Driving Across the US - Summer 2022 (Part 3)
Welcome to driving in Nebraska - I hope your iTunes library is well stocked
This leg was from Lafayette, CO to Chicago, IL.
Lots of ranching, energy production, and the occasional chemical plant along the road from Colorado to Nebraska. From then on, it’s pretty much farms all the way to Michigan.
The far western part of Nebraska starts off with some ranching, but then it’s just corn, corn, corn and it is a long ass state.
PSA – I switched to Mint Mobile recently (which operates on the T-Mobile network) and you get no service in the western half of Nebraska along I-80. No huge deal except what if I broke down and needed to call for service? I get that there are no people here but let’s get some towers along the highway. Hey Ryan Reynolds - get on this!
There were some other parts of this road trip where I was on less traveled single lane roads where I had no service but I would expect that on I-80 you would get cellular reception in the year 2022. It’s not like I’m asking for flying cars here.
Yeah, this is how it looks for pretty much most of the drive
You do go through the heartland here and pass the college towns of Lincoln and Iowa City. Somewhere along the way is also the self-professed “Worlds Largest Truckstop” if you are into that sort of thing.
I never realized that Google maps does this since I usually have my navigation turned off on long road trips, but when you crossed the state line the Google maps voice greeted me with “Welcome to Iowa!”
Gas was also getting cheaper quickly as you go east from California. The lowest I encountered in August of 2022 was in Iowa on this trip. I would have thought Wyoming or Nebraska but nope - Iowa.
We stayed in Council Bluffs, IA as it was the halfway point to Chicago. Across the river is Omaha, NE. We stayed in Council Bluffs rather than Omaha because there was a Harrah’s that had dog friendly rooms which is a must have for us. As we found out on the return leg, Omaha also has some weird non-dog friendly rules that I will discuss in a later post.
View of Omaha across the Missouri River from the Harrah’s at Council Bluffs
Dog friendly hotel!
The drive to Chicago from there was more corn and more corn and then you slowly switch from farming to some industry and then the thick traffic of an urban area when you hit Chicago.
Things to note about driving through this section of Illinois:
Drivers are pretty crazy
Some toll roads require you to create an online account or load the app to pay within 14 days of travel (after which I assume they sic bounty hunters on you or something)
They have a lot of signs saying “Crash Investigation Site Ahead” where I was expecting like a wrecked UFO or something but I think it’s just an area to pull off to argue with someone you had a fender bender with
Illinois: More corn
I think these are soybeans?
Finally, after 2 long days of driving, Ronin got to stretch his legs in a real backyard in Chicago and hang out with his friend Duncan