“Life gets better when you are on an epic road trip”.
-D.L. Barrett
For years I have been lucky enough to crisscross the United States, Mexico, and Canada on epic road trips. This site is a compilation of the best trips, tidbits, and ideas of where to stay and what to do in diverse historical locations around North America. Everyone creates their own adventure – hopefully this site will give you some ideas and interesting historical information on a few of the greatest and most interesting places around that you can visit.
WAS THIS THE PLACE
Growing up my parents always seemed to be going somewhere interesting and strange. Because my father was into history and worked for a major university these adventures were typically centered around historical places. Soon I was into learning about what happened at a particular place and was constantly asking “Dad, was this the place where […fill in the blank] happened”. So that eventually became the mantra of my travels and continues to be the focus of my quest to visit unique places where exciting and interesting things have gone down.
WHERE HISTORY AND TRAVEL COLLIDE
Individuals, community and religious organizations, even governments have, for hundreds of years, been keen on preserving places for their natural beauty and historical value. Once you know the background and history of a location your travels becomes much more valuable and enriching.
This is what my crew and I have set out to do in the Was This The Place blog, to provide a quick historical sketch about each location and then an overview of what you can see and do there today. Since not everyone has an unlimited amount of time to spend at a location we provide our suggested “must see” items for what to do based upon your time constraints.
We then mash-up the historical stuff with travel stuff – such as a list of places to stay in your RV, tent or other conveyance near the location, any cost or fee to visit the site, what else you can do in the area, or where the best place to buy that perfect souvenir t-shirt nearby. In many of the posts we also provide suggested dining opportunities gleamed over years of travel or discovered in our conversations with locals – we are sure you will enjoy them as much as we do.
Hopefully after the collision of history and travel you are left with a well written and focused overview of a great place to visit. Let’s hope our paths collide real soon on the road, till then-
See you on the road,
D.L. Barrett
Editor, Was This The Place
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