Nebraska

The Cornhusker State is a bit flat and sparsely-populated. Get out and explore, and you’ll find interesting prehistory, modern culture, and much in between. Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Harrison has unusual 20 million-year-old fossils and a great little collection of Native American artifacts. Learn more about the lives of African-Americans in the West at the Great Plains Black Museum in Omaha, the city where Malcolm X was born. Southwest of Omaha in Ashland is the Strategic Air and Space Museum, which actually relates the story of the local Air Force Base and US Air Force Strategic Air Command commemorated in Stanley Kubrick’s classic film Dr. Strangelove. Its nuclear bombers are on display in this vast space. Carhenge in western Nebraska, near the town of Alliance, is an unusual work of art. This Stonehenge replica is made out of 38 cars stuck in the ground, out in the thick of the Great Plains.

If you like steaks and diner food, you’ll be happy as a clam in Nebraska. Don’t worry if you don’t; there are many other options. Have lunch at a cafe in a bookstore that offers organic soup and bread on a pay-what-you-can sliding scale from Monday to Friday. There are plenty of baked goods made sustainably or without animal products. Nebraska is after all in the breadbasket, and there are lots of great bakers. Get locally-sourced and often organic vegetable dishes or steaks in Lincoln, or grab paninis or pizza with or without meat and cheese. Salad bars are really a traveller’s friend, in case you didn’t know. You can select vegetarian options at Mexican, Thai, or Indian restaurants in Omaha and a few other places. Check out the Old Market section of downtown Omaha for entertainment and nourishment, and have some divine wine and prosciutto lavash in a cozy environment. To your health!