A Classical Conversations Cycle 3 Foundations Road Trip!

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I’ve been planning out an ideal cross-country road trip, and wondered what a road trip to as many Classical Conversations related stops for Cycle 3 would look like. At first I tried including every stop I found, and created a 43 day road trip. I decided to reduce the road trip to 1-2 sites per CC week instead. Note that when I list multiple sites below, only the first two are actually mapped out, making this approximately a 28 day road trip.

I chose the 2 sites to visit by sorting the list of possible sites for each week by 1. Relevance and 2. Trip Advisor Reviews. You, of course, may alter this trip to fit your family!

Note: I don’t suggest trying to do this trip starting at Week 1 and moving to Week 2, etc. I think you’d waste a lot of gas money if you did it this way. I’ll list the stops Week-by-Week and then Stop-by-Stop below. 🙂

Classical Conversations Cross Country Road Trip, Cycle 3, Week-by-Week

Week 1

To my knowledge, there are no Christopher Columbus exhibitions at any museum at this time. If there were, it would be on this map. Or alternatively, I would add a stop to see the Nina and Pinta replicas that the Columbus Foundation built and tours around U.S. ports with.

Week 2

  1. Plimoth Plantation, MA
  2. Plymouth Rock, MA

Week 3

  1. Boston Tea Party Ships, MA

Week 4

  1. Declaration House, Philadelphia, PA
  2. Historic Jamestown, VA
  3. Colonial Williamsburg, VA
  4. National Archives Museum, DC

Week 5

  1. George Washington’s Mount Vernon, VA
  2. Mt. Rushmore, SD
  3. National Archives Museum, DC

Week 6

  1. Crockett Tavern Museum, TN
  2. Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, MT
  3. Lewis & Clark National Historic Park, OR
  4. Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, WA
  5. Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, IA
  6. Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, ND
  7. Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, NE
  8. David Crockett Cabin, TN

Week 7

  1. The Star Spangled Banner Flag House, MD
  2. John Quincy Adams’ House, MA (Monroe & Adams wrote the Monroe doctrine together)
  3. James Monroe House, VA
  4. War of 1812 Museum, NY
  5. Jean Lafiette National Historic Park & Preserve, LA
  6. Tippecanoe Battlefield Museum, IN
  7. Optional: Visit one or all of the many War of 1812 Monuments

Week 8

  1. Maine State Museum, ME
  2. Henry Clay’s House-Ashland, KY
  3. Missouri State Museum, MO

Week 9

  1. Old Courthouse, MO
  2. Field House Museum, MO

Week 10

  1. James Polk Home, TN
  2. Possibly view Mexico from El Paso, TX (not listed on map)

Week 11

  1. Gettysburg National Military Park, PA
  2. Fort Sumter, SC
  3. Shiloh National Military Park, TN
  4. Camp Sumter/Andersonville Prison, GA
  5. Manassas National Battlefield, VA
  6. Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, GA
  7. Vicksburg National Military Park, MS
  8. Antietam National Battlefield Park, MD
  9. Richmond National Battlefield Park, VA

Week 12

  1. Abraham Lincoln’s Presidential Library, IL
  2. Appomattox Courthouse, VA
  3. Lincoln’s Home in Springfield, IL
  4. Lincoln’s Home: Hildene, VT
  5. Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, MO
  6. General Lee’s Headquarters Museum, PA

Week 13

  1. Birmingham Civil Rights Institution, AL
  2. Rosa Parks Museum, AL
  3. International Civil Rights Museum, NC
  4. National Civil Rights Museum, TN
  5. Civil Rights Memorial, AL
  6. Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, MS

Week 14

  1. The National Museum of American History: Power Machinery, DC
  2. Vanderbilt Mansion, NY
  3. Kykuit: Rockerfeller Estate, NY (Careful: there is quite a bit of nude art at this mansion)
  4. Vanderbilt Museum, NY
  5. American Precision Museum, VT
  6. Andrew Carnegie Mansion, NY

Week 15

  1. The Roosevelt House-Sagamore Hill, NY
  2. Rough Rider Memorial Collection, NM

Week 16

  1. Ellis Island, NY
  2. Tenement Museum, NY
  3. Museum of City of New York, NY
  4. New York Historical Society, NY
  5. Museum at Eldridge St, NY
  6. Museum of Chinese Immigrants, NY

