Clarksville, TN – The City of Clarksville was not selected as the winning city in the Most Patriotic category of the Rand McNally-USA Today Best of the Road contest.
The announcement, which named Rapid City, SD, as the category winner, came today at the Destination Marketing Associations International conference in New Orleans.
Rapid City was selected as the winner from the six finalist cities in the Most Patriotic category, which included Clarksville, TN; Williamsburg, VA; Peachtree City, GA; Emporia, KS; and Fort Leonard Wood, MO.
“I’m sure everyone around Clarksville shares in my disappointment that we were not selected as the Most Patriotic City in America,” said Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan. “I’d like to congratulate Rapid City, as well as the other finalist cities, because it was an honor to be considered. I’d like to thank the 650 people who went online to nominate Clarksville as Most Patriotic, as well as the 691 who have posted reviews about our city on the Rand McNally website. I want to also thank the scores of people who showed Clarksville’s patriotic spirit and shared their July Fourth holiday with the Captain and Clark team that visited to judge the contest.”
The Captain and Clark Road Rally Team visited Clarksville July 3rd-4th as part of their judging the Most Patriotic category for the contest.
From the more than 600 nominated cities, the 30 top towns in five categories – Most Beautiful, Most Patriotic, Friendliest, Most Fun and Best for Food – were selected for review during the inaugural Best of the Road Rally. Five teams of amateur travelers set out June 23rd on a three-week, combined 25,000 mile cross-country road trip to personally visit the six top towns in their assigned category.
To showcase their journey and share town experiences, the teams posted photos, videos and blog posts on ontheroad.bestoftheroad.com, Facebook and Twitter. During a presentation of their “traveler’s journals” on July 14th in Los Angeles, each team consulted with the judges panel to determine which town would be crowned the winner in their category. The winners are:
Most Beautiful:
Sandpoint, ID – reviewed by The McNavigators, who said the unofficial motto is “enjoy the great outdoors, connect with friends and keep life simple.”
Most Patriotic:?
Rapid City, SD – reviewed by Captain and Clark, who described the town as “a place where people from across the world and country can learn about America’s past, become inspired by its present, and find hope in its future.”
Friendliest: ?
Walla Walla, WA – reviewed by Gone with the Wynns, who described it as “a town so nice they named it twice; a culturally diverse small town with happy faces everywhere you go.”
Most Fun:
Glenwood Springs, CO – reviewed by TraveleingJules and TravelingJoan, who dubbed the town “a mountain of fun and an adventure capital, with endless ways to get your adrenaline pumping.”
Best For Food: ?
Lafayette, LA – reviewed by The Fun Finders who learned the true taste of Cajun food to be “flavorful, not hot or spicy” and that after a meal, the best dessert is “Cajun dancing.”
“Each of the top 30 towns truly provided an unforgettable experience during the Best of the Road Rally and it was hard to narrow it down to just one winner in each category,” said Dave Muscatel, CEO of Rand McNally. “We’re grateful to the residents of the finalist towns and their fans for showing tremendous enthusiasm and support in our inaugural search.”
