Summer is so close you can almost smell it. Yes, that heady bouquet of vulcanized rubber, motor oil and beef jerky. It’s nearly road-trip season. And while finding four open lanes is its own reward, we thought you might actually like some places to end up. Like these...
This Rough Rider–inspired spot is all rough-hewn wood, chains and American flags, which should get you in the spirit for cocktails with a Guinness float at the Saddle Bar, dry-aged bison and Krispy Kreme Doughnut Bananas Foster. Behind the scenes: Orioles great Rick Dempsey. Who also carried a big stick.
Your yacht is still dry-docked. No matter. The Tiki Bar, right on the Chesapeake, also has a convenient parking lot. You’ll walk past tiki torches and grass huts, maybe grab a cigar at their smoke shop and enter a world of mai tai cocktails. And probably a Jimmy Buffett song or two.
Okay, so it’s not the Lincoln Bedroom. But it is an inn built on the ruins of the mansion of James Barbour, a former governor, senator and secretary of war. Oh, and it’s in the middle of the Barboursville winery. Yes, they’ll give you a taste. Or several.
You didn’t just spend three hours in the car to paddleboard on flat water like you can do on the Potomac. So if you’ve mastered that, here they’ll take you out on the ocean. And if you’re determined to do a handstand on the paddleboard, they also offer paddleboard yoga.
On your multistate excursions, you prefer only to bed down in American treasures. Like this Wright home, dismantled in Illinois and brought to a Pennsylvania park. Don’t forget to arrange for a private chef from the park’s restaurant to bring you your dinner and wine. Modernist cuisine only, please.
