In this Issue of the Statesider
Releasing the river, saying no to cruise ships and yes to canoes, replanting cacti, heading to the diner, and letting dead whales lie. Plus, a Colorado wildflower field that’s going to stay a secret.

The Road to Columbine Heaven

Who can you trust with your travel secrets? Should writers stay quiet about some places in order to save them? If you stumble into an unmapped wildflower Shangri-La in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, like Shara Johnson did, what should you do? Read this Statesider Original Story

Stories Across the US

A Cruise Story Worth Reading: It’s rare that we come across a story set on a cruise that really catches our attention, but this Letter to a Stranger is such a gorgeous coming-of-age story. It just happens to be set on a cruise ship. Erika Veurink, Off Assignment

Key West Says No: Cruises? No thanks. Key West is done. The cruise industry thinks otherwise. Ryan Krogh, Outside Online

Can We Save the Saguaro? The Forest Service is replanting an ecosystem populated by cactus never meant to withstand fire. Elizabeth Miller, bioGraphic

Black History Train: Black Pullman porters paved the way for the Civil Rights movement — while logging thousands of hours and miles on the rails. Sojourner White, Travel + Leisure

Changing Park Culture: A tweet and a photo help this Chicano writer find a deeper connection to Texas nature. Bobby Alemán, Texas Highways

Marble Madness: The world’s biggest marble treasure hunt, and event that gives new meaning to the phrase “taking home all the marbles.” (Also perhaps “losing your marbles.”) Stephanie McGeary, Lost Coast Outpost

Grab a Seat at the Counter: It’s Diner Week. “12 essays by the Autostraddle team all about memories and meanings of diners.” Silence our phones, set us to away on Slack. We’re reading — and ordering the biscuits, of course. Autostraddle

Where is “The South”? A definitive map that everyone will agree with. No arguments will erupt from this. Not a one. Andrew Van Dam, Washington Post

Wheelchair Air: What it’s like to travel by plane in the US for people in wheelchairs. Spoiler: It’s not easy. And it’s worse than that. Amanda Morris, New York Times

Dead Whale Etiquette: Hey you over there with the dead whale — you want to dispose of the body? You’re probably doing it wrong. Ben Goldfarb, Nautilus

Too Dangerous for Dangerville: We’re suckers for an Action Park story; now there’s a book. In this excerpt, Frank gets in the ball, the ball rolls down the track and…  Andy Mulvihill with Jake Rossen, Slate

Frank was apparently an employee of the resort’s wintertime operations. I had never seen him before. Depending on what my father had planned, I might never see him again.

Okay, Fine: A Listicle. The only good news about flying right now is that you can eat really well during that 37 hour unanticipated delay. Gabe Hiatt, Natalie B. Compton, Hannah Sampson, Amanda Finnegan and Katty Huertas, Washington Post

Unleashing the Mississippi: “…we’ve often failed to imagine the delta of the present. Despite all the focus on land loss and land building, we rarely pause to discuss what we mean by land. And here in Louisiana, land—and who should control it—is a sometimes squishy idea.” Boyce Upholt, Hakai

Hawaii’s Legendary Third-Gender Nightclub: In the 60s and 70s, The Glade was a refuge for Hawaii’s third-gender performers, the mahu. They defied over a century of missionary oppression — and apparently put on a helluva show. Christine Hitt, SF Gate

Bubbie, this is an Arby’s: “With their military experience and ivy league educations, the brothers were primed for professional success and immediately set their sights on becoming big names in food service.” Wait, what? Joanna O’Leary, My Jewish Learning

New Hood Just Dropped: It seems impossible that this Anaheim, California neighborhood is the first officially Arab American cultural district. Meet us there for all the pastry. Hossam Alattar, Voice of OC

With a Paddle

Brave Canoe World: A woman must have a canoe of her own if she is to complete the Seven Carries. Megan Mayhew Bergman, The Guardian

Rio Not-Quite-So Grande: Stretches of the Rio Grande are so dry that they’re now “more of a hike than a boat trip.” David Courtney Texas Monthly

Having a Gourd Old Time: This guy is floating down the Missouri River in (checks notes) a pumpkin.

