The votes have been counted and Yellow Springs has been selected as one of six towns competing in the category of Most Fun in the first ever Best of the Road contest sponsored by USA TODAY and Rand McNally.
Thirty U.S. towns have been selected by popular vote and editors' input from more than 600 nominated communities. The categories include most beautiful, most patriotic, friendliest, most fun and best for food.
Yellow Springs competition for Most Fun is Vacaville, California; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Santa Claus, Indiana; Glenwood Springs, Colorado and Sioux City, Iowa. Based upon voter comment, Yellow Springs is a strong competitor. "No chain stores and (many) independent restaurants. Always something going on; on a sunny day you find street musicians or artists,” “Friendly, fun and festive... a small town with a big heart!” and “I'd vote for Yellow Springs in every category if I could. I make the hour drive there at least every other week in the summer.”
On June 23, five teams of travelers will hit the road from New York City, getting into Los Angeles on July 15. Along the way, each team will visit six towns in an assigned category as well as points of interest en route. Yellow Springs is expecting their team to stop sometime from June 27-29.
The Best of the Road teams will be capturing their three-week adventure via videos, photos and updates at bestoftheroad.com. At the end, each team will choose the No. 1 town in each of their respective categories (to be announced July 22). The towns will be highlighted on the Rand McNally website and in the 2013 Rand McNally Road Atlas, as well as on USA TODAY's Travel site.
For more information, contact the Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce at (937) 767-2686.
The “Most Fun Town” Best of the Road Team is Traveling Jules & Traveling Joan, a mother-daughter team. You can follow their travels by going to their Facebook page: TravelingJules and TravelingJoan.
By reading their bios and watching their videos, we’ve learned a great deal about them and they like many things that Yellow Springs does well including art, belly-dancing and yoga.
Yellow Springs is the 2nd stop on their journey so we expect them to arrive late Monday and stay until Tuesday or Wednesday. We’ve been communicating with them via email and cell phone so will have more definitive information the closer we get.
Please do the following things so you can track their trip and provide positive input about Yellow Springs:
1. Like the Destination Yellow Springs Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/YellowSpringsOH
2. Follow them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/YellowSpringsOH#!/travelingjules and Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/travelingjules
3. Learn about Jules & Joan and follow their trip on their blog http://www.bestoftheroad.com/team.do?%24=36 or click here.
Help put Yellow Springs on the "Most Fun" map!!!