Week 17

  1. National WWII Museum, LA
  2. Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, LA
  3. Woodrow Wilson House, DC

Week 18

I wish there were a way to take a road trip to Honolulu, Hawaii and see Pearl Harbor, but at this time it isn’t possible! The Japanese internment camps in America would provide some good WWII history of the US/Japanese relationship. Here are some sites:

  1. Japanese American National Museum, CA
  2. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial, WA
  3. Topaz Museum, UT
  4. Japanese American Museum of San Jose, CA
  5. Oregon Nekkei Legacy Center, OR

Week 19

  1. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, MA

Week 20

  1. Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, KS
  2. Norman Rockwell Museum (to see the Norman Rockwell painting of Ruby Bridges), MA
  3. William Frantz Elementary School & Ruby Bridges Statue, LA

Week 21

  1. Kennedy Space Center, FL
  2. National Air & Space Museum, DC
  3. Saint Louis Science Center Destination Moon Exhibit April through Sept 2018, MO
  4. National Air & Space Museum, VA
  5. Armstrong Air & Space Museum, OH

Week 22

  1. 9/11 Memorial Museum, NY

Week 23

  1. Independence Hall, PA
  2. National Archives Museum, DC

Week 24

  1. Federal Hall, NY
  2. National Archives Museum, DC

Classical Conversations Cross Country Road Trip, Cycle 3, Stop-by-Stop

I started this at the Bainbridge Island Japanese Exclusion Memorial in Washington, since we live in Oregon. It is a round-trip road trip, so you can start it anywhere you like.

  1. Bainbridge Island Japanese Exclusion Memorial, Bainbridge Island, WA
  2. Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, Great Falls, MT
  3. Mount Rushmore, Keystone, SD
  4. Brown v Board of Education National Historic Site, Topeka, KS
  5. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfiled, IL
  6. The Field House Museum, St. Louis, MO
  7. St. Louis Science Center, St. Louis, MO
  8. The Old Court House, St. Louis, MO
  9. Ashland (Henry Clay’s home), Lexington, KY
  10. Maine State Museum, Augusta, ME
  11. Boston Tea Party Ships, Boston, MA
  12. Adams National Historic Park, Quincy, MA
  13. Plymouth Rock, Plymouth, MA
  14. Plimoth Plantation, Plymouth, MA
  15. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, Boston, MA
  16. Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA
  17. Vanderbilt Mansion, Hyde Park, NY
  18. Sagamore Hill (Theodore Roosevelt’s home), Oyster Bay, NY
  19. Tenement Museum, New York City, NY
  20. 9/11 Memorial, New York City, NY
  21. Federal Hall National Memorial, New York City, NY
  22. Ellis Island, NY
  23. Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, VA
  24. Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, Staunton, VA
  25. Independence Hall Visitor’s Center, Philadelphia, PA
  26. Declaration House, Philadelphia, PA
  27. The Star Spangled Banner Flag House, Baltimore, MD
  28. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC
  29. National Archives Museum, Washington DC
  30. National Museum of American History, Washington DC
  31. George Washington’s Mt. Vernon, Mt. Vernon, VA
  32. Historic Jamestown, Jamestown, VA
  33. Appomattox Courthouse, Appomattox, VA
  34. Crockett Tavern Museum, Morristown, TN
  35. Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC
  36. NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center, Titusville, FL
  37. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham, AL
  38. Rosa Parks Museum, Montgomery, AL
  39. James K. Polk Ancestral Home, Columbia, TN
  40. National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, TN
  41. Rough Rider Memorial Collection, Las Vegas, NM
  42. Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, CA

 

CC Cycle 3 Road Trip

I used the free online website Furkot to create this trip. It is a GREAT program for a free program. There are a few quirks I am not used to yet. I think the magnifying glass means zoom, not add destination. And the plus sign must mean add destination, not zoom, right? Wrong. 😉 I often click the wrong thing! We used to own a version of Microsoft Streets and Trips and it was my very favorite road-tripping software. My mom (who travels in an RV quite a bit) still uses her version from 2005! 😉 I use a Mac now, and the best program I’ve found that works with a Mac is Furkot.

Have FUN playing with this road trip!!! I am changing it up a bit for our family. We are saving Florida for another trip someday, seeing a few Laura Ingalls Wilder Museums, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, Niagra Falls, hanging out in Boston a little longer and traveling to Concord and Amherst, too. Oh, and we’ll be skipping the Bainbridge Island part of the trip, since it’s not far from us and we can see it another time.

Comment below to share what you’d add to this trip!! I look forward to hearing your ideas!

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