I've been a member over at Atlas Obscura since 2017, though I've not been that active on there. However, I do have some items in my been there/tried that lists. There are also items in my want to (go there/try that) lists, but that's for another day. So, we'll start with the place I have been. MississippiApparently, I've earned activity rankings on the leaderboards. 4th Place for Places Visited in Natchez & 5th Place for Places Visited in Mississippi. Go me! Red Bluff - This is not all that far from where I live; about 30 minutes west. We went twice when I was a kid. Now it's a pretty popular destination, but back then hardly anyone knew about it and when you went no one was ever there. I'm not sure if there are other people when one goes, because I haven't been in about thirty years. Wouldn't mind going back though. Petrified Forest - This is up near the state capital and I've been about four times, though the last time I was twelve. Really want to go back too. It's really beautiful there, but I love forests, petrified wood, and gems (& just rocks and stones in general). Fort Massachusetts - This is a Union fort that was captured by the Confederates and re-captured by the Union during The Civil War. It's on Ship Island and is really the only interesting thing there (though if you're on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the south side of the island is the only public access spot for decent ocean swimming - the barrier islands make the water between the islands & the mainland really gross). There aren't trees and it's hotter than the surface of the sun and the only respite is inside of this long abandoned and never finished fort. It was always my hiding spot when forced to go as a kid. Back then the only people wandering around the fort (besides the dead, I'm not even kidding) were men in their thirties to seventies and little old me. Beauvoir - It means Beautiful View in French and was named that for the owner prior to the former President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, who moved here after the end of The Civil War. I've been to this house a lot, mainly because my mom likes old homes and it was cheaper to tour than Natchez homes and we were always on the coast. They'd talk about Davis, but not in a reverent way, just because it was the truth, but it made it confusing and The Sister and I thought this was the capital of the Confederate States, because people were always name dropping that "The President" lived there. It's only interesting to tour once, and not because it has any Confederate link, but simply because of the architecture that was implemented on the coast in those days; the New World French style updated for the late 19th century & built to withstand flooding, but you can also look off that front porch and imagine that the view anyone would have seen back then was horrid swamp until the waters edge, because it wasn't until the 1920's that they hauled in sand to make a beach and drain the swamp to later build a freeway. Then you realize how people could die of yellow fever by the thousands; living in swamps and all. Rowan Oak - About fifteen years ago, we visiting a friend when they lived in Oxford. We were only there for a weekend in the middle of winter. Rowan Oak was closed to tours, but we drove right up to the front gate and looked at it, so I'm counting it. Longwood - This one I've been to twice, once with my family and once on a school field trip. It is a really unique house & worth the visit. It's also alarmingly interesting to see the juxtaposition between the finished opulence of the basement (only because the family was living there while the house was being finished, else it wouldn't have been finished out so fine) and the cathedral heights of bare 158 year old lumber and brick-work; the look of the type of place where the poorer people of society would have been living. Also that you can see how mansions were built almost 160 years ago. When I was a kid in the 1980s, they still had the tools that the workmen left; the planers and mallets, the paint brush in a petrified bucket of paint. Things my parents had also seen in the 1960s. But, by the 1990s, those items were removed, either to preserve them (but what was the point after 100 years?) or else they'd deteriorated to rubbish. The Turning Angel - I'd heard about this my entire life, as my dad's younger brother moved to Natchez at age 12 & still lives there to this day. I've been to the cemetery about four times in my twenties and early thirties. I've seen the Turning Angel from the road, but never gone up to it. It has not turned to follow the car on any occasion. I'm OK with this because that would creep me out too much. Mammy's Cupboard - It is awkward. Knowing she's supposed to be a black lady, a "mammy", but now she just seems like some weird Chinese slave woman. But, when are you ever going to eat under the skirt of some Americana kitcsh? I'm not even trying to be lewd. I really mean it. It's a building shaped like a lady and you eat in her skirt and that's kind of cool, which is why we went. But it is still sketchy and the food's not all that great, so one could skip it entirely really. Emerald Mound - They don't state it, but the Natchez people (as in the Indigenous tribe, The Natchez - not the modern day people living in the town) ARE the Plaquemine