Places emothedesolate Wants to Go

Texas's oldest bakery serves authentic German pastries, including legendary strudel.

Some of the best pastries in "the Czech heritage capital of Texas" come from a gas station off I-35.

Home to the largest urban bat colony in North America, estimated at 1.5 million bats.

Turning night into day in Victorian-era Austin to thwart a serial killer.

Artist James Turrell's ode to dawn and dusk on the campus of Rice University.

A prehistoric landscape hidden in the cliffs of Maha'ulepu.

This industrial area was the dumping ground for massive amounts of trash, some of which washes up as tiny bits of sea glass.

Come for the fried chicken, stay for the history at Oklahoma's oldest bar.

Why settle for barbecue chips when you can get actual barbecue?

One believer transformed a local curiosity into proof of Vikings on the Great Plains.

Home to items never before seen by the public.

This stunning blue and gold room changed cities twice before becoming part of the Smithsonian.

A genuine Tudor manor transported piece by piece from England.

Enjoy dishes that founding fathers once ate at this Colonial Williamsburg pub.

Dine like an American revolutionary at Colonial Williamsburg.

John Tyler never got to be buried at his beloved home, but every pet his family owned since has been.

For nearly a year, General Ulysses S. Grant was based here during the American Civil War.

A sacred site for Native Americans surveyed by George Washington and owned by both King George III and Thomas Jefferson.

Giant busts of 42 U.S. presidents sit, crumbling in a field in Virginia.

This Virginia town has been famous for its fried chicken since the 19th century.

The nearly 120-year-old piece of pork wears a brass collar and was once a man's "pet ham."

Within this lovely Richmond cemetery lie the remains of famous Virginians and some of Edgar Allan Poe's most beloved family and friends.

Under a playground is a little-known sealed train tunnel that likely contains the bodies of workers trapped by cave-ins.

A convincing little bit of ancient Egypt smack dab in Richmond, Virginia.