Four years ago, after my older daughter graduated high school, she and I went on a road trip. One goal, of course, was some quality mother-daughter time before she went out of state for college. But also we simply wanted the fun of a road trip: all those miles, only a loose itinerary, and the freedom to stop and explore whenever we felt like it. In the end, we traveled through ten states in the northwestern quadrant of the US, driving a total of 4500 miles.

During that trip, we got to visit with friends and family. We had a chance to spend some time in Lincoln, Nebraska, where I went to graduate school; I hadn’t been back there in over twenty years. I got to introduce my California-bred daughter to a real Midwestern thunderstorm, hail and all.  We saw marmots, prairie dogs, antelope, and a bison. And we got to stop at some really fun spots.

Now, I have nothing against destination attractions like theme parks or national parks. But I also love the smaller adventures, the little places you might stumble upon. We ended up with an entire litany of beloved stops on this trip: the old Wyoming State Prison (where I sat in the electric chair!), the Reliance Tipple, Kearney Arch, Carhenge and Maryhill Stonehenge, Devil’s Tower, Wild Bill Hickock’s and Calamity Jane’s graves.

I often think about the stories of the people who created some of these places. Carhenge, for instance, began with a guy from rural Nebraska. He’d spent some time in England and, during a memorial gathering for his father, decided to honor him by building a replica of Stonehenge—made out of cars. (I don’t know that alcohol was involved in this decision-making process, but it seems likely.)  Maryhill Stonehenge, on the other hand, was built in rural Washington by a rich guy named Sam Hill as a memorial to local soldiers who’d died in WWI. Hill was eventually interred there. (He also founded a wonderful and quirky museum that’s about a mile away.) I have a plot bunny about a roadside attraction, and someday I’ll have time to write it.

This year my younger daughter is graduating high school (yes, they’re both graduating this year, and didn’t they pick an interesting year for it?). If all goes well, we want to do a road trip too, although this time we’ll do the southwestern quadrant. I’ve never been to a couple of the states we’re planning on—Oklahoma and Texas—and haven’t spent much time in most of the others. The southwest is kind of quirky anyway, so I bet we’ll find all sorts of interesting discoveries.

What are some of your favorite roadside attractions or other unusual little places? Have you visited any of the spots I mentioned? Or some of my other favorites like Shield’s Date Farm, Trees of Mystery, or the Oregon Vortex? Folks outside the US, I’d love to hear about your local attractions!

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Kim Fielding is the bestselling author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible obstacles, but they always find love.

After having migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States, Kim calls the boring part of California home. She lives there with her family and her day job as a university professor, but escapes as often as possible via car, train, plane, or boat. This may explain why her characters often seem to be in transit as well. She dreams of traveling and writing full-time.

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