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Where should CNET Road Trip go in the Midwest?

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.

Daniel Terdiman Former Senior Writer / News
Daniel Terdiman is a senior writer at CNET News covering Twitter, Net culture, and everything in between.
Daniel Terdiman
2 min read
Soon enough, the bags will be packed for CNET Road Trip 2013, starting in Chicago. If you have ideas for a great destination, you could win a prize. Daniel Terdiman/CNET

Summer is still three months away, but here in Northern California, 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 because I've already started the planning for Road Trip 2013, my eighth-annual journey to highlight some of the best destinations around for technology, military, architecture, science, nature, and so on.

For six of the past seven years, CNET Road Trip 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. Two years ago, I crossed the pond and covered seven countries in Europe, and last summer, I stayed much closer to home and extensively covered California (and a little of Arizona and Nevada).

This year, I'll be heading to the heartland. Road Trip 2013 will be taking place in the Midwest, starting in Chicago and covering a loop that will comprise some or all of Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Minnesota.

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 any of the Midwestern states that would appeal to a national audience, that has a heavy tech or geek element, 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, 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.