My seven US wonders, from Route 66 to the Kennedy Space Center
The Man Who Pays His Way: November marks the start of the American season
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For me, November marks the start of the American season. From the east coast to the deep south, the weather calms after the storms of summer and autumn. In Colorado, winter has arrived: Keystone ski resort is preparing to open this very week.
The sun smiles down on the southwest and the Pacific Coast right through the year: I have happily swum from beaches near San Diego in November. And Thanksgiving and Christmas approach, energy levels in northern cities increase.
I have just booked my regular November trip to one of the blank patches on my map of the US: the state of Missouri. The journey starts in Kansas City, where the American Jazz Museum and Arabia Steamboat Museum await; the latter preserves a ship that sank in 1856 carrying supplies for the Western frontier, and today provides a time capsule of pioneer life. “Like finding King Tut’s Tomb on the Missouri River,” the attraction trills.
Slicing through the state on Highway 36, I will pause in Chillicothe – where sliced bread was invented in 1928.
Perhaps one of these locations – or even the whole state of Missouri – will become one of my American wonders. For now, these are the magnificent seven.
Chicago
The metropolis that spreads along the shore of Lake Michigan is the most American of cities. The “L” (elevated railway) threads around the downtown area, bestowing thrilling views of the skyscrapers on what amounts to a $2.50 theme-park ride.
The skyline is best appreciated on a boat tour operated by the Chicago Architecture Center. Afterwards, the Art Institute of Chicago presents some of the smaller-scale works of brilliant men and women. Then wander through the ethnic mosaic as you eat and drink your way around the world. And perhaps hit the road …
Route 66 – in California
The “Mother Road” was born on 11 November 1926, connecting Chicago with the Pacific Ocean. For 2,400 miles, Route 66 carried Greyhound buses and cars filled with American dreamers migrating west to the Golden State in search of better lives.
Most of the original route from Chicago to Santa Monica on California’s coast has been obliterated beneath more modern interstates. But there are still some treasures of the era when transcontinental motoring first became mainstream.
My favourite stretch is in California: connecting Victorville with San Bernardino, over a mountain range. Both towns have another key element of Americana. San Bernardino was the location chosen in December 1940 by Richard and Maurice McDonald for a new restaurant on the corner of 14th and E Streets, now a shrine to the fast-food revolution. And at the Southern California Logistics Airport outside Victorville great American planes (as well as the odd Airbus) touch down to grow old beneath the desert sun.
Utah’s canyons
Arizona may be the Grand Canyon state – but Utah has even more spectacular terracotta terrain, comprised of mountain and desert sculpted by the elements. The Capitol Reef is a monstrous sandstone wall that reveals 100 million years of geology in its strata, while Bryce Canyon is surely the closest the earth gets to the surface of the moon.
This being America, you can wander safely along trails through the lunar landscape – and be sure of a good dinner at the end of your hike. (Not always a drink, mind; the state the Mormon church calls home is dry in more than one sense.)
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
If you visit only one art museum in your life, make it this one. This modest venue at 1111 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut, is surely the greatest cultural concentration on earth. Antiquities from Greece and Egypt are augmented by African, Asian and ancient American art. There is even a rooftop sculpture terrace. Whether your creative heart is with the Italian Renaissance, Vincent van Gogh or Pablo Picasso, you will be rewarded here.
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Your connection with the Cosmos is only an hour east of Orlando. Time it right, and you will be able to witness a space launch. Whether or not you experience the dazzle and rumble of a space launch, a visit to the Kennedy Space Center will remain in your memory banks.
This repository for retired rockets is a museum of astronomical adventures, and a source of inspiration for the future of exploration.
It provides proper entertainment – sharing some DNA with the theme parks along the road. You may also have the good fortune to meet an astronaut: one of a very select group of under 700 people who have been into space.
Hoover Dam, Colorado River
One of the greatest achievements of 20th-century engineering was the Hoover Dam, blocking the Colorado River as it squeezes between Arizona and Nevada, southeast of Las Vegas. And one of the greatest achievements of 21st-century engineering was the bridge just downstream from the dam, high above Black Canyon. You can walk across one wonder and gaze down on another.
Biltmore Estate, North Carolina
The Gilded Age reached an opulent summit on the fringes of pretty Asheville, North Carolina. In 1895, George Vanderbilt created “America’s Largest Home” within the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the style of a French renaissance chateau. The vast and opulent Biltmore House shows the scale and ambition of late 19th-century America. Surrounded by gardens laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, it has become one of the greatest tourist attractions in the US.
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