Culture. But regardless, it's one of my favourite places to be. Ever. It's a squirrely-do way to get there (driving), but once you do and gain the top, it's completely worth it. Windsor Ruins - This is a ways north of Natchez, on the way to Port Gibson, & you'll take a squirrely-do country road to get to it as well. It's worth seeing once, but I've been six times in my life, the last time we were almost attacked by yellow jackets. So here's the thing with ruins. Perhaps in other places in the world they are maintained, but here in the south things grow fast so I'm sure things are only maintainable up to a certain point and beyond that it's too much of a fight with nature. So, seeing ruins in the south is interesting. You go to Windsor and though the columns are tall, they don't seem all that impressive, they don't seen that tall, because the entire site is hemmed in with towering trees and there's only about three feet of space between the end columns and the woods. But what's interesting and people neglect to realize because they're not seeing it, is that those columns are massive for a two stories house, which was raised off the ground, complete with a copula on top. The side would have been a vast lawn of grass with tree's far away. The modern photos on the side are in winter time (you can see trees without leaves and that's winter in Mississippi.) There's a lot more foliage in the height of summer, which is when we were last there, but they show you a good photo of the ruins in the thirties and a drawing of what it looked like. There's a big difference in 46 of tree's growing back versus almost 130. Another good point is kudzu. It's everywhere in the south, even eating other ruins (Jefferson Collage in Natchez is one). They had to cut all that back to even save the historic site and now there's only so much maintenance they can do, so there are not the vast fields for military drills available as there were more than 150 years ago. It simply can't be done. The other point about kudzu is that it wasn't a thing during the hey-day of ruins you'll be visiting in the south, as it wasn't first introduced here from Japan until 1883, but it didn't start taking over until about the 1920s or 1930s. Most people seeing ruins in the south (including southerners) just assume kudzu is a native plant and this is what the "old south" looked like. Or they assume that southerners can't take care of their old things properly. But they don't understand kudzu. Seeing it from a roadway (or in a photo) and actually standing inches from where it starts and seeing how massively it takes over are two different things. Plus, kudzu is an extremely defensive plant. If it feels threatened at all (small knick, too high of fire near it - much less actually hacking at it or trying to burn or rip it up) it sends out loads of baby shoots. You'll never even see them until later as their shot out away from the danger. The more you harm it, the more you have of it. It's like when Mickey in The Sorcerer's Apprentice cartoon hacks up the magicked broom and it multiplies? That's kudzu, but on steroids. Anyways, it's interesting to stand in these places, with knowledge and imagine the way it looked when it was an active site and not a ruin. Totally worth it the one time just for that experience alone. Old Courthouse - This is now a museum but was once the former courthouse for Warren County in Vicksburg. It glorifies the "old south" but it's still highly interesting, not because I like the old south, but because if you forget history you are doomed to repeat it. Walking through this museum and looking at the things you get an idea of the past (atrocious items or not). One visitor is referenced as being offended by the "pickininny" dolls. Whether the curators of the museum love or hate the items is of little interest to me (though it can be interesting if they like it, because that shows you their thinking), but it lets you know what exactly was "acceptable" by white society them, which most people from upon now. It's information. It doesn't mean you can't find it offensive or horrible, but use that information to broaden your understand of the the past and the world now. Without information how does one think they can bring about change. You can't change things you know nothing about, because you have no argument. One can argue that they don't need to see an item to know something, but I be that visitor is of the mind of "I don't want to see that, I don't want to know. I'm offended, just take it away." People with that mentality can't change the world. They shove things under the rug. Being offended about something isn't enough to get something changed. It is offensive. A horrible and crazy looking character of a black child, (poor or enslaved) that was acceptable as a doll play thing for a white child. That's a terrible thing to have been a thing. I'll agree all day long. But if I'd not seen this doll for myself as a kid in this museum you could say the word "pickininny doll" all day long and I wouldn't know what you were talking about. I could even look it up (now) on the internet, but a photo doesn't elicit the same feelings as seeing the actual item (multiples, at that) up close. Honestly, it's not nearly as sickening or home hitting, a photograph on the internet. But that person who was offended. Does she bring up such