What We’re Reading

KosherSoul: Michael Twitty’s newest book about food, being Black and Jewish, about history and racism, and oh so many things has me experiencing all kinds of Big Jewish Feelings about identity, chosen family, and what’s for dinner. It is a Passover Haggadah of a book, a story of oppression and joy and lovingly prepared meals; it makes me want to cook at cry at the same time. Life goal: Seder at the Twitty table. Buy a copy today through the Statesider shop

ICYMI: Revisit Jill Robinson’s conversation with Michael Twitty about his previous book, The Cooking Gene. 

Keep up with the latest from The Statesider on Twitter and Instagram. Or LinkedIn. Why not? Go wild and network with us.

The post Nothing but Flowers appeared first on The Statesider.

In this Issue of the Statesider
Diving into the foggy history of Black American ancestry, the problem with the best place on Earth, sketching in Alaska, recreating Ferris Bueller’s day off, trains with teens, grass court obsessions, a dubious deli fad, so many jackalopes, and different sides of Martha’s Vineyard.

Tracing a Trail of Black Rebellion

How do Black Americans discover their family history when there are no records, no monuments, no answers? Writer Jalen Coats visits the site of the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina, near where her ancestors may have first set foot on US soil, and finds how challenging ancestry travel can be for Black Americans. Read this Statesider Original Story

Stories Across the US

Statesider of the Month: Celebrating the life of Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, the Louisiana historian who helped recover the identities of more than 100,000 enslaved people. John Pope, NOLA.com

Bueller? Bueller? Could ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ really be done? This Washington Post team recreated the full day, complete with costumes (but without destroying a classic car). Leigh Giangreco, Washington Post

The Best Place on Earth: “This is the place. Why would I want to live anywhere else?” says a man in a remote corner of northeastern California. That’s his own best place on Earth; you probably have your own. Jon Carroll, SFGATE

Learning to See Alaska: You have to go 60 miles down a gravel road in Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve to join the field-sketching workshop at the Wrangell Mountains Center. There’s a bigger problem for writer Jenna Schnuer: she can’t draw. Jenna Schnuer, New York Times

Field sketching pairs illustrations with notes about weather, location, animal behavior and even the journal keeper’s mood that day, offering more context than a stand-alone photo. It’s also a powerful tool for travel, one that forces you to slow down, to take things in, to simply look.

Fill ‘Er Up: How much gas money do you need to drive cross-country in 2022? A travel journal that might make you want to go electric. Rachel Lerman, Washington Post

Entranced by Trains: Writer Chris Colin and his teenage daughter take a trip on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight, where they encounter a Mike Tyson impersonator and embrace the trance-like nature of a train journey. Chris Colin, Afar’s Travel Tales (Podcast | Transcript)

The Last Frontier of State Fairs: Hot seal meat. A topiary named “Hershell P. Monster.” Photo-ops with mini pigs. A democratic socialist named Santa Claus running for office. The Alaska State Fair is a scene that could only make sense exactly where it is — and we want to go. Christina Cauterucci, Slate

There are just so many unwanted mini pigs out there.

Let’s Do This: “Foreign candy puts American candy to shame,” says Amanda Mull. We say, “Send us a whole bunch of it so we can test this scientifically.” Amanda Mull, The Atlantic

Jackalopes Before Jack-O’-Lanterns: One of our favorite podcasts dives deep into one The Statesider’s favorite pieces of Americana kitsch. Tune in for the story of the jackalope and how Wall Drug brought it to fame. Fil Corbitt, 99% Invisible

If You Manicure It, They Will Come: A beautiful story of a grass tennis court in Charles City, Iowa — that you tennis buffs out there can reserve — and the dedication to a green dream. Rachael Wright, New York Times

Mark pointed out a dandelion they had all missed. He had managed to out-perfect the perfectionists, and the evidence was flown across the Atlantic to live in the Kuhn family freezer. He gazes at it with reverence: his little green miracle in a Ziploc bag.

