We hadn't even made it down the on ramp before I asked Jason of we could visit the next rest area. Not because I forgot to go at the hotel but because it featured a tribute to Abraham Lincoln. The first road to cross the United States was the Lincoln Highway and I-80 mostly follows the route (at least through Wyoming). The rest area is also a state park and very nice. There is a full visitor center but it was closed. Pretty cool stop.
The rest area was at the highest elevation of I-80. The few miles around it were more like what I thought Wyoming would look like. Pretty but brief.
Nebraska started out a lot like Wyoming. They slowly introduced corn but the cattle were there mile 1. The roads in Nebraska are pretty nice. Pretty much all cast concrete. There are a few construction zones and a few miles that could use improvement but overall very good. It was nearly all two lanes each direction, though. This can slow things as trucks decide to pass each other.
We had an option to dip into Colorado by taking a ten mile or so detour but there was a lot of construction in the area and it didn't seem worth it. Sorry Colorado. I'll have to visit you properly on another trip.
Somewhere along the way, signs told us that we entered the Central Time Zone. In Henderson, Nebraska, we stopped for lunch at a Subway. When I asked for some sauce on my wrap, I heard the lady mutter something and as she started going crazy, I realized she had said "say when". I quickly said "WHEN!" Jason didn't hear her say anything and ended up with a mayonnaise sandwich.
In Lincoln, we left I-80 to continue due East. It's a nice city, being both a capital and a college town. The highway (Nebraska 2) took us around the outside edge of town before becoming a full fledged divided highway through the countryside.
As we approached the Missouri River, more construction welcomed us. The roads were clearly in pretty rough shape. I thought the river served as the state line into Iowa but there there was no sign saying so. A few miles later near I-29, a small sign pointed the direction to an Iowa visitor's center. We must have made it? At this point, Bryan was asleep in the back seat and he missed the dozen or so miles of Iowa. The interstate was a slight improvement. The vegetation in the median and off the shoulder was unkempt and not very nice. The road itself was actually fairly smooth despite looking pretty rough.
The last mile or two of Iowa featured more construction, which continued into Missouri. There was no mistaking this state line, and a huge sign welcomed us. A few miles later, there was an incredibly nice rest area we visited. It's Sunday afternoon.
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