dolls in conversation? (I've assumed they're a lady) Is she aware that her friends are aware that an item such as this once existed? That it was considered acceptable? What good has she done with her knowledge? Probably nothing except to say she was offended and then forget about it. U.S.S. Cairo - Though my parents had been to the Vicksburg Military Park in the 1960s and possibly also the 1970s, the first time any of saw this ironclad gun boat was when I was eleven or twelve on my first and only trip to Vicksburg. It had only recently been reconstructed under that tent. The Military Park is weird, but this is worth seeing as it's kind of a creepy historic war machine, but it's cool that it's only 1 of 4 that survive in any shape or form and was the first ship ever sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo. LouisianaCats of Jackson Square - I've been to New Orleans loads of time as we live only two hours north. I've never seen a large congregation of cats here, but I have seen plenty of cats during night walks from here to there, passing by. Street Tiles - If you've been to New Orleans as much as I have, then you're bound to have walked the entirety of the French Quarter and seen these tiles. I couldn't tell you if I've seen every single one, but I probably have, or at least close enough. Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop - I'd always wanted to go here and we passed it, on foot, plenty of times when I was a kid, but it was a bar, so we didn't go in. Well, that's not technically true. My parent's weren't opposed to taking children into bars, though they weren't big drinkers, but the bar had to be special to them. So, I'd been in Pat O'Briens more times than I could count because they always took visiting relatives (& us at those times) in there. But this place was old and historic and a pirate might have owned it, which are the reasons I'd always wanted to go. So, in my early thirties, The Sister & I did go. I don't care for drinking (just for myself, people can drink, I don't care), but it's worth it just to nip in to see the inside of the old building. Conti Wax Museum - Went to this as a kid. The parents enjoyed wax museums, so we went to every one that we came across. Honestly, it's just a jumbled memory in amongst other wax museums. Apparently now it is permanently closed. Napoleon House - I've been here twice, but only in my adult years. It's really only interesting because the building is so old, it looks a little run-down, and that Napoleon was supposed to live there. The food is nothing to write home about. World War II Museum - Went to this twice. Yes, it's that good. But really it was because The Sister and I went on a trip right after it had opened. Then we knew we had to take dad. So that was the second trip there. I would go back, we just don't travel as much as we did, hence me saying a lot through this post "I haven't been since.... & I would totally go back." Honey Island Swamp - Went here once, on a Girl Scout field trip, so I was somewhere between 11 and 14? I wouldn't go again and I'm not even sure it's worth the one trip. I'm fascinated by swamps, but I don't like being in them. I'm simultaneously creeped out and enamoured by alligators. I like them, but I don't want to be in their territory and it's quite unnerving to be in a boat in the water mere feet from them. Plus, it's a creepy swamp regardless of whether or not there really is a sasquatch type creature lurking in there. No, I'd more recommend the Okefenokee Swamp over in south eastern Georgia. Went there on a different Girl Scout trip when I was thirteen. It has less of a hemmed in feeling and less of a "human evil went down here y'all" feeling. I liked it much better than any swamp I've ever been in (& the list would name at least five). FloridaCastillo de San Marcos Fort - I'm really big into forts. If we're near one, I'll insist that we go. This one we saw on our trip to St. Augustine when I was about fourteen. Sadly, I barely remember that trip, except that I enjoyed it. And I know I went to this fort. Shell Museum - We took a trip to Sanibel Island when I was seventeen. It was a lot of fun, however this is the only thing from that island that's on Atlas Obscura. We rented bicycles. I found a star fish leg on the beach, brought it back to our room and dissected it. It was filled with orange goo and clear globs and smelled horrible (& not because of death). The Sister was pissed. We also ordered drinks from the Tori Amos look-alike bartender at the beach bar. Mom sat in the sand, drunk off rum runners, acting like a three year old digging for small shells. I was the only sober person out in the murky water picking up live sea creatures with my feet. The Bubble Room - This is on Captiva Island, which is really only accessible first via Sanibel. I barely remember this place except that they were known for their cake and the slices were huge. I remember the decor being wacky, but couldn't have told you anything special about it. Edison & Ford Winter Estates - We toured this before catching our flight later out of Fort Meyers (which was how we came to be at Sanibel Island. I know we toured the entire thing but I really only remember the Banyan Tree. Fort Pickens - This is in Pensacola. I know I toured this between the ages of 6 & 10, but I've been to a lot of forts, man (I've even been to Fort McHenry (among many others), but it's not on Atlas Obscura). This was either because we were on holiday in Gulf Shores and just hopped down there (my parents honeymooned in Pensacola, so there was one time they took us there to see things) or if it was a trip by itself. TennesseePeabody Hotel - I had tickets to see Pearl Jam in Memphis. Eddie Vedder got sick and canceled that show. It was going to be on my birthday. I was fourteen. Instead, my parents simply loaded us in the car and drove us to Memphis for one day jaunt. We walked down Beale Street though I could have cared less & they insisted on us seeing the ducks at the Peabody Motel. That was actually pretty cool. Wanted to tour Graceland, but we didn't have the money for it and at 10 o'clock at night as we're leaving Memphis for home, we did a slow drive by of Graceland and The Sister (who has toured it) said, "My name's on that wall somewhere." National Civil Rights Museum - This was during a different trip (obviously it hadn't been built back in 1994/1995 - or apparently it had, but I never heard about it until about 2000) to see friends. It was sobering, haunting, and slightly thrilling to stand in the motel room where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was shot. Thrilling not in a happy way, but thrilling in a spooky weird way. It was also bitter sweet. I was standing somewhere where he had once stood, but it's also where he lots his life. The museum is worth a visit, but it is a lot of digest and take in in one go around. It made The Sister and I ill. So much hatred, so much abuse, we had to get out. We almost vomited twice. Perhaps it's the energy in the items, too much of it at once, but I still recommend people go and see it. We also went to other things that should probably be on Atlas Obscura, but aren't. The Metal Museum & also Huey's; it's a chain hamburger joint, but only to Memphis. The burgers are great and it's uniquely Memphis. Lookout Mountain Incline Railway - Did this one once on one of our many trips to the mountains. We'd always go to Gatlinburg, every year for our end of summer holiday. Either on the way up there or on the way back we'd go to Rock City and sometimes do other things. Couldn't tell you which particular trip, but I was about 7 - 11 years old. Ruby Falls - This one isn't worth it. My parents told me as much, but I begged them to see it. I adore caves and force my family to tour every single one of them (that are open to the public) every time we came across one. They always hoped I wouldn't notice the signs advertising them. I always did. It's a waterfall, in a cave, and that's nice enough. The addition of multicoloured lights is pretty, but the entrance fee is too much for a single fake coloured waterfall and it took you thirty minutes to even see it. (Rock City, the other highly advertised thing in Chattanooga is totally worth it!). Forbidden Caverns - I know I've been to this one as I remember the name, but most all of the caves are confusing to me & really only one stands out (I'll get to later). There's one where we were on a ledge with barely enough room to be there with a drop off into a dark and unmeasurable depth (they threw a rock down in it). They told us to stand still and turned off the lights; to show us how dark the cave was, but that was not the best place to do so. That one also on the opposite side of the ravine the stalagmites and stalactites looked my height (4 feet), but were well over 15 feet in height. Another one had The Egg, which was just a baby stalagmite just beginning to form so it was like a tan coloured egg was halfway submerged into mud on its side. Another one had another ledge and ravine, but in that one on the opposite side were saloon doors, because people in the late 1800s / early 1900s had carved a room out and hung saloon doors there for their saloon. Tuckaleechee Caverns - This is another one that I know I've been to because I remember the name, but I couldn't tell you much about it as all the caves run together. The Lost Sea - I've been to at least ten caves, all in the Great Smoky Mountains area (so parts of Tennessee and North Carolina), so these three are not the only one's (they're just the only ones weird enough to be on the site?), however this is the one I remember. It's not because I was older (12) and it's not entirely because it was the unique one out of all of them. It was because it was the creepiest. I'd never go back to it. Ever. You just walk down this stone ramp for awhile and end up on a rock "beach" under an enormous cavern and a huge expanse of lake. It was almost like Riddles in the Dark from The Hobbit. Or unbeknownst to me at that age, the locket horcrux scene from Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince. I don't know if it was strictly because it was a giant underground lake (& reminding me of Gollum and The Misty Mountains) or if it's because something sinister lived there (or did long ago), or something sinister happened here in the past. It felt terrible. None of us liked it and none of us wanted to get in that damn boat. And we're not afraid of water and we all love caves. But we'd already paid, so we got into the boat. They pushed us out into the middle of the lake and then turned the lights out. I almost had a panic attack. Apparently all four of us nearly had