After the Burn: An artist takes a summer hike through the burn zone of the central Sierra Nevada, in a place he hikes every summer. Depictions of the scenes used burned willow as charcoal. Tucker Nichols, The New Yorker

Alleged River: The Flint River is Georgia’s second-longest river, but it’s nearly invisible underneath the development of Atlanta. How do you define the headwaters of a river that can’t be seen? Hannah Palmer with photos by Virginie Kippelen, Bitter Southerner

When I take people out to visit the headwaters, we start at the source, on a street formerly known as New Spring Street in East Point. I stop passersby and security guards, people walking their dogs or exiting the MARTA bus. Did you know this is the Flint River?

Delicore? Look, we’re excited when anyone discovers that old-school delis are amazing, but what is happening here? Katz’s is the new “hot girl hangout”? The “Delicore style trend”? Maggie Hennessy, Bon Appétit

Welcome to Martha’s Vineyard

Sanctuary Island: The history of how Martha’s Vineyard became a Black summertime getaway. Lavanya Ramanathan, VOX

Oak Bluffs: The Martha’s Vineyard neighborhood that has been welcoming Black travelers for over 125 years. Nicole Taylor, New York Times

Signs of the Times: The effort to revive a 200-year-old sign language developed on Martha’s Vineyard. Brittany Bowker, MV Times

Déjà Vu All Over Again: In 1962, in retaliation for the Freedom Rides of the previous summer, White segregationists bussed Black families to Cape Cod with promises of work and housing. Sound familiar? Gillian Brockell and Jodie Tillman, Washington Post

What We’re Reading

New Jersey Fan Club: Artists and Writers Celebrate the Garden State. Depending on who you ask, New Jersey is either a punchline or a paradise. This new anthology featuring essays, interviews and comics from an array of writers and artists — including writers we have featured before right here in The Statesider — presents a solid argument that New Jersey is lots of things to lots of different types of people, and maybe we should go experience them all. Buy a copy today through the Statesider shop

If you’re enjoying The Statesider, please share it with friends! Every time you do, a baby jackalope gets its antlers.

The post History & Mystery appeared first on The Statesider.

In this Issue of the Statesider
American elections as tourist experience, tornado tourism (but safe), tortilla masters, not flying (and not caring), Chicago time travel, mushrooms take over Puerto Rico, why we love big red barns, Fire Island memories, the whitewashing of American music, and a visit with our oldest living things.

The Tornado Map You Never Knew You Needed

A close call left Rachel Heston Davis with an obsession for tornados. She’d prefer to be nowhere near the megastorms, but she can’t quite look away. Her compromise? Find the monuments built after the storm.

“If you, like me, are transfixed by these beautiful cones but also sort of want to kill them with fire, I have found a way to satisfy my curiosity without risking my life in a tornado chase: tornado memorials. Our great nation is freckled with tornado memorials — monuments, plaques, even statues — commemorating tornadic events throughout history.” Read this Statesider Original Story — And, Of Course, Check Out the Delightful Map

Vote Early, Vote Often (For Us)

Did you read a Statesider Original this year that just stuck with you? Please submit it for the Reader Favorites of 2022 on Longreads! Here’s the form, and yes, you can submit more than one story.

Need a refresher? We’ve featured stories on searching for a monument to Black history, stumbling into a wildflower paradise, an ER doctor going to hunting school, living in the shadow of roadside crosses, dealing with grief through pie and motorcycles, and more. We’ve had some goodies.

