Murray Among Top Five Cities In America

Two Kentucky cities are being recognized by USA Today and Rand McNally as the best small towns in the nation.

One month and nearly 30,000 miles after five teams set off from Washington, D.C., en route to Seattle, winners in the Best of the Road contest have been named: Murray, KY is the Friendliest town, Bardstown is the Most Beautiful, Delray Beach, FL is the Most Fun, Gainesville, TX is the Most Patriotic, and Santa Fe, NM has the Best Food.

Jennifer Jordon and Robert Schatz, the "Rogue Riders" of Broomfield, CO chose Murray as the Friendliest town in America because if its proximity to Kentucky Lake and Land Between the Lakes, as well as the home feel of the city and people. They say the residents "had a way of bringing you in, and we made friends. This is the only town where we went into people's homes." They say the biggest surprise is the scenic campus of basketball-crazed Murray State University, which is home of the "shoe tree," where college alumni who met their sweethearts at school return to attach one shoe from each partner.

Selected from 30 nominees (each team visited the six in their category), the winners were announced Tuesday at the Destination Marketing Association International's annual meeting in Seattle. Danville, KY was a runner up in the Most Beautiful category.

For more on the winning towns, tune in July 25 at 7 pm for a Best of the Road recap on the Travel Channel hosted by Bert Kreischer.