I’ve enjoyed reading your pieces. And I don’t drink, don’t run, but do appreciate old, decaying buildings & visiting new places. You may wanna think about visiting Davenport IA, part of the Quad Cities area. My husband and I were pleasantly surprised.
"Everyone says that’s what they want, but they don’t." I think about this all the time. I live in one of the most visited cities in the world (Rome) (and am about to move to another (Venice.) Of course people want to see the Colosseum and ride in a gondola, but even in these popular cities there are lifetimes of things to see and do.
Absolutely. People get so stuck on the must see destinations they never consider whole cities, states, or countries for travel. Or they're too focused visiting must see attractions within popular destinations that they miss so much of what actually makes them great places. Not discrediting the big attractions either, those can be great, but there's so much more.
I just took a 3 week geneology tour from Chicago to Seattle uncovering 200 years of family roots. I wasn't looking forward to the trip to be honest as I've been to Montana several times recently and I thought all of middle America would be dead or dying towns just waiting to be saved by Wallmart and McDonalds and flag waving, gun toting anarchists. What I found was quite opposite, at least from Illinois to the eastern border of South Dakota. Many of the historic downtowns
have been revitalized with brick streets, breweries, brunch restaurants and specialty coffee shops. It's very encouraging to see this change. We were in Champagne Illinois, St Louis, Burlington Iowa, Washingto Iowa, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids Iowa, Cedar Falls Iowa, Clear Lake Iowa, Des Moines, CouncilBluffs/Omaha Nebraska, Lincoln Nebraska, Sioux City Iowa, and Cedar Falls South Dakota. All of those cities were fantastic! West of there things turned grim though with homelessness, drug abuse, crime etc.. The Black Hills are as nice as they used to be but way more touristed then when I lived there in the 70's. The towns where I lived in both South Dakota and Wyoming are half dead or dying. Montana leaned hard into "if we could get rid of the immigrants, life would get good again" while eating their burritos and plates of refried beans.
Not all of middle America had a healthy pulse but enough of it has comeback alive that it's encouraging. Except for accommodations which were dismal most of the way. Even revitalized towns are hotel wastelands mostly. You might get brunch and espresso forbreakfast and a nice brewpub for dinner but you'll be staying at a big corporate chain hotel next to the freeway for way too much money. We tried staying in bed and breakfasts but they're far and few between and when you do find them they're priced out of the market.
That sounds like a great trip. I’d love to be able to string so many spots together in a single go like that. But I’ll have to settle for my current set up for now. Agreed re: accommodations, it can be rough in some of these cities where even the airbnb selection is meager.
Speaking of Detroit you gotta come here. Downtown has pretty much been gentrified out of existence but there’s still areas like the enclave Hamtramck that is a huge cultural area, and much untouched since the 80/90s.
I loved my Detroit visit and am itching to go back. My friend and I walked from corktown to the motown museum, that was such a wild 3 mile eye-opener for me.
That walk showed you how drastic the change is between downtown and the rest of the city ha. I lived in that neighborhood by the Motown museum for some years. The city is hard to cover in just a weekend, if you ever come back just reach out and I can give you a list of some out-of-the way things that might be more your vibe.
I will absolutely hit you up when I can make it out there again. I loved it, and agreed, I thought I did well to go beyond the touristy stuff, but not nearly as much as I wanted.
I’ve enjoyed reading your pieces. And I don’t drink, don’t run, but do appreciate old, decaying buildings & visiting new places. You may wanna think about visiting Davenport IA, part of the Quad Cities area. My husband and I were pleasantly surprised.
That’s a good one, I don’t know much about the Quad Cities, I’m sure I could learn a lot.
I love this concept so much.
"Everyone says that’s what they want, but they don’t." I think about this all the time. I live in one of the most visited cities in the world (Rome) (and am about to move to another (Venice.) Of course people want to see the Colosseum and ride in a gondola, but even in these popular cities there are lifetimes of things to see and do.
Absolutely. People get so stuck on the must see destinations they never consider whole cities, states, or countries for travel. Or they're too focused visiting must see attractions within popular destinations that they miss so much of what actually makes them great places. Not discrediting the big attractions either, those can be great, but there's so much more.
I just took a 3 week geneology tour from Chicago to Seattle uncovering 200 years of family roots. I wasn't looking forward to the trip to be honest as I've been to Montana several times recently and I thought all of middle America would be dead or dying towns just waiting to be saved by Wallmart and McDonalds and flag waving, gun toting anarchists. What I found was quite opposite, at least from Illinois to the eastern border of South Dakota. Many of the historic downtowns
have been revitalized with brick streets, breweries, brunch restaurants and specialty coffee shops. It's very encouraging to see this change. We were in Champagne Illinois, St Louis, Burlington Iowa, Washingto Iowa, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids Iowa, Cedar Falls Iowa, Clear Lake Iowa, Des Moines, CouncilBluffs/Omaha Nebraska, Lincoln Nebraska, Sioux City Iowa, and Cedar Falls South Dakota. All of those cities were fantastic! West of there things turned grim though with homelessness, drug abuse, crime etc.. The Black Hills are as nice as they used to be but way more touristed then when I lived there in the 70's. The towns where I lived in both South Dakota and Wyoming are half dead or dying. Montana leaned hard into "if we could get rid of the immigrants, life would get good again" while eating their burritos and plates of refried beans.
Not all of middle America had a healthy pulse but enough of it has comeback alive that it's encouraging. Except for accommodations which were dismal most of the way. Even revitalized towns are hotel wastelands mostly. You might get brunch and espresso forbreakfast and a nice brewpub for dinner but you'll be staying at a big corporate chain hotel next to the freeway for way too much money. We tried staying in bed and breakfasts but they're far and few between and when you do find them they're priced out of the market.
That sounds like a great trip. I’d love to be able to string so many spots together in a single go like that. But I’ll have to settle for my current set up for now. Agreed re: accommodations, it can be rough in some of these cities where even the airbnb selection is meager.
Speaking of Detroit you gotta come here. Downtown has pretty much been gentrified out of existence but there’s still areas like the enclave Hamtramck that is a huge cultural area, and much untouched since the 80/90s.
I loved my Detroit visit and am itching to go back. My friend and I walked from corktown to the motown museum, that was such a wild 3 mile eye-opener for me.
That walk showed you how drastic the change is between downtown and the rest of the city ha. I lived in that neighborhood by the Motown museum for some years. The city is hard to cover in just a weekend, if you ever come back just reach out and I can give you a list of some out-of-the way things that might be more your vibe.
I will absolutely hit you up when I can make it out there again. I loved it, and agreed, I thought I did well to go beyond the touristy stuff, but not nearly as much as I wanted.