Every year since 2015, at the beginning of the summer travel season, we have offered a very specialized vacation guide, a guide that enables you to avoid crowds, the number one headache of summer travel. Nobody likes to stand in long lines at airports or be part of a mob scene at major tourist attractions. With the help of state tourist agencies and websites like Roadside America, we have offered suggestions for places to visit by car that are unlikely to be crowded even in the peak travel season. Over the years we have offered vacation guides to Illinois, as well as to all our bordering states. Last year, when gas prices were so high, we focused on attractions that lay within 140 miles of downtown Chicago. Now it is time to venture further afield. What about a vacation in Nebraska?

Tourism Nebraska has a wonderful slogan: “Nebraska: Honestly It’s Not for Everyone.” But it may be for you, if you enjoy the unique, the absurd, the one of a kind, and items that cannot be found in such prodigious proportions anywhere else. Naturally our guide omits wild places like Omaha and Lincoln, where there could be crowds, traffic, and traffic lights. Instead we focus on the wide open spaces, of which Nebraska has plenty.

Where to begin? Let’s start with America’s favorite summertime drink, Kool-Aid. Visit the storefront in downtown Hastings where Kool-Aid was born, take in the Kook-Aid Museum, and see the Kool-Aid Man’s footprints. And speaking of footprints, Hastings is also the location of the Bigfoot Museum, where you can examine all the evidence that Bigfoot exists. If you like museums, do not miss The Museum of the First Trade in Chadron. It chronicles North America’s first continent-wide economic engine. In Ashland, there is the well-funded Strategic Air Command Museum, a place to view cool aircraft and to learn more about the Cold War. On the lighter side, in Plainview there is the Klown Doll Museum, with over 7,000 clowns on display (enough to give everyone the creeps).

Most states are proud of what they can do bigger and better than anyone else. Nebraska’s claims to having the “world’s largest” are relatively modest (compared, to say, Indiana). Nevertheless, only in Nebraska can you see the World’s Largest Pair of Overalls. It is in Grand Island and stands eighteen feet tall and seven feel wide. While in Grand Island view Fred’s Flying Circus, a collection of cartoon cars and airplanes mounted on poles In Seward, there is The World’s Largest Time Capsule. Some time capsules are rather boring when they are opened, but not this one. The time capsule in Seward weighs 45 tons and contains 5,000 items from 1975, including a man’s aquamarine leisure suit and a 1975 Chevy Vega. Visit York to view the World’s Largest Marble Collection—over one million of them. And, if you want to venture into the outskirts of Omaha, you can see the World’s Largest Roll of Stamp at Boys Town. It weighs 600 pounds and contains 4,655,000 cancelled stamps. Although it may not rank as The World’s Largest Caterpillar, a giant caterpillar made out of old tires is worth seeing. It is a short distance from the Truck Stop in Big Springs.

History buffs will surely want to visit North Platte, the historic railroad town and home to many years to Buffalo Bill and to his Wild West Show. The Cody Museum and Trading Post contains a model of the Wild West Show. There is also a rail museum in North Platte and an observation tower for viewing one of the world’s largest rail yards. The citizens of Nebraska City, bypassed by the Union Pacific, decided some friendly competition was in order. They built a steam wagon, which they hoped would run between Nebraska City and Denver, a distance of 535 miles. It only made it five miles before breaking down. A monument was erected at the place it died. Another must see place for history buffs is Minden, the location of Harold Warp’s Pioneer Village. Warp made millions from plastics, and in 1953 decided to give back to the community by creating this museum. It has more than 50,000 items in 28 buildings.  And, finally, there is Carhenge, an attraction I discovered by accident, coming back from a trip out west about 25 years ago. In a farm filed north of Alliance, there are 38 junked cars sprayed grey and arranged to match the proportions of Stonehenge in England. There may not be any Druids in Nebraska, but there are plenty of Fords. And there are Catholics in Nebraska. Just off I-80 in Gretna is the Holy Family Chapel, a place of meditation for people of all faiths. It features a glass ceiling and criss-crossing wooden beams meant to suggest stalks of grain.

So, enjoy your trip. Don’t forget to send back plenty of postcards to your neighbors: “Having a Wonderful Time. Wish you were here.”

                                                               Fr. Joe

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