R and J in the USA

Thanks to an enticing and unexpected stop at a farmer’s market in Sioux Falls and a slightly longer drive than originally planned because we decided to keep the route that kept us in South Dakota and then Nebraska the whole way, we ended up leaving South Dakota an hour later than planned.

An hour later doesn’t sound like much, but on this trip where we are trying to hit as many cultural and educational and natural sites as possible, these little delays here and there can determine whether we manage to squeeze in certain visits or not. In this case, it meant we would miss the Great Plains Black History Museum that closed at 4:30 and wouldn’t open again until Wednesday when we would be long gone from the Omaha area. We were a little bummed to miss out on it as black history was something we were getting less and less of the further west we went and we were interested to learn about the black experience through history as America continued its expansion through the plains. On the east coast and even into the eastern heartland states, there is plenty to learn about America’s racial past and present, even though there is history about the black experience to be found in every spot in America. We’ve experienced just the opposite as we’ve headed west when it comes to Native American history. Again, there is plenty of Native American history in every single nook and cranny of the United States and we learned a great deal of it in our travels further east. However, it does become easier to find, or, maybe more accurately, harder to miss, information about the Native experience the deeper into the plains we have gone.

We stayed at a campsite in Papillon, NE, a city of its own and a suburb of Omaha just a touch northeast of Papillon. The site had come highly recommended on our iOverlander app as a gorgeous spot. It was decent enough and nature offers beauty in just about every style it shows up, but we found the campsite to be oddly suburban. It was like a bunch of cement rv hookup spots plopped down in a small field by a small lake, amidst suburban houses and streets. Perhaps our standards for “gorgeous” have been risen a bit too high as we’ve traveled. It was lovely enough and we enjoyed a nice, quiet evening with a stunning sunset out the window even though we weren’t ready call it “gorgeous”. 

The next morning, we were ready to take in Nebraska in all it’s glory – or whatever amount of its glory that we could fit into four short days. When we added extra time to our stay in Michigan to take time to catch up on the blog, that time had to come from somewhere – various states got half or whole days shaved off their itinerary. Nebraska was one such state, marked down from five days to four. We managed to see a lot in that little slice of time.

We took in Omaha and Nebraska history at the Durham Museum, which was originally the Grand Central Station of the Midwest. We learned how Omaha had become the city that it is with many thanks to the fact that it was the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad. Halloween being only a few days away, the museum was decked out in ghostly and ghastly decor and we happened to be there during a trick-or-treat event for little kids that included a performance by the local zombie community of the Thriller dance. 

We drove through a city of office buildings and factories and stumbled upon an area  called “The Old Market”, a hip handful of blocks filled with shops and restaurants in old brick buildings lining brick-paved streets. We had trouble parking our van in the street side spots, found a parking lot and got up and walked around a bit – stopping in one store filled with lots of fun, snarky knickknacks. We had a few laughs and then made our way to Lincoln, Nebraska to catch the capitol. We were disappointed that, as had happened in more than a few states at this point, the state history museum was under renovation, so we’d have to gather our Nebraska history from the collection of other museums and places we’d visit. 

The Nebraska capitol, from the outside was different. Unlike many other capitol buildings, it had no capitol dome and belonged to a smaller group of states that had towers as a central piece. It was a neat capitol from the outside. But, when we went inside, that’s when we were blown away. It had been designed by an architect that usually designed cathedrals, which was clear the moment you walk in and you find the shapes of the building on the inside bring such spots to mind. The art and architecture was striking and present in every direction you looked. It was the only capitol we’d been in that seemed to give so much recognition to the influences from outside of its state that helped to create it – from recognizing all the various elements of nature and forces in the cosmos, to the recognitions of the native peoples who’d lived here for millenia to the tributes to Rome and Greece for their democratic contributions to the world. They had busts that lined hallways of those Nebraskans that had been elected into the Nebraska Hall of Fame, Malcolm X being among the most recent additions. 

We had little time and no energy left to swing by the University of Nebraska’s history museum which detailed the prehistoric natural history of the area, so we decided to forgo it. We traded in the time we had left for a much needed boba tea stop and headed to our spot for the night in Fort Kearney State Park a handful of hours away. 

We arrived at the state park and drove past its seven small lakes to our spot for the night. We had our first shower in a few too many days and headed out the next morning for the long journey up to Northwestern Nebraska. There was a very important stop we had to make, and there was no way to see it but to drive and drive. Thank goodness we had it on our list to drive up to Carhenge, or we never would have spent four plus hours driving through a hidden gem of Nebraska that we had known nothing about – the Sandhills. 

The Sandhills is a massive area in the panhandle of Nebraska that is covered in sand dunes that are, themselves, covered by a thin layer of grasses. It covers approximately 19,000 square miles. For perspective, Rhode Island covers about 1,200 square miles and West Virginia is somewhere around 12,000 square miles. It was beautiful and we loved it.