panic attacks. We don't remember anything that was said, we just couldn't get off that boat, out of that cave, into our car and on the road again quick enough. North CarolinaUnto These Hills - So, when I said that every year we went to Gatlinburg for our end of summer holiday, I wasn't kidding. It started March of 1981, six months after I was born and then mainly every August after that (sometimes March instead of August) for the next 20 years. We tour things up to Gatlinburg and back from it, but mainly we stayed somewhere there off the main strip and then would venture out. Always going over the mountain to Cherokee. The one year we stayed in a cabin in Townsend was the year we visited Tuckaleechee Caverns. We toured just about every nook and cranny you can imagine; from Chattanooga to Townsend, Sevierville, Gatlinburg, & Pigeon Forge to Bryson City, Cherokee, & Maggie Valley; from Asheville to Blowing Rock & I don't know how many places in between; actually in the park or adjacent. When I say we went to Gatlinburg every year, that was just our home base. We never just stayed in the town and shopped and did nothing else. We went out into the mountains every single day early and wouldn't come home until midnight or two in the morning. Or else we'd find random hotels along the way and stay gone for three or four days and then come back. Now this play is a thing that I saw once and it's on the list, but it's not one of my top things ever. I'd recommend the Museum or the Oconaluftee Indian Village, which is like a living history museum. Both were far more interesting to me than the "outdoor drama". The caves were still more interesting than this, by far. Clingman's Dome - We had our main staples, considering our home base was in Gatlinburg. There was the artists loop in Gatlinburg, some motor trail around the town and of course entering the National Park at the Sugarlands Visitor Center and going all the way to the other side at the Oconaluftee Visitors Center on the North Carolina side and everything in between (Chimney's, any creek or waterfall, any pull over stop for views, Newfound Gap (my personal favourite), & Clingman's Dome (dad's personal favourite). Everytime we went over the mountain here, I made my family stop at Newfound Gap & park at the "other" end. The end away from the restrooms, the tower and the marked entrance to the Appalachian Trail. The end with the small set of steps and the low, circular bit at the end. The end where most tourists didn't go. It was my favourite. But, I digress. So we always had to do Clingman's Dome. I hated and liked this. The parking lot was the surface of the sun, so I don't know how mom insisted on staying in the car (& most times The Sister too!?!). The barren, cement, incline felt like it took years... and was the surface of the sun. These were the things I hated about it. But it was such an accomplishment to crest the top and be surrounded by cold mist and beautiful evergreen trees and make your way around and around until you came to the cement ramp for the observation tower, which was also nice. Even if you couldn't see anything it was nice to just be on top of the world in all of that cool weather and cloud and silence. It was like some sort of meditative passageway for dad. Always walking it alone, waiting for me at the top, and then walking alone back down to the bottom. Only because I was curious the first time and then knew what awaited and I hated the heat so much, did I follow in the meditative journey with my dad. They do say that the enchanted lake that heals wounds is near Clingman's Dome. Maybe dad found it once in a past life (perhaps he was a bear in a past life, you don't know. He seems rather bear-ish) and this was the only way to "reclaim" that. MarylandPoe's Graves - This is in the Westminster Burying Grounds and Catacombs in Baltimore. There's a small marker for the round-about place of his original burial and then the larger monolith near the entrance where his body now resides (since the 1870s). I wanted to see all things Poe while in Baltimore, but the friend we were seeing didn't believe in driving (though she had a car) and didn't believe in public transport... and really didn't care for Poe. We only got to go to one other site because it was only a few blocks away from where she'd taken us (in her car - don't get me started on her aversions during that trip). I swear to all that is holy that we must have walked 200 blocks from her apartment to this cemetery. It was a terribly long and arduous journey through the city. Even her and The Sister who are skinny were about dead at the end of it. (walking was not my idea and I jumped the public transport for the way back & she begrudgingly jumped on as well. We were back to her apartment in five minutes. I don't hate people, but I kind of hated her for that. I'm not kidding it took us almost two hours to get there. I think she did it on purpose, taking us this long way around simply because she didn't want to go to a cemetery. She could have just given us fucking directions.) Anyway, it was completely worth it though, because I'd always wanted to go and the cemetery is really nice and not creepy. The Horse You Came In On Saloon - Out of the five Poe Places in Baltimore, this would have been the lowest on the list, as I wanted to see The Poe House & Museum, the