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Home peregrine79 Want to Go
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peregrine79

Joined Atlas Obscura in 2018

I've been a reader of Atlas Obscura's articles since I discovered the website about 5 years ago. When I found the discussion forums, I signed up for them. Recently AO began to offer memberships, so I became a member. I spend a lot of time perusing the fascinating stories. I'm a history lover and am especially interested in the very early Native Americans, the first settlers of the United States, and natural history. My passion is ancient cultures of Latin America, especially Peru. My interest began when I was a child and I devoured every book in the school library and in the large public library located in the county seat near my home. At the same time my interest developed in history (first grade), I also began to read books about religions of the world. Again, the libraries were my source for years of reading material. In 1973, I had the honor of spending Summer in Peru as an exchange student. My stay there broadened my horizons and changed my life. I was able to go to Cusco and Machu Picchu as well as several sites near Cusco. Sacshuaman was especially mind-boggling in its beauty and scale. I lived with a family in Lima in a nice neighborhood only a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean. Because school was cold and boring, I spent my days being shown around the city by two Peruvian friends. They took me to every cathedral and cultural or historical site they could think of. I was introduced to the many markets, where the prices were low, the goods were absolutely beautiful and haggling over prices was expected. Back home in Pennsylvania, my parents continued taking us on family vacations to most of the states in the Northeast. Instead of amusement parks, we went to historical sites and museums, toured factories and graveyards, watched jets take off and land at large airports, and engsged in other educational activities. A half-century later, I asked my mother why we went to such interesting places. Her reply? "Because they were free," she replied as tears welled up in her eyes. During my career as an architectural designer, I traveled on a number of business trips. How badly I wanted to explore the cities we were in, but ut time constraints ruled it out. In my life, I've been to about 35 states, 6 Canadian provinces and one foreign country. I also spent several hours killing time in the airports in Panama and Ecuador. Now that I'm 64 and a citizen of the world, I look back on these marvelous adventures very fondly. The memories of them are indelibly etched in my mind and and vividly recalled at will. At present, physical disabilities prevent me from traveling, so I depend on AO to take me to new places near and far.

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Places peregrine79 Wants to Go

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392

Places I want to go

Places on this traveler's wishlist.

The Anchorage in Beaufort

Beaufort, South Carolina

Haint Blue Porch Ceilings

The Lowcountry color with the power to stop evil from entering a home.

The Appalachian Trail Shoe Tree

Blairsville, Georgia

The Appalachian Trail Shoe Tree

An eerie site of reverence for those who have completed an epic journey.

Mittie Manning's Tomb

Holly Springs, Mississippi

Mittie Manning's Tomb

This tomb was fashioned with a sliding window for a grieving mother who struggled with her daughter's death.

The cave from the front.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Cave of Kelpius

Where America’s first doomsday cult awaited the end of the world.

The Wave Organ, San Francisco Bay

San Francisco, California

The Wave Organ

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

Nicolas Cage's Pyramid Tomb

New Orleans, Louisiana

Nicolas Cage’s Pyramid Tomb

In 2010, Nicolas Cage purchased two plots in this cemetery using one to construct this strange pyramid mausoleum.

April 2022

Portland, Oregon

The Witch’s Castle

These old stone ruins in the Oregon wilderness were once bathrooms and are steeped in legends of murder.

The Hillandale Bridge from the ravine.

Euclid, Ohio

Hillandale Bridge

This abandoned bridge to nowhere stands secluded in the woods of a Cleveland suburb.

Woods Landing Bar & Cafe

Woods Landing-Jelm, Wyoming

Woods Landing Bar & Cafe

Dance on a hand-hewn log floor padded with bouncy boxcar springs at a saloon built in 1883.

Georgia Guidestones
Permanently Closed

Elberton, Georgia

Georgia Guidestones

A mysterious monument meant to be a guide into "an Age of Reason" was destroyed after an apparent bombing.

Indian Pueblo Kitchen

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Indian Pueblo Kitchen

Eat like pre-Columbian Native Americans in this New Mexico restaurant within the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.

McDonald's in Freeport, ME.

Freeport, Maine

Freeport McDonald's

When the town wouldn't allow the fast-food behemoth to build a new restaurant, they put one inside an 1850 home.

Today, teenagers gather around the tree, and often deface it.

Bernards Township, New Jersey

Devil's Tree

An allegedly cursed tree represents a town's reckoning with a racist past.

Hornet Balls

Goldvein, Virginia

Hornet Balls

These massive concrete balls were used to mine gold in Virginia.

The grave of Florence Irene Ford.

Natchez, Mississippi

Grave of Florence Irene Ford

Florence’s mother built a stairway down to her daughter’s coffin so she could comfort her during storms.

Ministry of Brewing

Baltimore, Maryland

Ministry of Brewing

An abandoned church gets a second life as a massive beer hall and event space.

The colorful, glowing rocks of Sterling Hill

Ogdensburg, New Jersey

Fluorescent Rocks of Sterling Hill Mine

Hundreds of glow-in-the-dark objects light up a museum in a historic zinc mine.

Fort Carroll

Dundalk, Maryland

Fort Carroll

This abandoned sea fort has become an accidental bird sanctuary.

Congressional Country Club in 2011.

Bethesda, Maryland

Congressional Country Club

Proto-CIA agents trained with grenades in the sand traps and fired machine guns from the fairways.

Nike Missile Site W-92.

Gaithersburg, Maryland

Nike Missile Site W-92

Three abandoned missile silos are hiding in plain sight behind a suburban development in Maryland.

Fort Foote Rodman Guns

Fort Washington, Maryland

Fort Foote Rodman Guns

A mammoth pair of Civil War artillery guns abandoned out in the forest.

Old swivel rails

Fort Washington, Maryland

Fort Washington

This fort down the Potomac from Washington, D.C. was once the only defensive fort protecting the capital.

Catoctin Furnace

Thurmont, Maryland

Catoctin Furnace

A pre-Industrial Age iron furnace and the site of a nearly-forgotten piece of Black history.

Entrance to the museum

Fort Meade, Maryland

National Cryptologic Museum

A priceless collection of the Nation's cryptologic history.

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