Two nuclear power plant disasters from the Cold War live in our collective memory—Chernobyl in 1989 and Three Mile Island in 1979. There was also Fukushima more recently but that wasn’t an issue that rose from human error, quite the contrary, it was an exhibition of human courage when Japanese Read more
In state capital Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has one of the most ornate state capitols in the U.S. It is the third building on the site, the first burned down in a blizzard from heating coals, and the second was so ugly it was torn down before it was completed, the one Read more
This is America’s first Amish museum established in 1956. It’s east of Lancaster deep in Pennsylvania’s Amish country. The region also has Quaker and Mennonite families. There are now 43,000 Amish people in Lancaster County, out of 370,000 in the world. Over 40% of the state’s revenue comes from dairy Read more
After you er learned all about the company’s history at the Hershey Story Museum, it’s time to reward yourself with a trip to a chocolate theme park. Always tell the person at the gate you’re going to chocolate world so you get to park closer because you can always just Read more
All car museums are laid out the same way, I’ve been to enough of them to know. There’s always a big entranceway with a two-tiered display of a couple of dozen cars angled toward the visitor. The whole thing started when the depression-era bootleggers needed to run from the law. Read more
Charlotte is the headquarters of NASCAR, so its racetrack is naturally the American home of speed. The Charlotte Speedway doesn’t just host races, it also has a star-studded history of being on the silver screen. Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder, Burt Reynolds in Stroker Ace, and Elvis Presley in Read more
It’s a small museum in Mount Airy, NC about actor Andrew Griffith’s life. He grew up in the town and filmed the Andy Griffith Show here, which is where Mayberry is based on. It’s mostly on the Andy Griffith Show with the original courthouse signs, desk, and clothes, but there Read more
The museum in North Carolina’s state capital occupies the ground floor of the city’s first high-rise building. There’s a lot on black history such as black businesses of the 19th century, how the oldest black university—Shaw University—was founded by Dr. Tupper in 1870, and racial exclusion in American politics. There Read more
That pointy building in San Francisco that’s said to be earthquake resistant? I’ve parachuted off the top of it many times in GTA San Andreas while trying to evade the police. At 42-stories tall, it was the city’s tallest building from its construction in 1972 until the Salesforce Tower was Read more
The battery and US Army base under the Golden Gate Bridge was active until 1994. The Spanish started building it in 1776 and then it was taken over by Mexico when it battled for independence. After the Spanish-American War, the US seized California and continued using the area as a Read more