Places Stefan Kowasch Wants to Go

A black and white painted wall creates an optical illusion in the California desert.

Seller of surplus nuclear research materials.

Priceless space junk on display in front of a local Dairy Queen.

The second tallest railway trestle bridge in America.

A starship has landed in Texas, a welcome break for weary travelers from a drab stretch of I-35.

An exquisite grouping of structures made from 10 tons of invasive saplings.

An easy to overlook storefront hides some of the most authentic and regionally diverse Chinese food in New York.

In Chicago, a pizza-enthusiast has opened a museum dedicated to the history of pizza.

Dozens of lights dangle from the branches of what may be the brightest tree in Los Angeles.

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

In the early 1900s, hundreds of Black Americans found opportunity in this now-abandoned rural community.

Surrounded by industrial sprawl, a small monument marks the site of William Penn's first landing in Pennsylvania.

A small Wyoming town is home to the state's oldest-operating soda fountain.

This marker identifies the location where three states converge.

This is the last hand-cranked chain ferry of its kind in operation in the United States.

A sparse, solitary sequoia still stands as a living tribute to the famous conservationist who planted it—but it's dying.

In the parking lot of a fast food restaurant, a statue memorializing a prolific bull elephant.

An equine tribute in a charming Southern city that calls itself "The Horse Capital of the World."

A local dive where religious kitsch, Southern identity, and queer culture collide.

Featuring the the longest lift span of any vertical-lift bridge in the world.

Centuries of crashing waves carved out this small hole in the rock, which lights up at certain parts of the year.

A local museum honors Wheeler native Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon.

This icon of the Atomic Age now lays dormant.

This statue is an ode to an iconic roadside advertisement popularized during the 1970s.