American Road Trip - Part 3/6 - Corn Country

Time of Visit: May 2022

We woke up at 6:00 for the seven-hour drive to Omaha.

Views from the hotel.

Views from the window.

Lunch at Cracker Barrel in Des Moines.

We arrived at the Omaha Zoo at around 2:30 in the afternoon. The curators of the zoo put a ton of effort into creating immersive experiences simulating the habitats of the animals, with a truly impressive indoor swamp and nocturnal species exhibit unlike anything I've seen before.

A desert dome containing snakes, lizards, birds, and small desert mammals.

Meditation.

We went to Omaha downtown for dinner, which is about 80% bars and burger restaurants. I'm glad that burgers are the de facto ubiquitous food here in America. It's pretty hard to screw up - even a mediocre burger is tasty.

Nebraska has a strange abundance of antique stores.

We drove westward into the corn fields.

Another antique store off the highway, a little bit west of Lincoln, the state capital.

Main Street of York, Nebraska, a town of about 8,000 people.

Vacant storefronts abound.

A quilt shop in York.

I asked the owner of a local toy store for things to do between York and North Platte. As he racked his brains, he seemed to grow embarrassed at his own struggle. "There's not much out here. All there is to do is watch the cars rust and corn grow." He recommended we visit the marble museum on the outskirts of town, a suggestion we ignored.

Although driving through Nebraska wasn't exactly entertaining, it wasn't as dull as he made it sound. The highlight of the day was the town of Gothenburg, Nebraska, a town founded by a Swedish railroad employee who convinced some buddies back home in Sweden and Germany to move out to Nebraska. Today it is a neat and peaceful community of about 3,500 people.

Park in the center of the town.

An original Pony Express cabin, formerly used for cross-country express mail delivery on horseback.

The American dream is still alive in Gothenburg.

For the night, we took shelter in the sad decaying meth capital of Nebraska known as North Platte.

Former industry.