O Nebraska! Road trip embraces state's sights

Supplied with a three-year-old map of Nebraska, Internet suggestions and a book called "Off the Beaten Path," a fellow DN-er and I took on a quest to explore some of the rare gems Nebraska has to offer.

Monkeys, bug bites, big fish and pyramids would all be part of it, but we didn't know it at the time.

All we knew was we were bound and determined to hit the road like Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassidy, or more fittingly, like two impoverished college kids equipped with debit cards that both, fortunately, have overdraft protection.

Friday, Oct. 8

I had to give my traveling companion a wake-up call after my last class got out – 12:30 is, of course, too early for someone to wake up when they have no Friday classes.

We met at the Daily Nebraskan and planned the day's itinerary. Our first destination: the Edgerton Explorit Center in Aurora.

A quick stop for fuel – both for the car and ourselves – and we were heading west on I-80 with the sound of the Talking Heads pumping through the speakers.

We arrived shortly. Aurora really isn't too far away, although, neither of us had been there before. Lucky for us, the metropolis had signs posting the direction to the museum, so we had no trouble finding it.

Once inside, I realized the place was similar to the children's museums of Lincoln and Omaha, only a bit more low-key.

However, that's not to say fun wasn't had. We got a photo taken of us popping balloons and rode a bike fast enough so the light on the top would turn on and play Operation on a human-sized board.

Honestly, we wanted to stay longer, but I knew if we were going to make it to our next stops, we'd have to leave.

In about 45 minutes we reached Seward – home of the world's largest time capsule. The only thing I knew about this was that there was a mention of it on a Web site. So, we went to the County Building and asked the friendly county people. They gave us directions, and there it was, a bright, beaming white pyramid.

I mean, yes, I know it was just the time of day that the sun was shining bright on the structure, but really, it seemed as if it was glowing. We couldn't even get a good picture of it, it was so luminous.

All the shininess made us hungry. So we headed to Linoma Beach. I'd never heard of this place before and didn't even realize its name came from Lincoln and Omaha combined until I got back from this trip. I'm a little slow sometimes.

Anyway, it's this quaint little place outside of Gretna that has a public beach on the Platte River, complete with a lighthouse and lobster restaurant.

Johnny, unfortunately, is allergic to shellfish. So while I ate some really good shrimp, he had chicken, but somehow trace amounts of shellfish got into his system, and on the ride home he complained that he couldn't see out his left eye. What a wimp.

Before we left, we got to see a beautiful sunset over the beach, and we never would have realized we were in Nebraska had it not been for the grain mill on the other side of the road.

Saturday, Oct. 9

Saturday = Johnny Carson and monkey day.

We trekked up to the great Nebraska north that is Norfolk, proud hometown of Johnny Carson.

We got a little lost, mostly because of poor planning and the sweet distraction of Tilly and the Wall singing and tapping their hearts out.

But soon we were able to find the Elkhorn Valley Museum, complete with a Kewpie doll display (where I learned the creator was from Battle Creek) and the Johnny Carson Exhibit.

Good place to go if you want to know more about the man, plus you can see his Emmy awards.

About an hour from Norfolk lies the small village of Royal. And in this small village lies another village … of monkeys, tigers, wolves, birds and other members of the wildlife kingdom.

To me, Zoo Nebraska was a bit depressing. A bunch of cages encircled the lonely area, while most of the animals hid in their "houses," avoiding the two people that ruined their lazy Saturday afternoon.

The chimpanzees, however, did not hide. They made their appreciation for our visit known by scaling the fencing that separated us from them and spitting lots of water at us.

Our last stop of the day was Macy. For there, we had read lay Robber's Cave where Frank and Jesse James supposedly hid out when they were on the run.

Well, if they did hide out there, they picked a good location, because, uh, we couldn't find it.

Sunday, Oct. 10

Since we crashed at my parent's place in West Point the night before, I got to start off the morning with scrambled eggs – a much, much better start than the Dairy Queen blizzard the day before. (John, however, opted for Pop Tarts.)

Following the breakfast (thanks, Mom), we headed to the Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium in Schramm Park.

It was around Fremont when I fell asleep, and it was around Omaha when I awoke to find John struggling with the directions.

But eventually we made it and got to see some pretty interesting fish I had never known were in our state's rivers and lakes.

To top the trip off, we went to Nebraska City.

It had been a few years since my last visit, and I forgot how much the autumn season really takes over the town. Obviously, there are lots of trees (it's the home of Arbor Day), but along with Kimmel Orchard and the Halloween decorations lining the street, I almost felt like I was in New England.