We took a day to explore Montpelier (map )! Definitely the most intriguingly named capital city of any state. The city feels kind of like a quirky college town. Almost all of the businesses downtown are locally owned and operated, and there is not much in the way of “chains”.

We drove down to Burlington for an afternoon to check out the largest city in Vermont (map ). We were a bit underwhelmed by the city itself, but there is definitely a great public art scene. We walked about 1.5 miles to see and take photos of several of the murals in the city. We also drove to the south side to see the “world’s tallest filing cabinet ”.

Another town near to where we are staying is Clayton, NY (map ). Clayton is where the railroads stopped in the late 1800s and early 1900s, bringing up to 30,000 tourists a week to the Thousands Islands . There is a very large hotel right along the riverfront called 1000 Islands Harbor Hotel, which is on the land where the ship harbor was located during that time. Motorized ships would take visitors out to the islands - several islands had hotels and large homes. In our afternoon here in Clayton, we walked around looking at murals, historic buildings, and reading about tourism in the 1000 Islands.

While driving through Bluewell, WV we saw this really cool mural on the side of one of the King Tire building. This was painted by RodManVisions and accurately depicts the sounds all around us over the weekend as ATV/SxS riders head out early in the morning and come back at dusk after a long day on the trails. If ATV / SxS riding is your thing this is definitely an area you should check out!

We drove down to nearby Wytheville, VA to have an early dinner at @skeetersworldfamous_hotdogs . They have really yummy hot dogs and ice cream!

After partaking in the delicious hotdogs and beautiful ice cream art at Skeeter’s, we walked a bit in the downtown historic area and found some AMAZING public art! The murals in this town are incredible - the Edith Bolling Wilson mural painted by Andrew Williams and the newest mural by Jon Murrill were our favorites!

We enjoyed a walk around Laurel, MS to see the murals. Many of these you may recognize from Hometown!

We spent a lovely afternoon walking around Meridian, MS. Meridian was established in 1860 and economically grew at a railroad crossroads. During the height of railroad usage, Meridian grew to be a very large city with over 40 trains arriving daily!

Now, parts of Meridian are kept by Mississippi State University and local businesses working to breathe life back into the city. There are also still blocks that need revival. There is so much street art throughout the more downtrodden areas, that much of our afternoon was spent on these blocks. We were amazed at the artistry that abounds here.

Spent a lovely day driving through Birmingham and the surrounding areas. But first, Kate had to venture downtown to pick up a package, so we grabbed a shot of this mural at the corner of Third Ave. and 24th St. as we were driving around downtown. There were several other murals to capture, so we’ll make a map and try to get the next time we’re here!

The public art in St. Augustine was pretty great! We spent a day driving around to some of the murals I could find online.