Road Trip Through Nebraska...A Good Idea?

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

@Rasa

After driving through Nebraska the LONG way, in the dead of winter, to move to CA from RI years ago, I really had to think long and hard about moving back to RI because it would mean I’d have to drive through Nebraska again.*

Nothing against the people or anything, it’s just one looooong, boring state, from my two times through it.

If you have children, bring sedatives. For yourself. Because you won’t need to be awake to drive the really flat, straight road.

[sub]* Obviously I could take alternate routes. Which I did. But then my diss of Nebraska wouldn’t be as powerful. The panhandle of Texas ain’t much better![/sub]

Why didn’t you go Amtrak?

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

Nebraska native here, quietly weeping at the abuse being heaped on my fair state.

I confess the I-80 route isn’t the most interesting, as it is profoundly flat for much of it and there are few trees. I look at the state from this vantage point and marvel at the size of the sky and the way this prairie must have seem endless to those who came to settle it. But that’s my romantic eye.

Omaha has one of the best family zoos in the country, yes.

It sounds as though your route would take you through some land far different from the wretched flatness some of this thread’s victims had to endure on their own road trips. I suppose some would find it as boring at the long stretches of I-80 to the east, but many find the area around the badlands strangely beautiful. Yes, you can see some Oregon Trail landmarks, including Chimney Rock (which I think is the name that has been eluding many). Up near Fort Robinson there are interesting sites as well (including Fort Robinson itself, where Crazy Horse was killed). They have some cool agate fossil beds there, and Toadstool park.

[LH75]

i live in omaha.

the drive from chicago to omaha and the drive from here to the black hills really does consist of one cornfield after another, broken only by the occasional soybean field.

[Kalhoun]

@CrankyAsAnOldMan

Nebraska native here, quietly weeping at the abuse being heaped on my fair state.

I confess the I-80 route isn’t the most interesting, as it is profoundly flat for much of it and there are few trees. I look at the state from this vantage point and marvel at the size of the sky and the way this prairie must have seem endless to those who came to settle it. But that’s my romantic eye.

Omaha has one of the best family zoos in the country, yes.

It sounds as though your route would take you through some land far different from the wretched flatness some of this thread’s victims had to endure on their own road trips. I suppose some would find it as boring at the long stretches of I-80 to the east, but many find the area around the badlands strangely beautiful. Yes, you can see some Oregon Trail landmarks, including Chimney Rock (which I think is the name that has been eluding many). Up near Fort Robinson there are interesting sites as well (including Fort Robinson itself, where Crazy Horse was killed). They have some cool agate fossil beds there, and Toadstool park.

Awwww, Cranky…don’t feel bad it’s the cranky inhabitants that make the state. You can’t help it if it’s all corn all the time!

[AuntiePam]

@CrankyAsAnOldMan

Yes, you can see some Oregon Trail landmarks, including Chimney Rock (which I think is the name that has been eluding many).

We didn’t see Chimney Rock, but it’s pretty cool. Now we have another reason to do Nebraska again.

I hope the pioneers were still fresh enough to appreciate some of the unusual landmarks they were seeing in Nebraska. Or was it “Yeah Homer, I see the pretty rock, now keep walking before I run over ya.”

[lawoot]

Of course, if you like trains - I-80 is great, what with the Union Pacific Main Line being right there for a good portion of the run (and the Omaha railyards, which were (and probably still are) the largest in the country (if not the world).

But yeah, otherwise it is a long, boring drive.

Why is it so windy in Wyoming? Because Nebraska sucks!

sorry about that…