Wikipedia - Interesting Facts While You Travel

How do you learn about your surroundings when you travel?  I do a couple things.  If I see a building or site without a sign, I will pull up my google maps, zoom in and see if it shows me what the place is.  We’ve identified solar sites, airplane boneyards, and many other places this way. You can then of course research the site you’ve identified further.

For towns we pass through – I often google Wikipedia.  If you aren’t familiar with Wikipedia it’s like an encyclopedia.  Many of us recall those big heavy books at home or in the library prior to the internet.

An example of how I use it is when we were traveling on interstate 10 in California by Loma Linda. I knew that name sounded familiar so I went to Wikipedia.

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I then go to specific areas in the contents or scan the information for what I might want to delve into.  Here I found that Loma Linda is home to one of the largest group of Seventh Day Adventists in the world.  One of their practices is vegetarianism and many of the people in the area live past 100 years old, a much higher longevity than the rest  of the country. 

Another area I also always like to look at is Notable People., which shows who was born or lived there.