"Rock Star" road tripper checking in! Self-proclaimed anyway! Road trips and visits to all 50 states are my game. Find your next road trip destinations here. Fill your bucket list with fantastic US journeys. I love road trips and spare no effort in making my travels and experiences inviting for members of the road-tripping family! Pick a trip you want to take, or get inspired to plan your own. - - The Driveby Tourist (or call me Stan!)
What is Nebraska’s Favorite Island?
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A b, Why, it’s Grand Island, of course! That’s one of the taglines the tourism group uses in their promotions. I’m attending a travel writers conference presented by the Midwest Travel Network. It’s an annual conference, and Grand Island won the bid for this year’s event. (#MWTRAVELCON25) Along with presentations by DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations) and other travel writers, the Grand Island group showed us their town. While many places in town draw visitors’ attention, here are a few notable ones. Since agriculture plays a significant role in the city’s economy, I chose to visit the Case New Holland plant, which manufactures combines for harvesting grain. Those machines are certainly much larger than the one we had growing up on a dairy farm all those years ago! Great tour. The plant manager gave the introduction and mentioned how the plant brings some parts manufacturing in-house rather than outsourcing the work. That saves jobs in the community. A group called Railside represents a 42-block area of the downtown and surrounding businesses. Sherry, the executive director of the group, personally took me on a tour of the region, allowing me to ask questions. She explained about the preservation of some old buildings and the unfortunate demise of others. Preservation efforts continue today, with some buildings now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For example, the Yancey building, formerly a hotel, is now a combination of businesses and condominiums. One of the recent businesses in the building is the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce. For the last 16 years, the state fair has been held in Grand Island. It moved here from Lincoln, 90 miles away, and is also the state capital. The state fair, along with the infrastructure added for the fair, now supports other agriculture-related events, sporting events, and concerts. And those are three of dozens of reasons you should spend some of your time in Nebraska in Grand Island! “Nebraska is calling and I must go!” Classic Rock song: "Wildfire” by Michael Martin Murphey (Contains the lyrics “…on a cold Nebraska night” Please email me about your Nebraska experiences or why you don’t want go there! Here is the Premium Subscription page: You will get early views of new blog posts, one extra weekly newsletter, and views of all past published newsletters. And occasionally, I'll ask for votes on content! Stan Featured Post: Here’s a post about more of Nebraska! |
Stan Wiebe
"Rock Star" road tripper checking in! Self-proclaimed anyway! Road trips and visits to all 50 states are my game. Find your next road trip destinations here. Fill your bucket list with fantastic US journeys. I love road trips and spare no effort in making my travels and experiences inviting for members of the road-tripping family! Pick a trip you want to take, or get inspired to plan your own. - - The Driveby Tourist (or call me Stan!)
Check out this post about the Gunsmoke Trail in Hays, KS. Here's the link. It's part of the Gunsmoke Trail around Kansas which includes Abilene, Dodge City, and Wichita. The Trail is becoming quite a tourist attraction in Kansas! Check it out when you're in Kansas, even if you're just driving through! Until next time... Stan Here's the link to the overview of all four of the cities involved. ,
Travel and novels get you into American history. While driving Route 66, some of the museums you visit along the way display scenes that may represent The Grapes of Wrath. It’s about a family in Oklahoma who lose everything. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s yielded little to no crops. They lose their land. The family reads about “the land of plenty” in California. They, along with thousands of others, go west. The book details their struggles along the way with no money, deaths, auto breakdowns,...
Because it’s there! Sac City, IA, is home to the world’s largest popcorn ball. They made it to celebrate the history of popping corn grown in the area. Initially, their popcorn ball was removed from the record because the Indiana State Fair made one larger. Theirs was 6,510 pounds, eclipsing the Sac City former record of about 5,000 pounds. In 2016, Sac City residents decided to reclaim the record. Their efforts weighed 9,370 pounds and were twelve feet in diameter. The record still stands...