Stories Across the US

Staying Grounded: Meet some of the hundreds of Americans who quit flying for the sake planet. Spoiler: they’re still traveling and doing just fine. Jen Rose Smith, Sierra Magazine

Democracy Inaction: We are all aware that American elections are a bit of a spectacle, but elections as a tourist attraction? One company offers a 6-day tour of the American political landscape to travelers from abroad. Gwen Snyder, Jezebel

Bringing Masa to the Masses: Meet the chefs bringing heirloom corn tortillas to the people of Texas. Who’s up for a research trip? José R. Ralat, Texas Monthly

Under the Branson Sun: The Washington Post sends their theater critic on safari the entertainment hub of the Ozarks. Peter Marks, Washington Post

“Sir, are you carrying a concealed weapon?” asks the front-door attendant at “Dolly Parton’s Stampede,” a show complete with a gut-busting chicken dinner, during which 1,000 guests sit around a rodeo-style ring for a pageant of horsemanship, real live buffalo roaming and agility dog contests.

Statesider Throwback: Here’s Pam’s dispatch from a Branson theatrical performance. It was a thing.

Time Travel to the White City: Chicago’s famed 1893 World’s Fair is being brought back to life with augmented reality. Andy Koval, WGN Chicago

Cruising with Ancestors: Crossing the Atlantic on a luxury cruise may be relaxing for some, but for Nylah Burton, it was a reminder of what her ancestors endured on these same waters. Nylah Burton, Sweet July

What Could Go Wrong? A new entry into the Darwin Awards travel category could be coming to a city (and emergency room) near you. Who’s ready for personal helicopters for sightseers? Ben Brachfeld, AMNY

The Patience of Pines: Two visits to California’s trees — not the big ones, but the old, gnarly, twisty ones. One bristlecone pine, the oldest tree on Earth, has survived for 4800 years. Naturally, we’re mucking things up.
– In California, Where Trees Are King, One Hardy Pine Has Survived for 4,800 Years — Soumya Karlamangla, photos by Adam Perez, New York Times
– Why Mystery Surrounds What May be Earth’s Oldest Tree — Erik Ofgang, Washington Post

Fire Island Fantasies: The history and significance of New York’s Fire Island to the queer community. Jack Parlett, GRANTA

Betting on Mushrooms: Why Puerto Rico is having a mushroom boom, and what it means for the future of Puerto Rican cuisine. Alicia Kennedy, Foreign Policy

Doggy Diner: This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper. And a $75 tasting menu for dogs. Soleil Ho, San Francisco Chronicle

American Barns: The history and symbolism of the big red barn in America, where big red barns are becoming a thing of the past. Joshua Mabie, Places Journal

What’s the Buzz? A visit to Beaufort, South Carolina, the kazoo capital of America. Stephanie Burt, Thrillist

The Oregon of Our Minds: A typical Friday in Oregon, as imagined by my East Coast friends. Gracie Beaver-Kairis, McSweeney’s

What We’re Listening To

Black Roots. In this limited series for BBC Radio 4, musician and historian Rhiannon Giddens explores the history Black roots music and how it was whitewashed from the story of American folk and country music. A mix of music and interviews, Giddens pays homage to the forgotten pioneers we have to thank for influencing generations of later musicians across America. Listen now

The post Twistin’ the Night Away appeared first on The Statesider.

In this Issue of the Statesider
Big whales, small harbor, Native control of national parks, hot potatoes, wayfinding, surfing for everyone, Black Wall Street reborn (twice), and a major find in the world of pants archaeology. Also: give us a piece of your mind in our reader survey!

