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

From Planning to Execution, Road Trips Never Seem to Go the Way You Think They Will

What’s the first thing you do when planning a road trip? Before picking out stops along the way, before deciding which places you’ll spend the night in, before figuring out how many miles you’ll travel and how many days and nights you’ll be away — before any of that — the very first thing you do is you give your road trip an epic name equivalent to the significance of the marvelous adventure you are about to embark upon.

General TravelLogan T. HansenFebruary 14, 2019travel, travelspiration, travel inspiration, travel guide, travel advice, road trip, road trips, trip planning, Vermont, University of Vermont, Burlington, Hartford, cabin in the woods, misadventures, social media, Ontario, Canada, Montreal, Quebec, East Coast Extravaganza, Great Lakes Expedition, east coast, U.S., United States, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Ottawa, North Bay, Great Lakes, Sault Ste. Marie, Lake Superior, Ann Arbor, Ben & Jerry's, Waterbury, Boston, Providence, Connecticut, New Haven, Stratford, Two Roads Brewing Company, New York City, New York, NYC, Camp Crystal Lake, Blairstown, New Jersey, Riverside, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Green Mountain State, Green Mountains, State College, Pennsylvania, 2015 Pac-12 Men's Basketball Tournament, Pac-12, basketball, Arizona, Oregon, travel planning, cross-country road trip, Roadtrippers, roadtrippers.com, adventure, life on the road, 2015 Comment

How to Tackle a Cross-Country Road Trip (Plus, 13 Restaurant Recommendations)

With the largest road atlas money can buy (thanks, grandma) laid out on the kitchen counter and some fancy new highlighters in hand, I began marking points. I marked places where I knew people, drew lines connecting the dots, checked the mileage with Google Maps to make sure I wasn’t planning ridiculously long drives (I max out at about 14 hours), and started feeling giddy.

The Race to 50 States: Logging My Lifetime Journey Across America

One of my long-term travel goals is to visit all 50 of these here United States of America, and I've been making steady progress over the last decade or so, twice visiting six new states in a single year (2011 and 2015). Despite the pandemic slowing things down for a couple years, things have picked back up and I continue to inch closer toward realizing this monumental task. Follow along, won’t you?

5 Epic Road Trips to Take While You're Still Young

Ahh, the open road. You make up a special playlist, cram every last thing you might possibly need into the car, and set off for parts unknown, ready for adventure around every turn.

That Time I Climbed a Mountain Alone

On the crisp cusp of a mid-March morning, my vehicle’s headlights were pointed at Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge and the thought broadcasting through my brain was something along the lines of “Am I really doing this right now?”

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