10 of the South’s Best Road Trip Stops

The pleasures of a road trip can be the quirky roadside stop, the boiled peanut stand, or the top-secret barbecue joint you heard about from a friend of a friend. In her new book, Road Sides, author and illustrator Emily Wallace chronicles some of the best Southern spots to take a break, see iconic sights, and chow down, from A to Z (in this case, from “Architecture”—as in a twenty-four-foot produce stand shaped like a strawberry—to the “Zealots” who will wait hours in line for the likes of Prince’s Hot Chicken in Nashville). Wallace, a native of Smithfield, North Carolina, began writing her book two years ago, but has long appreciated cultural food studies—she even did her master’s thesis on pimento cheese. “I’d been collecting stories of interest for a long time, and the book gave me a chance to explore further,” she says. Here, Wallace shares some of her favorites from Road Sides. Get ready to mark your road maps.