The Gray Whale Capital of the West

Depoe Bay, Oregon, is known for two things: the smallest navigable harbor on the West Coast and whales. Lots of whales. Once a productive fishing port, now the town is navigating the sometimes choppy waters of transitioning from a working fishing town to a tourism-focused economy. Earlier this year, photographer Sarah Arnoff Yeoman paid a visit to the Gray Whale Capital for the Statesider. Take a photographic visit to Depoe Bay

Tell us what you really think

We’re wrapping our fourth year here at the Statesider, and we want to hear from you. Is once a month enough Statesider? Do the Statesider Originals stick with you? Do they stick with you enough that you’d be willing to help pay for them? (We remain completely reader- and self-funded and all donations go to pay our contributors.) Are there too many stories in each issue, or not enough? Got any ideas about what we should or should not do going forward? We’d love to know what’s missing, what’s what’s working, and hey, we just like hearing from you. Really. Take our short survey

Oh, yeah, we ARE on Mastodon, since you asked. Here.

Stories Across the US

This is Our Love Language: Trips don’t have to be long to be meaningful. The unsung joy of short trips. Sara Benincasa, Pipe Wrench

Finding Your Way: Essays don’t have to be long to be meaningful, either. The art of wayfinding in the mountains of Colorado — and in middle age. Claire Boyles, Sierra Magazine

Rosin Potatoes: The elusive roots of rosin potatoes. What are rosin potatoes, you ask? Imagine that you have a boiling pot of pine rosin and you drop a potato into it. Ta-da: rosin potato. It’s a thing in parts of the Southeast — but where did it come from? Caroline Hatchett, Bitter Southerner

Iowa Hummus: Growing up Palestinian in Iowa — and finding community through food. Khalid El Khatib, Food52

Strangers in a Van: After their flight got canceled, 13 strangers rented a van and drove 652 miles together. Cathy Free, Washington Post

I Just Wanna Surf: A new book of photography focuses on surfers who are regularly left out of the surfer culture and narrative: Black women and nonbinary surfers. Photographs by Gabriella Angotti-Jones, Story by Leah Asmelash, CNN

Native Management: The US Government has a long history of stealing land from Native tribes. Is co-management of land the way forward? Len Necefer, Outside

With, Not Without You: Joshua Tree National Park will be co-managed by California’s Twenty Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians. Mary Beth “Mouse” Skylis, Backpacker

The Next National Monument: Spirit Mountain, Nevada, May Be the Next National Monument. “Avi Kwa Ame (pronounced Ah-VEE kwa-meh) is the place of origin for ten Yuman-speaking tribes of the Mojave, as well as a sacred site for the Hopi and Chemehuevi Paiute people.” Emily Pennington, Outside

Black Wall Street(s): Two new efforts to create Black Wall Streets pop up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi (Stacy Jackson, Black Enterprise) and Baltimore, Maryland (Niko Mann, Black Enterprise).

Pants in the News: An anonymous pants collector bought a pair of pants recovered from a shipwreck for $114,000 at auction. They *might* have been made by Levi Strauss. Amanda Holpuch, Seattle Times

Hey Siri, Show Me the Most Statesider Headline Possible: “Gay Montana Moose Comes Out in Bozeman, Celebrated on Holiday Pie Crust” Moose Radio

This year’s pie commemorates a very special occasion that took place about a week ago. I’m honored that Bullwinkle chose to come out right here in my yard. Thanks, Mother Nature, for the reminder about all that’s good in the natural world.

What We’re Reading

The Cassandra by Sharma Shields. A young woman who has disturbing visions of the future goes to work on a secret research project at the Hanford Research Facility in Eastern Washington. It’s the 1940s and, as readers, we know what she’s working on. Ultimately she does too — because her visions show her the results. A disturbing and compelling read not just about the nuclear arms race, but about how little society listens to women sounding the alarm. While the main character is fictional, the setting and the Hanford project are very, very real. The long-term results from Hanford dumping on the surrounding area are still a threat to wildlife, the water supply, and the community. Buy a copy today from the Statesider bookshop

The post Watching the Whales Go Round appeared first on The Statesider.

In this Issue of the Statesider
Back “home” in Boston, park overpopulation, getting down in Puget Sound, and looking up at an icon. Plus, a newly public archive from the Smithsonian and a primate park-and-ride.

