Burns' Go West: Part 1

After a wonderful winter spent at home I had to get packed up and head back to the Ranch. Mom and Dad did the drive with me previously but this time I invited Don and Amber along for the ride. We left on Friday evening to get a jump start and spent the night in Cleveland. The next morning we headed out bright and early on Interstate 80. We saw signs for the World's Largest Truck Stop and decided to pull over and take a break.

I80

After that we headed on to Herbert Hoover's National Historic Site. It has his childhood home, a schoolhouse, a Quaker meeting house, and a blacksmith shop that you can tour.

Herbert Hoover

I always associate Herbert Hoover with the Depression so it was nice to learn a bit more about him. We also visited his gravesite.

Gravesite

We drove into Des Moines for the night and arrived at the state capitol just as the sun was setting.

IA State Capitol

The capitol was beautiful and had a lovely view down into Des Moines. We decided to walk downtown from the capitol and eat at Tacopocalypse. It's a Korean taco place that Don and Amber had seen on Diners, Drives Ins and Dives and it was delicious.

Des Moines

The next morning we saw a sign for John Wayne's birthplace so we dipped off the interstate to check it out.

John Wayne

It was nice to explore farm country for a bit. We hopped back on the interstate and drove through Omaha and into Lincoln.

Farm country

We checked out that state capitol as well.

Nebraska State Capitol

Since we were in town during lunchtime we headed down to the Haymarket district to eat. It was a very cool historic district that has been renovated into shops and restaurants.

Haymarket in Lincoln

For the afternoon we headed out to Homestead National Historic Site. The visitor center had a great exhibit on the history of homesteading.

Homestead

There was also an education center with an exhibit on farm implements and the longest operating one room school. The rest of the day was spent driving across the back roads of Nebraska and Kansas.

Nicodemus

Near sunset we stopped at Nicodemus National Historic site. It was basically a ghost town and was kind of creepy because there was no one around. It had a vintage playground with a merry go round and teeter totter that we played around on to stretch our legs. As we drove to Colby, KS for the night we saw a very cool lightning storm and drove through a bit of a downpour.