The Pride of All Nebraska

Our second day on the road ended as it began - wet. We woke this morning to thick fog filling the low-lying areas around Kansas City, MO, and followed the fog north along the Missouri River until we crossed into Iowa. Disappointingly, we were not immediately gifted with bushels of corn upon crossing into that fine state, but our dreams of corn were not to be dashed.

We continued to beautiful Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska to see the Huskers beat up on some lowly team from God knows where in central California (to the San Jose State fans out there, I apologize). We were joined by 84,000 of Nebraska's finest, a truly incredible number given the size of the stadium. 

We watched the Big Red play the way football was meant to be played, in a stadium filled with screaming, devoted fans all decked out in red and white and constructed so that each of its bleacher-type bench seats was close enough to the pitch to really hear the tackles. We watched a fairly lackluster Husker team squeak by against a surprisingly impressive opponent, but to the Nebraska season ticket holders - most of whom have had their seats passed down from parent to child for the last half-century - it was just another delightful day in Cornhusker country.

In addition to all those footballz, we got to see the Pride of All Nebraska, the UNL marching band! They were great; the baton twirlers left a little something to be desired, though...

It was then back to Omaha, where we had a fine dinner at the reputed favorite restaurant of Omaha native Warren Buffett - Gorat's. It was steaks all around at this establishment that has clearly not changed a bit since Ronald Reagan ate there in 1950. Humphrey Bogart would have been right at home in the piano bar/lounge and we were right at home with our steak dinners. Luke and Caroline ruined theirs by requesting FAR too much cooking time, but Becca and I had the right idea as we asked for our steaks to be run quickly through a warm room. 

We arrived back at Caroline's house as the rain started to fall, the remnants of Gustav having followed us all the way here. We are waking up early tomorrow to interview Jun Kaneko, an artist who operates an artist cooperative here in Omaha. This will be our first interview, so keep fingers crossed all around. Luke will be posting tomorrow with those details. Until then, good night!

It's the deep breath before the plunge (that no one can hear)

Today is the day we offically start moving on this here road trip.  We're leaving tonight after dinner to drive for about 4 hours to Kansas City, where we're staying to for the night.

Right now, we're trying to figure out the camera that Road Trip Nation sent us and we're having some problems with the sound. We're going to call our friend at the HQ, Kristin Esteves, to get some help. We're not going have much luck getting advice from all the cool people we're going to talk to if we can't hear them, as Justin just said. 

Hopefully that will get sorted out before we leave.  I think we'll probably give up soon and go buy food at Costco. I'm excited because I've never been to Costco before and have a great need for a 12 pack of bathing suits (thanks, Luke).  And then we're going to stuff all those 12 packs into the tiny, tiny car. Cozy! 

Wish us luck!

-becca

Today the road trip began!  Luke, Becca, and I completed the first leg of our journey (310 miles), taking a bus from Chicago to St. Louis where Justin and his car live.  To help pass the time on the long bus ride, Luke made lots of clever puns, the funniest of which invovled Nebraskan bananas and Costa Rican sweet corn, the most unlikely of which involved rhyming Tunisia with tuition.  Becca played a lawyer video game most of the ride, and Luke taught both of us what he learned about topsoil from his new National Geographic.  With this new knowledge we plan to dazzle Montana Governor, Brian Schweitzer when we interview him in a week or so.  We also learned after the bus ride from Wikipedia that fleas can last up to two years between meals.  We don't yet have any ideas as to when we'll use that information during our trip, but we're keeping it in mind.

Ready and raring to go...

Hey all, welcome to the official blog of our 2008 Summer Road Trip, Go West and Grow Up! We're not yet on the road, but I figured I would at least put up a short post to let you know that we're gearing up and ready to go. Caroline, Becca, Justin and I are all getting really excited about taking off.

Go West and Grow Up is a name taken from the phrase popularized by Horace Greeley in the mid-nineteenth century, "Go West, young man, and grow up with the country." We figured we'd co-opt it for our trip, which is all about learning about the American West.

We'll try and update this blog once a day if at all possible, rotating between the 4 of us so that we'll each go about twice a week. As for our itinerary, Becca, Caroline and I leave for St. Louis tomorrow afternoon. Our trip officially starts from the St. Louis Arch, on Friday, September 5th.

Anyhow, comment away, and we'll post more after we actually take off!