Back to Beantown

After an extended stint outside the US, Melissa Watkins returns to a city and a history that was never hers to begin with. To understand her new city, and confront her growing unease with American culture, she goes looking for the Boston beyond the city’s own myths. Read “A Repat’s Guide to Boston”

I’m from Denver. I’m also Black. Boston is full of history, but it doesn’t feel like mine. Every other block there’s a giant statue of a guy who fought in the Revolution but also owned slaves.

Stories Across the US

The Desert, Not Deserted: Nowhere is immune from the national park boom. Joshua Tree’s delicate ecosystem is another victim of overcrowding. Brad Rassler, Alta Journal

Guilty as Charged: Statesider editor Pam Mandel is snowbirding right outside Joshua Tree National Park right now. She’s been up early, camera in hand, lots. Asked about crowds she said, “Not at 5 am, nope.” Nerd’s Eye View

Get Ready for Death Valley: The summertime extremes of Death Valley feel like a dangerous dare today, but what if they are the new normal of tomorrow? Chris Colin, Alta Journal

Like wildebeests trudging off to Masai Mara each year, a distinct breed of tourist makes this summertime Death Valley pilgrimage.

Geezer Happy Hour: At Ann Arbor’s coolest rock show, almost everyone is over 65. Also, it starts at 6:30 and ends at 9:00 because people gotta sleep. New York Times (free)

That’s Deep: Washington State’s peaks get all the love, but it’s got remarkable depths, too. No one has ever been to Washington’s lowest point. John Ryan, KUOW

Mystery Monkeys: We missed this story when it originally ran, but we couldn’t help but share a story about the mystery of the monkeys that have lived at a park & ride lot by the Ft. Lauderdale airport since the 1940s. Go monkeys. Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, Forbes

Birding in Alabama’s Black Belt: A third-generation Black farmer has made it his mission to welcome everyone into the wonders of nature of his home region. Jennifer Kornegay (words), Wes Frazer (photos), Bitter Southerner

Here Today, Gone to Maui: Writer Jennifer Billock ponders why Hawaii seems to inspire her to reexamine her relationships. Jennifer Billock, Shondaland

The superstitious side of my personality blames my two disastrous marriages on Hawaii.

Pie, Charted: Ours is not to question why, but to say “Damn, that’s a lotta pie.” NYC Slice, Liam Quigley

Location, Location, Location: In Hollywood of the 1920s — and pretty much ever since — California was a stand-in for anywhere around the world. Spain, Wales, the South Seas. Where to find the rest of the world without leaving California: Brilliant Maps

An Icon Deconstructed: Well, that’s cool. 11 minutes with architect Michael Wyetzner on why the Chrysler Building matters. YouTube

Over Austin: The Texas capital of weird is just another sprawling western city now. Texas Monthly

Who’s Tom McCleod? A mystery billboard on California’s Interstate 5 and various Tom McCleod’s are not saying. Joshua Bote, SF Gate

What We’re Spending Too Much Time Looking At

The Smithsonian made over 4.4 million images open access to the public, so of course the first thing we did was go search through postcards from the National Postal Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, like this one from Deadwood, South Dakota:

On the back: “Dear Mama, You will see by this that I am in Deadwood. I am attending Grand Lodge. Am having a fine time. Wish you were here. The scenery here is just beautiful. Emma.” May 20, 1909

Or this 1930s map of US airmail routes. You can reach us via the Pacific Airway and the Chanute & Bell Airway.

Excuse us while we go look up what a “chanute” is.

The post More than a Feeling appeared first on The Statesider.

In this Final Issue of the Statesider
Lessons learned, meals eaten, roads traveled. And our thanks.

In 2021, Randall Munroe at XKCD published a funny-because-it’s-painfully-true cartoon “Types of Scientific Paper.” Much internet riffing ensued, giving the XKCD comic new life as a social meme. In our Statesider Slack channel, we immediately started toying with a travel version. 

Boy, was there a lot of material.

