I was asked at my employer’s Christmas party last week what was the best road trip I went on this year. As I was thinking about them, it hit me that I had gone on so many that I had to step away to think about all of them.

This year saw lots and lots of new places visited and explored in four states. I don’t keep track of how many miles I drove on or anything like that, just all of the different places that I thought were interesting. Such a year of mass regional exploration led to this website being retooled to make it more of a road trip one. 

That being said, I’ll keep the intro short. Below is the list. How many have you been to? As I work more on this website, I’ll try to recap some of these stops during the gaps when I stay home. 

Here goes: 

• Monticello, Wisconsin: The Pink Heifer Saloon and Kubly’s Service Station …. the Saloon is in a historic corner limestone building, and was serving a cheeseburger egg roll for St. Patrick’s, and I found it delish! Kubly’s sells gas and you drive inside a cut-out corner of the building to get to the pump. I have driven by town many times on my way to and from Madison on state Route 69, had never stopped. 

• New Glarus Brewing Co., New Glarus, Wisconsin: The highlight of a New Glarus-dedicated trip which unexpectedly turned into a Lake Lifestyle magazine day trip article. Click here for the article.

• The only “real” Chicagoland trip I took in 2024 was to the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame Museum in Bedford Park, along with the Mamie and Emmitt Till Memorial in Summit, the 16″ Softball Hall of Fame and Showman’s Rest both in Forest Park, the Portage Historic Site in Forest View, and a regional final high school basketball game between Christ the King and Crane, both Chicago schools (a game totally chosen at random, having not seen any hoops that school year).

• Explored the Kewanee area a little: Francis Park, Kewanee Boiler Memorial, scoped out a few murals, ate at Cerno’s and its vintage-1898 back bar, and stopped at the Royal Super Mart in Sheffield. 

• Wandered around some of the Driftless Area, too. Menominee (Illinois), Sinsinawa Mound (Wisconsin), and a “world famous” chili dog at Mulgrew’s in East Dubuque. 

• Picked out some Quad City-area places that I had never been to: Wilton Candy Kitchen in Wilton, Douglas Park in Rock Island, Nahant Marsh in Davenport, Hero Street U.S.A. in Silvis, and a new baseball card store in Rock Island. 

• Went up and down the old Plank Road stagecoach trail from Dixon to Peru, which included stops in Mt. Palatine and Hollowayville, as well as the Cherry Coal Mine.

• Not really a real “road trip,” but right after I bought my new car in Downers Grove in August, I ate at the vintage Burger King in downtown Naperville. 

• Also not really a “road trip,” but my Dad was at the hospital in Iowa City for a couple of weeks, and a neat place along the way was the Sutliff Bridge and rustic tavern, north of Iowa City. One of those middle-of-nowhere places. (Also, going home, I went on the Davenport Sky Bridge for the first time. I found out I don’t do too well at those heights.)

• Stopped at some Galesburg places before one of my nephew’s football games in town. The Carl Sandburg Birthplace Museum was the chief stop, along with Knox College and Lincoln-Douglas Debate location and saw a couple of Reagan family homes. On my way there, I drove by the Warner Castle in rural Orion.

• The second biggest trip of the year was a two-day trip revolving around my nephew’s football game at Quincy. Took a scenic drive down and stopped at Bernadotte, the graffiti-filled Camp Ellis Rifle Range walls, a memorial to a 1904 World’s Fair pig (between Rushville and Mt. Sterling), the Smithfield Red Brick School and the Spoon River Solar Farm. Also visited Babylon. 

• Top trip of the year wound up being a journey along the Illinois River up and down from Peoria to Grafton, along with a splinter trip to Hannibal, Missouri and a visit with friends Mary and Chuck. 

The volume of places visited during that Illinois River and Hannibal trip wound up being just so much, but here are some: Banner Marsh, Dickson Mounds, Emiquon Nature Preserve, Griggsville Lime Kilns, New Philadelphia (national) historic town site, Mark Twain Birthplace, Lover’s Leap in Hannibal, Wittmond Hotel in Brussels, Grafton SkyTour, Pere Marquette State Park, Beardstown, Jake Wolf Fish Hatchery in Manito, and much more. It was a 4-day adventure. 

All of this does not include day trip destinations for work that turned into stories for Lake Lifestyle and Northern Illinois AgMag.

These, and nearly all trips, are a result of a love of history, scenery and sports; general curiosity; and sometimes there’s places that are travel assignments: Historic Attractions in Roscoe and Poplar Grove Wings and Wheels Museum come to mind.

All in all, exploration for me looks to be like a spiral: from going close to home to a little more outward over the years. If you just want to spend one day away from home, these places are just “something different” that you pick up one or two (or more!) conversion pieces to share for years. Some call these “small Midwest road trips,” others call it, “Wow, you actually get out of town sometimes?”

Not knowing what all I’ll see in 2025.