Where should CNET Road Trip go in California?
CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman is canvassing readers for ideas on where to take his Road Trip project this summer. Suggest an idea he uses, win a prize.
Summer is just two months off, but over here at Geek Gestalt, with bright sunshine outside (and windows to keep the chilly wind out) it already feels like it's just around the corner.
That's also in large part because I've started the planning for Road Trip 2012, my seventh-annual journey to highlight some of the best destinations around for technology, military, architecture, science, nature, and so on.
For five of the past six years, the project has taken me all around the roads of the United States, giving me the opportunity to visit the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, the Southeast, the Rocky Mountain region, and the Northeast. Last year, the trip crossed the pond and covered seven countries in Europe.
This year, I'm staying much closer to home; Road Trip 2012 will be taking place mainly in California, with brief forays into Nevada, and possibly Arizona and Oregon.
I've already got a long list of potential destinations, but as I do each year, I wanted to canvas my readers for what I'm sure will be some excellent suggestions of places I never would have thought of myself.
So, if you have an idea for a Road Trip stop, please send it to daniel--dot--terdiman--at--cnet--dot--com. Here's what I'm looking for: A place in California (though probably not in the Bay Area), Nevada, Arizona, or southern Oregon, that would appeal to a national audience and that is highly visual, lending itself to a big photo gallery.
Some things that might work are manufacturing facilities for iconic brands, famous monuments, large-scale works of art or architecture, and famous or important military facilities. Past examples of Road Trip items include a behind-the-scenes look at New York's Grand Central Terminal, the process of printing the next-generation $100 bill at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, a look inside NORAD's former home at Cheyenne Mountain, behind-the-scenes at Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, the high-tech gear aboard the most advanced submarine on Earth, and so on.
I'd like to reward anyone who comes up with a great idea. So while I do have a long list already of potential destinations, if you send me a suggestion that I haven't already thought of myself, and that I end up adding to my itinerary, I'll send you a gift in exchange.
I hope to hear from you, as I know that many of you have extensive experience traveling the state, and I'd love to be able to benefit from that experience--and share the wealth with my readers. I look forward to hearing from you.