2025, Can You Believe We're Still Alive? Travels Far & Wide From a Year That We Survived

Well, well, well; w-e-l-l. You know, that’s one of those phrases I picked up somewhere along the way that I return to again and again, but for which the source material is lost to the ages. Where the hell did I get it? Just like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know. But can you guess what the world is about to know? That’s right! The deepest, darkest, most intimate thoughts, recollections, and reminiscences on the year that was right here on All Things Wanderful.

General TravelLogan T. HansenJanuary 6, 2026travel, travelogue, travel blogging, travel guide, travel recommendations, travel inspiration, travelspiration, travel ideas, travel writing, travel reviews, travel tips, travel appreciation, travel diary, travel planning, year-in-review, Universal Studios, Universal Studios Hollywood, Jaws, Steven Spielberg, Kai Ryssdal, Marketplace, NPR, Las Vegas, Sin City, Luxor Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Cajun, Beauvoir, Jefferson Davis, Biloxi, To Kill a Mockingbird, Nelle Harper Lee, Harper Lee, Monroeville, Monroe County, Old Monroe County Courthouse, Gregory Peck, Mrs. Teresa' Homemade Treats, Los Angeles, City of Angels, Santa Monica, Santa Monica Pier, Hollywood, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Dodger Stadium, Freehand Hotels, Freehand Chicago, Freehand Los Angeles, Freehand, hostel, hostel stays, Boston, Boston Calling, Harvard, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, All Time Low, The Maine, Cage the Elephant, Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy, all-nighter, Disney World, Orlando, Florida, Tron, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Tower of Terror, Guardians of the Galaxy, Expedition Everest, Alice in Wonderland, Euro trip, cheap airports, cheap travel, Canada, Minnesota, Northwest Angle, Alert, Canadian Forces Station Alert, All Things Wanderful, Chicago, Miami, New York, George Washington Hotel, Flatiron District, Bourbon Street, French Quarter, Ruby Slipper, The Natchez, Oklahoma City, Dorothy Gale, Beverly Shores, Michigan City, Gary, Indiana, Michiana, Chicagoland, West Michigan, Indiana Dunes National Park, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, South Shore Line, Maycomb, Maycomb County, Truman Capote, Confederacy, 2026, 2025, ten-year anniversaryComment

Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Comes to Life in the Late Author's Tiny Alabama Town

While Maycomb itself may not have been real, the town was modeled after Lee’s actual hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, the very real and very tiny county seat of rural Monroe County. Home to a population of about 6,000 people, Monroeville would likely be just another blip on the map if not for its association with a pair of the 20th century’s most well-known American writers, Harper Lee and Truman Capote. It was the town’s connection to those two wordsmiths, in fact, that brought me there on a spring day in April 2025.

Kayak Has Mapped Out the Ultimate Spooky U.S. Road Trip

Driver beware, you’re in for a scare… because the folks over at Kayak have put together a truly terrifying cross-country road trip stretching from New England to the West Coast. From haunted inns to creepy cemeteries, and old state hospitals to abandoned amusement parks, the 7,500-mile trip truly checks off every spooky box a Halloween-loving traveler could dream up.

North AmericaLogan T. HansenOctober 16, 2020travel, kayak, Kayak.com, kayak.com, travel advice, travel guide, road tripping, road trip, road trips, cross-country road trip, Halloween, travelspiration, travel inspiration, Sleepy Hollow, New York, Philipsburg Manor House, Philipsburg Manor, Old Stagecoach Inn, Waterbury, Vermont, National Register of Historic Places, bed and breakfast, bed & breakfast, Margaret Annette Henry, Fort Knox, Prospect, Maine, paranormal, paranormal activity, Pine Hill Cemetery, Hollis, New Hampshire, New England, Blood Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts, Salem witch trials, ghost stories, ghost town, ghost tour, Seaside Shadows, Mystic, Connecticut, Cumberland, Rhode Island, Salem Historical Tours, Abel Blood, Headless Horseman Bridge, Ichabod Crane, Pocantico River, Old Dutch Church, Old Dutch Burying Ground, Old Dutch Church and Burying Ground, Katrina Van Tassell, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving, Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Al Capone, Terror Behind the Walls, Edgar Allan Poe, Salubria Manor, Stevensburg, Virginia, Maryland, Baltimore, Lake Shawnee Abandoned Amusement Park, Lake Shawnee Amusement Park, West Virginia, Kegley, Chimney Rock State Park, Bulldog Tours, North Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, Madison Square, Savannah, Georgia, St. Augustine Lighthouse, Florida, Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, Birmingham, Alabama, Bell Witch Cave, Bell Witch, Adams, Tennessee, The Blair Witch Project, Blair Witch, Ultimate Spooky U.S. Road Trip, John Bell, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, haunted Comment

Moscow Madness: 23 U.S. Communities That Share Their Name with the Russian Capital

With thousands of cities and communities the world over, there's bound to be some places that bear the same name — people are only so original, after all. For example, in the United States alone, there are 31 cities named Franklin, 29 each named Clinton and Washington, and 28 named Arlington.

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