson City, Missouri; Northampton, Massachusetts; and Hilo, Hawaii.

While the main text constitutes the heart of each chapter, and the bulk of the 5,000 ideas, I have to confess that the sidebars were the most fun to write. Even if it werent my job, I could easily spend hours looking up quirky geographical facts, making mental lists of the best movies or books set in a given place, or mapping out road trips for both myself and friends. Blame it on my Uncle Emile. Hes the one who started me down this long and winding road across America, and hopefully all of you who read this book will see it as an invitation to venture out on your own to explore each and every state.

Joe Yogerst

Sweet home to a variety of celebrated Americansfrom Rosa Parks and Hank Williams, Sr., to Helen Keller and Hank AaronAlabama has transitioned from heart of the Cotton Belt to a well-rounded state with a diverse economy and tourist attractions. The Yellowhammer State has civil rights landmarks, Gulf Coast beaches, charming small towns, and wilderness areas at the bottom end of the Appalachian chain.

Set on the banks of the Alabama River,