With our combined years of experience in and around the travel industry, we knew just where the tender spots were — we had become fairly cynical about the state of the industry as it exists in the 2020s. Clueless colonialism: check. Callous environmental damage: check. Whitewashed racism: so much check. Advertorials and feature articles completely indistinguishable from each other: check — and it never ends. 

We ended on a particularly dark note for anyone who has worked in travel publishing — or media at all: “This Is Our Publication’s Last Issue.”

We were not unaware that we were also writing our own eventual obituary. 

Which is to say: This is goodbye for The Statesider. After four years of operation, we’re turning the sign (and please picture a hand-carved wooden sign held by a chainsaw art bear) to “CLOSED.”

Our end, as a publication, is not the result of the typical reasons that travel publications wink out of existence. We didn’t go bankrupt (we never made money to begin with, which is a funny way of insulating yourself from worrying about bankruptcy). We did not get bought and killed by a multinational media conglomerate (but we’d be willing to try it once, what the hey). We didn’t fail in any standard way — or at all. 

This was, from the beginning, a labor of love started when all three of us were in very different places in our lives, and now we’re somewhere else — somewhere with not enough time to devote to keeping The Statesider running.

Before we sign off, we wanted to share some things we learned along the way. The experience of launching the Statesider and running it through a global pandemic changed how we view digital media and the act of travel. Despite the cynical, snarky perspective in that graphic above, we do see reason for hope or something like it. 

The narrative about our national character is inadequate. 

One of the subjects we kept coming back to over the last few years was the incredible breadth of the USA’s many cultures and threads of history, even when considered through the lens of standard-issue Americana. Take cowboys, that classic archetype. Beyond all the John Wayne/Clint Eastwood/Marlboro Man tropes, there’s also a rich history of Black cowboys and Jewish cowboys and trans cowboys and LGBTQ rodeos and Native American rodeos and Mexican-American rodeos and women riding the range and playing essential roles in the Old West. It’s not just that so many myths about American identity and “exceptionalism” are bullshit — it’s just as important to understand what stories have been left out of the collective narrative. 

It takes the most trivial of effort to find stories about our history written by people who are not straight white men, and the history of the people who were here before any Europeans arrived, and it is such a worthwhile pursuit. Plus, taking a more expansive view of the American experience, past and present, leads to so many interesting chapters. Like, there’s a prevailing colonialist narrative around the establishment of the US as a country, but there was a hotel operating in Santa Fe before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock! That’s fascinating! 

Put another way: Read the plaque, but also question the plaque.

See: Tracing a Trail of Black Rebellion by Jalen Coats 

We undervalue the options in our own country.

We also don’t think enough about the USA as a travel destination with endless intrigue. It’s easy to aggrandize the museums of Paris or the temples of Southeast Asia, but all too many Americans act as though we can’t find great cultural or historic iconography right here in the US. 

The national parks and state parks (and local parks, for that matter) offer more than enough wonders to fill a lifetime, and even as a relatively new nation, we have a richness of architecture, art, music, and history. “Hamilton” is an American production. Helen Frankenthaler is an American artist. Chicago has world-class architecture and so does Columbus, Indiana. Dearborn, Michigan has all manner of remarkable Middle Eastern food, and you could spend a week in Philly eating nothing but sandwiches and never eat the same thing twice (see also: tacos in Los Angeles, Cubanos in Miami, barbecue in Kansas City, etc). You do not have to go abroad to have a remarkable cultural experience.

See: Life in the Crosshairs by Ramesh Reddy

Expect the unexpected.

When considering places you’ve never been, let curiosity, not half-formed assumptions, be your guide. National publications are forever “discovering” that there are immigrant communities outside New York and Los Angeles, or expressing surprise that places are more than just the stereotypes. But across the nation, you’ll find immigrant communities and cultural enclaves that play an essential role in local life, from the Marshallese residents of Springdale, Arkansas to Hmong farmers in Walnut Grove, Minnesota to French-speaking families in northern Maine to, lest we forget, the many tribal nations with their own remarkable history, language, and cultures. For that matter, you can find a mermaid bar in Montana or amazing prosciutto in Iowa or the second-oldest synagogue in the Western hemisphere in the US Virgin Islands, none of which is “surprising” if you know the backstory. So … learn the backstory! 

