"Rock Star" road tripper checking in! Self-proclaimed anyway! Road trips and visits to all 50 states are my game. Find your next road trip destinations here. Fill your bucket list with fantastic US journeys. I love road trips and spare no effort in making my travels and experiences inviting for members of the road-tripping family! Pick a trip you want to take, or get inspired to plan your own. - - The Driveby Tourist (or call me Stan!)
Get busy living... or get busy traveling! 🎬⛓️
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Mansfield, Ohio, might seem like a quiet town, but it’s home to one of the most iconic locations in cinema history: the Ohio State Reformatory (OSR). This massive Gothic-style prison served as the primary filming location for The Shawshank Redemption, standing in for the "Shawshank State Penitentiary." 🏛️🧱 (The movie's actual setting is in Maine, but it's almost totally filmed in Ohio.) Walking through the eerie, towering cell blocks, you can almost feel the presence of Andy and Red. You can even step inside the Warden’s office or see the actual tunnel Andy crawled through to freedom! 🔨✨ But the movie magic doesn't stop at the prison walls. The surrounding area is home to the Shawshank Trail (link here), a self-guided tour of 15 filming locations that brings the 1994 classic to life. Other must-see stops on the trail include: Malabar Farm State Park: Visit the Pugh Cabin, where the movie’s dramatic opening scenes were filmed. 🌲 The "Road to Buxton": Drive the scenic route Red took while hitchhiking to find Andy’s hidden treasure. 🛣️ Upper Sandusky: Just a short drive away, you can find the courthouse and the old woodshop where the inmates worked. 🪚 Whether you’re a cinema buff or a history enthusiast, Mansfield offers a powerful journey through one of Hollywood’s greatest stories. It’s proof that hope is a good thing—and a great reason for a road trip! 🎬❤️ Stay hopeful, The Driveby Tourist Team ✌️🗺️ "Hope is a waking dream.” - Aristotle Classic Rock song: "Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd Please email me about a place you’ve seen made famous by a movie! Here is the Premium Subscription page: You will get early access to new blog posts, one extra weekly newsletter, and access to all past newsletters. And occasionally, I'll ask for votes on content! Stan Featured Post: When I visited Ohio, I should have stopped to see this prison! Here’s the link to other places in Ohio. |
Stan Wiebe
"Rock Star" road tripper checking in! Self-proclaimed anyway! Road trips and visits to all 50 states are my game. Find your next road trip destinations here. Fill your bucket list with fantastic US journeys. I love road trips and spare no effort in making my travels and experiences inviting for members of the road-tripping family! Pick a trip you want to take, or get inspired to plan your own. - - The Driveby Tourist (or call me Stan!)
This is a "non-typical" newsletter (and off-schedule). I found a category called First Level Administrative Divisions within countries. The largest is over 1 million square miles in Asian Russia. It has nearly a million people but a population density of less than one per square mile. Western Australia is second. Alaska, the largest in the US, comes in at 7th. Twelve US states are in the top 100, with Minnesota coming in at 97th. But, how much of each is land area, and how much is water?...
Fasten your seatbelts, folks—we’re going to dinner! 🍴 If your previous experience with "in-flight dining" involves a lukewarm bag of pretzels and a middle-seat neighbor who snores like a chainsaw, it’s time for a serious upgrade. Across the globe, retired aircraft are being saved from the scrap heap and turned into the coolest diners on the planet. These aren't just themed rooms; they are actual grounded giants where you can dine in the fuselage without worrying about baggage fees or that...
If you’re wandering through Delaware, you might stumble upon a figure that stops you in your tracks. Standing ten feet tall and tinged a ghostly sea-foam green by years of rain, The Crying Giant is one of the most poignant and mysterious sculptures in the state. 🏛️✨ Created by renowned artist Tom Otterness, this copper behemoth was originally conceived as a deeply ambitious memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks. In Otterness’s initial vision, the sculpture was meant to be an...