Nebraska – Departing Thoughts

August 18th, 2015

Nebraska, the greatest curse about the state ended up being one of its best features, that there is nothing around for miles on end.  It means driving for hours just to roll into a small town that really has no business existing except that it’s a hub for all the farmers around.  But with that nothingness comes immense beauty.  On my first night I was treated to an amazing star gazing experience and could clearly see the Milky Way from just outside my car…house…residence….the place where I sleep.  Unfortunately I did a lot of driving that could have been avoided if I had planned better, but oh well, the great audio book kept me awake and made the drive much more fun.





Omaha and Lincoln
The last two stops for the week, and some of the most fun I’ve had in a while.  Though Lincoln left a bit to be desired and I couldn’t find much to do there, Omaha was a great post for a few days.  Riding all over the city and exploring the great downtown area was a blast.  The Heartland of America Park where I spent both evenings was beyond beautiful.  A great place to not only shoot the sky scrapers in the background, but the river the splits Nebraska from Iowa to the east.
One thing that really struck me was natural vs geographic borders.  Looking at general history, most cities are built around rivers because they could provide many resources for the city to grow and succeed.  So why is it that we also use rivers as our political borders as well?  It seems strange to split cities down the middle to make invisible boundaries for ourselves.  Geographically it makes sense, it’s an easy divisor.  Add it to the list of strange, non sensical observations I’ve made.



Everywhere Else
Nebraska is the third state down in the geographical setting, below North Dakota and South Dakota.  So it stands fair that it has a similar geography, that of the great plains of mid-America.  Where there isn’t a lot going on, but again is extremely crucial to our society and function as a country.  It makes for a fun twist on travel in general.  These are nowhere near what a person would consider a “vacation destination” by any stretch of the imagination.  But yet there are still cities here, and people living their lives, which means there has to be something going on.  The hard part is finding those things when you’re and outsider and don’t know the local down low.
I find it quite fun to spend an extended amount of time in these places, so far off the beaten path that I almost have to be inventive to find stuff to fill my time.  Though I chose to spend a good portion of that time cooped up in a coffee shop, it still gives me a good place to relax from the pace of travel.

Nearing almost two months now, I’ve learned I can’t just go full force all day every day.  I need to think of travel in a sense like a job.  Make the most of the day, get up early and hit it hard, but then reserve evenings as personal time and to do some work, so I don’t end up killing whole days to catch up.  But the flexibility to choose is great, and the infinite freedom it gives me comes at the cost of spending my time well.  Always learning.