See: Zoo Orleans by April Blevins Pejic 

“Boring” things are so often not boring. 

Okay, we’ve all been fans of the mall food court as a travel destination, which is part of why we came together to make Statesider. The food is affordable and fresh and the people-watching is top-notch. But we learned that strip malls are community hubs camouflaged in boring architecture and shadeless parking lots. Truck stop plazas are object lessons in our changing demographics and yes we have had excellent Indian dinners at Punjabi truck stops, including one in a restaurant with a giant sign reading “MARISCOS” but with no seafood (or Mexican food) to be found. The biggest tourist traps in the world take on an entirely different mood if you pay a bit less attention to the kitschiness of it all and a bit more attention to the people who are there, having a grand old time. Go to Wall Drug or Times Square or the Mall of America and strike up a conversation with your fellow tourists. You may be utterly jaded, but try seeing it from their perspective and see if that shifts things at all. 

Read: My Sense of America by Milagros Costabel

Travel writing is changing — and that’s okay.

One of the things we never wanted to try to do at the Statesider was to provide travel advice. There’s plenty out there already. The web is awash with listicles and best-things-to-do-in articles. Some of these are great — but often they’re just rewrites of the same things, a problem that is just about to get infinitely worse thanks to AI tools. We set out to help people find great writing about the US, writing that’s out there, but often hard to find, tucked away in corners of the internet that don’t get a lot of attention. Much of the time, it’s not exactly travel at all, it’s just good writing about our country, the culture, the food. You’re just as likely to find it in a sports section as you are in a popular science magazine, but the core of the story is someone going out and experiencing the many sides of the US and telling a great story. Capital-t Travel Writing is less and less its own thing, but great writing continues, and it’s coming from more perspectives than ever before.

See: Welcome to the Land by Adam Karlin

Our choices as travelers matter. 

There was a brief blip of good news during the pandemic where emissions from air travel dropped precipitously, Venice’s murky canals became clear, and wildlife wandered into cities. We got a glimpse of a future we can make, and make quickly if we wanted to. 

But now we’re busy erasing those gains and forgetting what we saw. The notion of “revenge travel” is surely one of the most infuriating artifacts of travel’s revival after the worst part of the pandemic, and something that could only emerge from a self-centered, entitled group of people. We were prevented from spreading disease and advancing climate change and we’re… mad about that? So we’re going back to taking mileage runs and spewing carbon to get back at… who, exactly? The world’s resources are not our playground, nor are we doing anyone a favor by insisting that visiting is to their benefit. 

Yes, we need systemic change, but it’s a cop-out to wait for corporate and government actions to address climate change. Air travel has an outsize impact on the climate, and only a small fraction of the world’s population is responsible for that impact. Look in the mirror. We refuse to take responsibility for the impact of our travels, acting as though we are being wildly deprived of something when really, we are exercising a tremendous privilege. There is so much to see and do and experience right here in our backyards. It’s not a sacrifice, it’s a gift to learn this about ourselves as Americans. Internalizing that has been, we think, our favorite — and hardest — lesson from working on The Statesider.

See: The Losing Coast by Elizabeth Miller

Our mission has always been to find ways to think differently about the United States. We started The Statesider in an Elko, Nevada Denny’s over midnight breakfast and ended it at a Punjabi truckstop over saag paneer and samosas in California’s Central Valley. So, yeah, mission accomplished. 

With gratitude to our contributors, supporters, and readers,

Andy, Pam, and Doug

The post So Long and Thanks for All the Cake. Or Pie. appeared first on The Statesider.