The Midwest is BORING? MATT! Your problem was I-80, not the boring Midwest. There are so many great places to see between Chicago and Denver if you know where to look!
I agree, Iowa 80 is pretty hard to beat... And I know that you've seen all the wildlife first hand so Omaha's largest indoor rain forest may be boring to you... but there's plenty to see.
If you take off the beaten path, northwest Illinois and the area between Galena and Dubuque is pretty, rolling, and the Mississippi River bluffs in that area are quite impressive.
A stop at Dyersville is a must for the Field of Dreams site.
Back on the main track, Des Moines has Adventureland and the Living History Farms, which is a great stop for kids. There's plenty of other small stops in Iowa, like the Hoover Presidential Library, a Danish Windmill, and other oddities too.
Omaha is your big city stop and it has it's Zoo (best in the country), a great historic downtown and revitalized riverfront and mall (the grassy kind). Kiewit just built the Luminarium, an incredible brand new STEM museum and their Botanic Gardens is incredible.
Less than an hour south from Omaha is Arbor Lodge, the home of Arbor Day.
Heading into Nebraska is best seen from Highway 2, which leads you through the Nebraska Sandhills, a beautiful mixed-grass prairie with tons of rolling hills, the closest you can probably get to the "Serengeti" in America you mention as most of it's range has never been plowed.
The sandy beaches of Lake McConaughy, the largest reservoir in Nebraska, near Ogallala are a fun stop in the summertime.
I'll admit, eastern Colorado has very little to offer besides miles and hours of time for peaceful ruminations you mentioned in your article, which are great in and of themselves!
I should have consulted you before we just blasted across I-80! Thanks for all the tips!
Also wanted to give a shout out to the area you mention between Galena and Dubuque. It just so happens I went to college in Platteville—half hour from both towns—for a number of years I won't specify here, and later on my parents remodeled a church into a house about 20 minutes from Galena and owned it for about 10 years. So I'm familiar to the point that it's not even tourism anymore. Galena, especially, is worth a visit for tourists looking for cute bed and breakfasts, wineries, bike rides through bucolic meadows, cute coffee shops, and a historically preserved civil war-era town.
Made me smile - only a few week's ago we were experiencing the I-80 on our own trip across Iowa and we also stopped at the World's Largest Truckstop. Coming from the UK, all roads in the US seem unimaginably long and straight, but the I-80?! I must look at your past posts on South America, we have an idea of a month there next September.
You plan to visit South America next September? I'd love to hear where you plan to go!
Hope your time at RAGBRAI was great and memorable.
P.S. If Peru is your destination, don't bother looking for content because we had to skip it due to political issues at the time. Sad. Other than that, though, we probably know some things about where you're going. ;-)
The Midwest is BORING? MATT! Your problem was I-80, not the boring Midwest. There are so many great places to see between Chicago and Denver if you know where to look!
I challenge you to name me three great places to see that beat The Biggest Truck Stop in the World! Thanks for reading. ;-)
I agree, Iowa 80 is pretty hard to beat... And I know that you've seen all the wildlife first hand so Omaha's largest indoor rain forest may be boring to you... but there's plenty to see.
If you take off the beaten path, northwest Illinois and the area between Galena and Dubuque is pretty, rolling, and the Mississippi River bluffs in that area are quite impressive.
A stop at Dyersville is a must for the Field of Dreams site.
Back on the main track, Des Moines has Adventureland and the Living History Farms, which is a great stop for kids. There's plenty of other small stops in Iowa, like the Hoover Presidential Library, a Danish Windmill, and other oddities too.
Omaha is your big city stop and it has it's Zoo (best in the country), a great historic downtown and revitalized riverfront and mall (the grassy kind). Kiewit just built the Luminarium, an incredible brand new STEM museum and their Botanic Gardens is incredible.
Less than an hour south from Omaha is Arbor Lodge, the home of Arbor Day.
Heading into Nebraska is best seen from Highway 2, which leads you through the Nebraska Sandhills, a beautiful mixed-grass prairie with tons of rolling hills, the closest you can probably get to the "Serengeti" in America you mention as most of it's range has never been plowed.
The sandy beaches of Lake McConaughy, the largest reservoir in Nebraska, near Ogallala are a fun stop in the summertime.
I'll admit, eastern Colorado has very little to offer besides miles and hours of time for peaceful ruminations you mentioned in your article, which are great in and of themselves!
Guess you'll have to go back out next year! :)
I should have consulted you before we just blasted across I-80! Thanks for all the tips!
Also wanted to give a shout out to the area you mention between Galena and Dubuque. It just so happens I went to college in Platteville—half hour from both towns—for a number of years I won't specify here, and later on my parents remodeled a church into a house about 20 minutes from Galena and owned it for about 10 years. So I'm familiar to the point that it's not even tourism anymore. Galena, especially, is worth a visit for tourists looking for cute bed and breakfasts, wineries, bike rides through bucolic meadows, cute coffee shops, and a historically preserved civil war-era town.
Zach, maybe you'll have to write a guest post for us on all the cool stuff to do in that part of the country!
Made me smile - only a few week's ago we were experiencing the I-80 on our own trip across Iowa and we also stopped at the World's Largest Truckstop. Coming from the UK, all roads in the US seem unimaginably long and straight, but the I-80?! I must look at your past posts on South America, we have an idea of a month there next September.
You plan to visit South America next September? I'd love to hear where you plan to go!
Hope your time at RAGBRAI was great and memorable.
P.S. If Peru is your destination, don't bother looking for content because we had to skip it due to political issues at the time. Sad. Other than that, though, we probably know some things about where you're going. ;-)