Day 15: Nebraska

Corn Huskers.

When you drive from Vermont to Colorado, there are two routes. Northern route is Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Iowa, Nebraska, into Colorado.  The Southern route is Pennsylvania, Columbus, St Louis, Kansas City, Kansas, into Colorado.  I have done this trip 7 times (I stayed in Colorado after senior year) 3 times the northern route, 4 times the southern route.  On this trip I have done parts of both, today I drove north from the southern route to the northern route.

From Lawrence, I stopped in Topeka.  I saw a museum that commemorated a stop on the Oregon trail and various other aspects of prairie life.  Next I stopped at the memorial of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark decision that said “separate but equal” education, was not in fact equal.  Both museums were closed, but it got me to drive through Topeka.

From Topeka, I connected the South and North routes, by driving a state highway, which was more interesting than the interstates.  I stopped at the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace museum between Omaha and Lincoln.  For what was billed as a “hidden treasure” in one of my guidebooks, wow was I surprised at the quality of this museum.  As I walked in, the one tour of the day was just starting, so I joined 2 other people.  What an amazing tour; the guide led us on a 2-hour tour of a museum, focused on the Strategic Air Command, but really two hangers of Air Force planes, from WWII to present day, with a focus on the Cold War era.  The guide was a former Vietnam era air tanker pilot.  He gave such an interesting tour, with stories and history, just amazing.

From there it was a long haul on 1-80 to North Platte, but at dinner I realized I was only 4 miles away from the “golden spike” which I thought was where the railroads joined, instead, it’s just the biggest railway yard in the country, turns out it was Utah where the railways joined.  Anyways, cool.

Song of the Day: Nebraska – Bruce Springsteen

Podcast: Smartless – Will Ferrell – funny stuff

Book on Tape:  Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Beer of the Day:  Peg Leg Brewery, North Platte Brewery. Beers have clever names like IPA and Pale Ale

Total Miles: 470