Places Eric Rood Wants to Go

Largest outdoor staircase in the United States.

One of the world’s largest living advertisements is made out of pine trees.

Site of the 1926 murder trial of Ernest Burkhart who was involved in the "Reign of Terror."

This historic theater's pipe organ still accompanies silent films just like it did in 1929.

A flat slab of stone perched hundreds of feet above the Gasconade River in the northern Ozark mountains.

Over 600 vacuum cleaners stack the shelves of what may be the cleanest museum in America.

An underground wonderland in Iowa.

For just a few bucks, this Iowa funicular will let you feel like an 1800s fat cat.

Collection of over 1,000 rare and vintage bicycles.

Former hotel turned into haunted playground.

The dream home of an iconoclastic renaissance man still stands as a monument to his domestically mundane vision.

A sprawling historic mansion with connections to a notable industrial and publishing dynasty.

This church doubles a museum dedicated to Norwegian heritage.

This 4,000-acre restored grassland in northern Illinois is home to a range of native flora and fauna, from clovers to plovers to a herd of bison.

This baseball diamond was home to the Rockford Peaches, a team featured in the hit film "A League of Their Own."

A wondrously macabre treasury of obscure antiques and unusual oddities.

This unassuming city park is home to three different types of Native American mounds.

The city of Rockford, Illinois is symbolically protected by a quartet of fittingly stony sentinels.

This lush 12-acre site was once named the finest Japanese garden in North America.

Walk along the intricate path of this stone labyrinth and gardens.

A small cemetery chapel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1906.

This softly rounded mansion was built without corners not to avoid evil spirits, but to make them more comfortable.

A six-story-tall golden pyramid, surrounded by a moat.

Volo Bog is the only open-water quaking bog in Illinois, and also the southernmost open-water quaking bog in North America to exhibit all stages of bog succession.