statue, and especially where he died. However, our friend had taken us somewhere and I'd already scouted out that this was close by, so I pretty much commandeered our small group and just started walking for this bar. It's reportedly the last place he was seen alive (& hail - as opposed to alive but poisoned). They reportedly served him his last drink. This might just be the place that killed him. It's not a fact. He did enjoy drinking there and the bar swears they sold him a drink that night, but no one can prove that like the other things. It's just I was going to be damned if this friend robbed me of more Poe stuff, so I made a decision. She wasn't very thrilled to have ended up at another Poe place, but who cares. I don't think it's worth it, so I'd see the other things if you want to see Poe things. I just wouldn't be bested, which is why this made the list. His graves though, do go see those. Just don't walk a million blocks to do so. VirginiaThe Archaearium - I did, and also did not go to this. Our trip to Colonial Williamsburg (& surrounding things) was in March of 1998. We went to the Jamestown Settlement and they had just started excavations in front of that old church on the edge of the property, which is now referred to as The Archaearium, but wasn't then. It was Jamestown Discovery. It was an on-going, though new, archaeological dig, unearthing pottery and weaponry relics. Now they've dug so much they've found bodies. So, I count it because I saw it's beginnings. When I go back (because I do plan to go back to Colonial Williamsburg), I'll go to this again. Wasn't impressed with the Jamestown Settlement (& told them so in my comment card), though the replica ship was cool. But the archaeological dig was far more my speed. Mariner's Museum & Park - So, like I said, we did Colonial Williamsburg, which was our main thing. We were staying in a motel out of the new city of Williamsburg. We also ventured to Jamestown (which is just the settlement living history museum and the archaeological dig), we walked in nature at nature places & for our trip to Yorktown, we went to see my brother. He was living in Norfolk. We figured he'd like to see Yorktown and go to the Mariner's Museum with us. If he didn't, we'd still spend time with him and see it on the way back. We went to his apartment and knocked on the door. "Hold on." and in the true fashion of my parents, they started being annoying because it's amusing to them. They kept banging on the door to several "Hold On!" and finally a "What the hell?!?" before he opened the door and just stood there with his mouth hanging open. See, we're not even blood related as my mom and her sister (his mother) were adopted. So, he's only my cousin, but he lived with us for awhile and we considered him son and brother and he considered us second parents and sisters. He'd moved away after a bit of college here and joined the Navy. We wrote and spoke on the phone, but we weren't much for traveling except the family holiday, and he wasn't able to travel a lot because of work. Sometimes we'd see him at either Thanksgiving or Christmas at grandma's, but mostly it was just a phone call. He was not expecting us. Another of my parents' amusing things. After his initial shock of "is this really real?" He was super excited and happy that we'd come to visit him. We took him out to eat at a seafood buffet and he went to the Mariner's Museum with us. I barely remember the museum, though it was cool. I just remember spending time with my older brother. How excited he was to be eating seafood and his excitement over the museum. Not to be a bummer, but it was good memory before but now that he's dead, it's a highlight memory. So, I couldn't tell you if the museum was worth it as I can't actually remember it, but I want to say that yes, it was cool enough to go to. MontrealNotre Dame Basilica & Notre Dame de Bon Secours Chapel - I did see these, but I didn't go inside. I'm still counting them. It was a weird time. I was 14 visiting my aunt (my brothers' mom - check previous section). Someone that worked for them, who was in his 30s asked me out on a date. He wasn't horrid looking and as a teenage girl, how cool is that? My aunt was all, "You should go!" I at least give him the fact that he thought I was in college because I was wearing one of The Sisters' sorority T-shirts, but still I would still have been too young for him by ten years. (Edited to note that once he found out my real age, he still tried to ask me out again while I was there - & for the record he was super creepsville and had plans on marrying me. Ewww! No, thank you. At my aunts wedding later that year, my brother had to get on the phone - because that psycho had called for me at my aunts house on her wedding day - & in whatever form he chose told that asshole to leave me alone forever, which is what happened because I never heard from him again. Go big brother!) At least he was a gentleman and didn't try anything, though he ate like a rabid animal at a trough *vomit*. But he took me to I want to say Old Town (online they refer to it as Old Montreal, but no one was calling it that - they were calling it Old Town or Old Port or something. Basically the oldest section of Montreal - my aunt even said, it's The French Quarter for here.) He insisted on buying me a beaver tail, which I had to make