Ryan had repeated Julie’s Indiana mistake and gotten blaze about when to stop and get gas. We were deep in the Sandhills and driving on E with miles and miles of sand dunes in every direction. Luckily, we rolled upon the teeniest little place called, Tryon, not even technically a town – an unincorporated community of just north of 100 residents – with a 1970s-style gas pump. We breathed a sigh of relief and Ryan had a neat chat with the woman who worked there. You can read about it in our People Along the Way section. 

When we came out of it, we were in landscapes more like what we’d expected, vast lands of farms and fields. Then we arrived at Carhenge. Julie was audibly disappointed to see the cars painted in grey paint. Once getting over that bout of disappointment, we had a blast walking amongst the Nebraskan sculpture art and were tickled pink reading the signs about how the artist had constructed it by getting his family together for a reunion. We imagined the conversation, 

“Hey, you coming to the family reunion?”

”Yea, need me to bring anything?”

”Some chips or ice would be great – and a few cranes and some earth moving equipment if you’ve got it. Oh, and some old Fords if you have any on hand.”

They got it done in 6 days. We were thoroughly impressed and delighted at the same time.

Not done with driving for the day, we drove another hour and change to land at Scotts Bluff National Monument to see more parts of Nebraska that we had no idea existed. We learned about life on the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express that had both come through here and found a place to park in the small town of Scottsbluff a few miles away with the bluffs in our view. 

We woke up the next morning to see that the “tire pressure” indicator light on our dashboard that we had spent a few days saying, “Oh shoot, we forgot to stop and fill up the tires.” had had enough and decided to stick it to us in the form of a flat tire. It was lucky timing since, unlike many of our recent days, this was one of the first days in a bit where our itinerary offered us a full morning in place. While we worked on our final pushes to catch up on the blog, we were also trading calls between AAA and local tire places to see who would show up first (AAA was not as quick). We were greeted by the most helpful gentleman, Scott, from Nebraskaland, a local tire service shop. He diagnosed the problem as being not just in our tire, but in our wheel. After finding out we might need to stick around for a few days while they ordered the right wheel, Scott realized that he could use tools at his shop to release our spare tire from underneath the van where it was otherwise unreachable because of the interior van build. We made it to the shop, they changed the tire and we were on the road without getting behind on our itinerary at all. Thanks Scott and Nebraskaland!

We stopped at a few grocery stores on our way out of town, including the local natural foods store, Nutter Natural Foods, where we had a great conversation with its proprietor, Bill. You can read about our great conversation with Bill in our People Along the Way section.

We headed to the next natural phenomenon, Chimney Rock, that was another significant marker on the historic Oregon Trail that pioneers had traveled on their journeys west. We learned more history and enjoyed the deep peacefulness of our late October visit here at a quiet and iconic spot in the middle of America. 

We headed to our last stop in Nebraska, a massive lake in its middle that served as a reservoir and was created by a dam, Lake McConaughy. We nicknamed it “Lake All Right, All Right, All Right” and parked in a pull out for the night. The wind rocked the van throughout the evening to the point where whatever was hanging inside was visibly gently rocking back and forth. Julie stepped outside to take pictures of the stunning sunset and let out a shriek as one of the local burrs made its way into the heel of her foot. We’d heard rumors of the burrs, but didn’t imagine ones that were quite as aggressive as these, having only known burdock burrs – sticky and prickly – but not quite so much like mini daggers as these were. After a burr removal and some disinfectant, we enjoyed a quiet dinner and evening in the van. 

We had a momentous occasion, as we finished our South Dakota post and clicked “publish”. This would bring us up to the present! Our next blog post (that’s this one!) would be the first to be about the state we were actually just in! It probably doesn’t seem like a big deal, but for us, it’s huge. We are tremendously excited to be able to share our journey in real time with those choosing to follow along and to be able to use our limited spare time spent working on the projects not directly related to the trip that we had both hoped to be able to work on during this precious time. We gave each other a high-five and a hug. We did it.

We sent Julie’s sister a happy birthday video for her 50th birthday (happy birthday, Jennie!) and a quick birthday phone call with Ryan’s mom (happy birthday, mom!) before heading off to bed.

In the morning, we headed over to the Lake McConaughy Visitor’s Center and took in some great exhibits about the cycles of water in Nebraska and got some very important information. Julie had neither biked nor swum in Nebraska yet, and we only had a few hours left to do it. We got information about the best beach to go to on the lake and made our way there. Julie hopped out of the van and grabbed a very short bikeride and then put on her wetsuit, a warm hat and her big thick winter jacket. Then we marched out to the massive, frigid, body of water to do the deed. 

“I don’t really want to do this.” Julie said with a face that showed the mixed feelings present. 

But, she was deeply committed to getting in water and swimming in all 50 states. So, in she went. 

The water was cold, but also wonderful.

We were in awe of the Lake McConaughy area and its brilliant beaches that we imagined how full they must be in the summer and remarked on how beautiful they were and how much we didn’t expect to see them in this spot in the middle of the USA. There are so many great parts about the trip. Getting surprises like these that are not only delightful to experience, but also expand our knowledge and perspective about the places that make up the US is definitely one of the best parts.

We had a great time in Nebraska and we were touched by its beauty, its history and the warmth of the people we got a chance to interact with. As is the repeating theme of the trip, 4 days was just too short.