Half the fun of a vacation is the inevitable exit through the gift shop. Maybe I’m just materialistic, but I love the process of transforming my memories into tangible tokens – whether it’s a T-shirt, enamel pin, post card or something else. Since becoming a part of the promotional products industry, that love has taken on another layer. I’m always testing the patience of friends and family by critiquing the quality of cap embroidery, checking the hand feel and examining neck labels to make sure I’m getting the ”good T-shirts,” and flipping over tumblers, mugs and water bottles to see if I can spy an ASI number somewhere in the fine print.

Our cross-country road trip included a layover in Roswell, NM.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to indulge in those particular pleasures, having rarely left the house, let alone the state of Pennsylvania, since the start of the pandemic. So, when my sister mentioned her plan to drive her college-age daughter across the U.S. this summer, from eastern Pennsylvania to the University of Arizona in Tucson, I knew I had to be a part of that epic adventure.

I’m not alone in being ready to hit the road. As of early July, 65% of Americans said they feel comfortable going on a trip, according to tracking by Morning Consult. In April, travel spending came to $73.9 billion, 24% lower than April 2019 levels, according to research from Forbes Advisor. That survey also found that nearly nine in 10 Americans had plans to travel in the next six months.

My cross-country road trip started the week before Independence Day and ended with an overnight flight home the following week; we planned a somewhat circuitous route, with plenty of stops at roadside attractions to break up the interstate monotony along the way. We saw the world’s largest pistachio, the grave of Dr. Pepper (namesake, but not inventor of the famed soft drink), a cowboy hat-topped Eiffel Tower and much more. At many of the sites, the branded merch for sale was just as, if not more creative, than the landmark itself.

A Scruffy Start

Earth to Old City, a shop in Knoxville’s Market Square, offered an array of Tennessee-themed gifts, like these “Keep Knoxville Scruffy” mugs.

Knoxville was the site of the 1982 World’s Fair, and its heritage as a “scruffy little city on the Tennessee River” still looms large, as does the impressive Sunsphere (or “wigsphere” if you’re a Simpsons fan). The 26-story-tall monument is topped with a reflective gold globe, and though its observation deck was closed for renovations during our visit, the distinctive city skyline still left an impression – and was featured on swag of all kinds, including vinyl stickers.

Collectible and easily traded, vinyl stickers were a popular gift item at shops across the U.S.

In addition to dinner and a quick stroll through Market Square, we also stopped at the Phoenix Pharmacy and Fountain, because I have a thing for old-timey soda fountains and fancy ice-cream concoctions. Like any good tourist attraction, the shop was selling T-shirts and other logoed apparel, in addition to phosphates, floats and banana splits.

From Gardens to Gangsters

Rock City Gardens in Lookout Mountain, GA, had a fully stocked giftshop. This lunch box was one of many items with appeal for children visiting the site.

Our next major stop was Rock City Gardens on the northwestern tip of Georgia, atop Lookout Mountain. Rock City features ancient rock formations, a panoramic view where you can allegedly see seven states, and “Fairyland Caverns” filled with kitschy, creepy and utterly fabulous nursery rhyme scenes. And, of course, the gift shop was chock-full of logoed goodies. There were Christmas ornaments, lunch boxes, T-shirts, magnets, stickers, insulated water bottles and more.

After a morning in Georgia, we stopped for a late lunch in Birmingham, AL, at a plaza that also included an independent bookstore (and yes, I added a few more titles to the stack I was already lugging from state to state). The bookstore and the café were both selling branded tees and totes in addition to their other wares.

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We spent the night in Jackson, MS, and had very little time to explore – though we did manage to find funnel cake at a pop-up carnival and lattes at a funky coffee shop the next morning. Our route took us through Louisiana, where we made a last-minute exit to Gibsland to check out the Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum. According to the historical marker outside, the museum is the location of Ma Canfield’s Cafe – where the notorious Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow stopped in 1934 for sandwiches before being shot to death in their car by a posse seven miles away. The museum was dusty, dingy and more than a bit disturbing (particularly the bullet-ridden car with bloodstained mannequins that served as its centerpiece). In other words: It was the perfect road trip detour.

This snow globe was being sold at the Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum in Gibsland, LA.

The gift shop was as tasteless as you might imagine – stocked with branded underwear that feature a revolver and the phrase “His Bonnie” across the rear, caps embroidered with fake bullet holes, keychains made from bullets and so much more. There was even a Bonnie & Clyde snow globe. I didn’t shake it to see what color the “snow” was.

Cowboy Hats & Desert Dunes

In Dallas, we all succumbed to the lure of cowboy hats – which would come in handy later in the trip when we hiked through the sun-bleached deserts of New Mexico. The shop where we bought the hats also offered an array of Texas-themed gear, from shot glasses with rims mimicking the state outline, to miniature cowboy boot paperweights, to tees proclaiming that Texans don’t dial 911.

This alien-printed toilet paper was available at the UFO museum in Roswell, NM.

The next major stop was Roswell, NM, and we got into town the day after the annual UFO Festival – though the alien groupies had largely departed, there was still plenty of swag from that event on hand at the convention center, where the city was holding a firework-free Fourth of July celebration. There were “alien eye” sunglasses, logoed bucket hats, black-and-white bandannas with a UFO print, T-shirts, tote bags, face masks and more. The UFO museum in town offered perhaps the most extensive collection of merch of the whole trip. There were magnets, apparel, bottle openers, drinkware, stress toys, headwear, socks and even toilet paper rolls decorated with cartoonish green alien heads.

Nearby, the Roswell UFO Spacewalk – a somewhat trippy black light-enhanced journey through a spaceship, wormhole and other extraterrestrial landscapes – handed out glow-in-the-dark wristbands as entry tickets. The cashier also offered free stickers to visitors, each featuring a different space scene and the attraction’s contact info.

T-shirts and other pistachio-themed memorabilia abounded at McGinn’s PistachioLand in New Mexico.

After Roswell, we stopped at McGinn’s PistachioLand to see the oversized pi-statue-o (no nuts were harmed in the making of that terrible joke), sample some pistachio-flavored ice cream and browse a wide variety of wares, from hot sauces and edible crickets to T-shirts and lip balms.  

Next up was White Sands National Park, where visitors could buy branded saucer sleds in the gift shop at the entrance, then slide down otherworldly white gypsum dunes in the desert. Luckily, our visit there didn’t coincide with testing at the nearby missile range – since the park understandably is closed for safety during such periods. But we did make the rookie mistake of visiting the gift shop after our visit to the dunes, so we didn’t know about the sledding until too late. Still, there were plenty of other mementos to choose from, whether it was a coffee mug in the somewhat unwieldy shape of a desert lizard or soothing salves made from piñon sap.

This drinkware was available at White Sands National Park in New Mexico.

In Arizona, we explored the shops of Tucson’s historic Fourth Avenue and spent a few hours in Bisbee, an artsy city in the Mule Mountains with a copper-mining past. By then, my bags were already overstuffed, and I was in danger of not being able to secure them for my flight back to Philadelphia. But I did manage to fit one more T-shirt from Tucson and some unique earrings made of recycled Starbucks cards and soap tins from Bisbee.

Throughout the trip (and on my completely full plane ride home) it was apparent that leisure travel is back with a bang. After more than a year cooped up, many Americans are ready to leave the pandemic in the rearview and start making new memories – and opening their wallets for all the gift shop gear associated with those memories.