sure it wasn't real beaver because that would be said. He looked crestfallen when he brought me back a funnel cake with confectioner's sugar and I said, "Oh, it's a funnel cake. I've had this before." (Well, he had stated, I'd never had anything like it before. If he'd gotten me what they're showing on the food section of Atlas Obscura, I would have agreed with him." While he was gone these girls my age came up to me asking me, in French Canadian, to settle some argument. You could tell they were arguing about something. And I was nervous because they were really pretty, prettier than the girls back home, and pretty girls back home were bitches! When I said in English that I was sorry, but I couldn't understand them they immediately brightened and said, "You are Americaine?" After saying yes, they squealed with girlish delight and asked me if I knew The Doors. "Well, I know of them, but I don't know them personally..." Just as I was about to say, "You know Jim is dead, right?" (which they wouldn't have heard anyway through all their squealing), he showed back up with the dessert item. They were actually far more interesting that the guy, the dessert, or the date. Oh and he had a kitten. That was far more interesting too. But I digress. So we walked and he said, "That's such and such and that's this and that's that." So, these two sites were pointed out to me and I've seen their exteriors at night, so I'm still counting them. TexasWorld Trade Bridge - So, The Sister and I went on a Catholic Mission Trip in 2000. We weren't really going on a Mission Trip, we were just going to Mexico. That's how we felt about it. Anyways, we took a bus to Laredo, Texas and stopped in some parking lot. The priest was all nervous and needed all our papers so he could easily give them to border patrol. We did not cross this bridge as it is for commercial vehicles only, but I'm counting it, because we entered Mexico via Laredo. CaliforniaThe Hollywood Sign, The Brown Derby, & Capitol Records - It was a weird trip out to LA to visit The Sister when she lived there. We didn't really do anything because on her days off she was spending time with her boyfriend who'd arrived just before me. Other days I was alone or handed off to her roommate. We did go to Ventura just the two of us one day which was nice. And on a different day, we were driving through Beverly Hills and there was a yard sale sign, so we stopped. Turns out the guy used to own McRae's, the department store we know because it was founded in Mississippi. He found out we were from Mississippi too and invited us back for dinner that night. We should have gone. But that explains where there was a yard sale in Beverly Hills since that's not a thing people in Beverly Hills do... but it certainly is a thing that Mississippian's do. But mainly we drove around while she ran errands and sometimes she'd take a different route so I could see stuff. So, we drove by The Hollywood Sign and the iconic Brown Derby building (suppose if I want to eat in one, I'll have to do it at Disney World, even though it's not the same, since they're all closed now), as well as the Capitol Records Tower. ArkansasThe Arlington - Every summer we'd head up to DeGray State Park for dad's family reunions. This is only thirty minutes south of Hot Springs. Sometimes we'd even venture to Petite Jean (Peh-tee -t Jhan in French; Petty Gene in Arkansaonian) to see the grave of Petite Jean or go to the massive antique car show there. Though we went to Hot Springs a lot, it was only in 2000 or 2001 that we actually toured Bathhouse Row, though you can't miss The Arlington on any trip as, well, it's just too large and imposing to miss. However, it is a working hotel and while I might have been into the lobby, I don't think I have and have really only seen this from the outside. GeorgiaRock City - I couldn't have told you that this was in Georgia, but Atlas Obscura says it is. I only knew that it was The Mountains. We'd stop here every single year since our first trip to Gatlinburg, either on the way up or on the way back home. It was worth it every single time too. One year we were up there for Christmas, so on the way home we stopped and they were doing a whole twinkle light thing and we got to tour Rock City at night, which was also fun. South CarolinaSouth of the Border - The Sister and I stumbled upon this on our way up to Wilmington to see that former roommate of hers from LA (whom had dubbed herself our California Mom after that trip of mine out there). We were in need of petrol and a leg stretch anyway, but we just had to see what in the heck this South of the Border was. Nothing was open, but it was a rainy Sunday in mid-July. But it was kitschy as hell. We stopped here for petrol a total of four times. Back from this July trip and then a few years later in early September on the way there and back (not many roads lead to Wilmington from where we live. It's just the one). Never was anything open except its petrol station. So is it ever really open? Who knows. And that's that. Though I've seen and done a lot, and things that are quirky, they apparently aren't quirky enough. Here's the link to all the foods that I've tried.
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AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
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