Into the Boring Part of Nebraska

So after our close encounters of the antelope kind, Web and I got back on I-80 and headed into the boring part of Nebraska.

The only thing of interest between Lincoln and the Colorado state line is Kearney. Kearney is home to the Great Platte River Road Archway. A colorful and random monument over the interstate. Unfortunately we missed out on going inside, where there is apparently an education museum of sorts.


In Kearney, the last big city until our camping site in Gothenburg, we decided to pull off and look for some food. Web had never been to Culver's, which is known for its butterburgers and frozen custard. The first time I had Culver's was actually last year on a road trip back from the RNC in St. Paul, MN with Andre (a Midwest native).
Culver's was yummy, but the Georgia Peach custard shake didn't sit well with my newly-recognized lack of lactase production. So, we went to Target anyways to get Web swim trunks, and I bought lactase pills to relieve the feeling that my stomach was going to explode. They work amazingly well!

The smell of Nebraska also gets progressively worse the more cows you see. And there were a lot of cows...

Into Wild Nebraska

But the real reason why Nebraska was way cooler than Iowa, was its preservation of natural Nebraska wildlife at the Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park & Wildlife Safari. Web and I drove through the park in the Kia and got up and CLOSE with a variety of animals from the Great Plains.

We first met some Nebraskan elk. These guys really couldn't have given two shits about us driving through their territory and talking pictures of them:


We also met the whitetail deer, which were watching us more intently than us watching them. Just some deer chillin':


We then got acquainted with some of Nebraska's avian critters...

Like an owl:

A sandhill crane, that got up in our business:

And swans doing something strange...

The bear and wolf cages ended up being mildly disappointing. One, they are in cages so you can't just drive among man-eating predators. Two, there were no bears in sight. Three, the bears were quite possibly just mislabeled... or eaten...

In the last animal pen we observed a herd of bison. Despite being 6 feet tall and could easy kill us, they were mellow and didn't even look up from grazing as we passed. The white bison to the right is named Dakota, and she has a little mixed baby!

The other animal in the last pen was the pronghorn antelope. And man were they really friendly. Here is one male, not too interested in us but close to the road:

And here is a female that actually followed us a little bit:

But the last, youngest pronghorn, was in love with the Sportage:

He also was very interested in Web:

Nebraska, we learned, is not just home to corn, in fact we saw little corn. In fact, Nebraska is the home to friendly animals and invisible bears.

The Mysterious State of Nebraska

Compared to Iowa, Nebraska was the best thing since sliced bread. Not to mention our savior from dying of boredom. (Ironic, eh?)


For one, Nebraska has cool state route signs with covered wagons on them. From my vast experience playing the Oregon Trail computer game (anyone that knows me knows I still play this in my spare time), I know Nebraska is along the trail, and the cause for many fordings of rivers and caulking wagons (ie. oxen injury).


Secondly, Nebraska is the birthplace of Kool-aid, specifically Hastings, NE. We were going to go to the Kool-aid museum originally, but a different adventure proved more exciting (for a later post). Over the past year Kool-aid has become a more valuable part of my very low income life, so thank you Nebraska.


Third, Nebraska actually has population high enough in Omaha and Lincoln to be interesting. Lots more cars, buildings, and signs of life.

This all leads me to conclude, despite past beliefs, Nebraska is indeed a state and not a government conspiracy:



Oh, and did I mention Nebraska used wind power too!