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The American Road: Small towns steeped in history

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Vestal, New York: it’s a relatively small town in rural New York state, near the border of Pennsylvania and just under a four hour drive to New York City. The town houses around 28,000 people, has pristine neighborhoods, a couple of run-down ones and everything it between. It’s littered with grocery stores and gas stations just like anywhere else, as well as the occasional landmark or war memorial that it proudly displays to set it apart from its neighbors.

I travel near there often, and most recently took a walk with my girlfriend down the “rail trail,” a well maintained trail used for running, biking, walking the dog, or just taking a leisurely walk and enjoying the New York summer that everyone has spent so much time missing.

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Comments

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  • Luke Ryan

    Absolutely. Everyone’s got a story, and in some way you can glean wisdom, entertainment and all sorts of other valuable things if you just sit down and listen.

  • Luke Ryan

    Haha! Right after writing this article, I was talking about it to my girlfriend and she was telling me that her friends had all these stories about the trail being haunted from an incident a long time ago. I wonder if this is the incident they’re referring to!

  • Joni S

    The other bonus to small towns are the people. If you take the opportunity to start a conversation with an elderly person from a small town you’ll likely get to here some interesting stories about their town. We used to stop in Twitty, Texas at this small gas station on our way to visit family. We’d grab a real Coke from an ancient freezer that kept bottles ice cold and visit with the owners. Nice people, rich history. Stop and smell the roses. Good article.

  • Stephanie M

    History is everywhere. You just have to look.

  • Joy B

    Luke, you know what else is great about small towns and back roads? They have some of the best haunted sights to explore. Lol!