US -6 - Part 3 - Denver to Des Moines
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After five days in the Denver area, we reclaimed US-6/I-76 and headed east to Colorado’s Eastern Plains. This is flat, mostly agricultural land with fairly unremarkable terrain. It’s a quick transition from metro Denver to the prairie.
Back on US-6 heading across colorado’s Eastern P[ains
In Brush!, Colorado (and, yes, they always put an ! after Brush! in their website), we parted ways with I-76, but the road was good and the speed limit 65mph. Here we saw cattle ranches, feed lots and fields of sugar beets and wheat. If you’ve never read ‘Centennial’ by James Michener, it’s a good (albeit very long) overview of Colorado and its history.
Sugar beet Factory
We stopped at the Visitor Center in Sterling, ‘City of Living Trees’ and picked up a local map. The highlight of the town visit was checking out the sculptures of Bradford Rhea which are scattered throughout town. It was an Easter egg hunt… one at the Visitor Center, another at the Justice Center, a couple inside the library, others at various city parks. Some were bronzes, one was marble and others were intricate chainsaw carvings from old local cottonwoods. The collection was eclectic… sometimes whimsical, sometimes thought-provoking.
The Visitor Center, by the way, offers free overnight parking, restrooms and a dump station for RVs which is very convenient. The folks at the visitor center are extremely friendly and helpful offering all sorts of brochures and information as well as free coffee and cookies. The town espouses ‘free-range tourism’… wander at will.
David enjoys reading local bulletin boards. He found this notice at the Sterling Visitor Center.
We crossed over the state line into Nebraska and 24 miles later we passed through the first town on US-6… Imperial, Nebraska… mostly cornfields and grain elevators. If you envision Nebraska, you think flat terrain, but this part of eastern Nebraska is rolling hills. Willa Cather’s ‘My Antonia’ and ‘O Pioneers’ adequately captures the feel of Nebraska. There’s also the 2013 movie ‘Nebraska’ with Bruce Dern if you’re interested.
A drizzly, cold day entering Nebraska plus We lost another hour crossing into the Central Time Zone.
We spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express in Hastings, birthplace of… wait for it… Kool-Aid. The hotel serves Kool-Aid (grape and cherry) 24x7. We took a pass, but it was reassuring to know it was there. We stopped by the Hastings Museum the next morning for a photo of the World’s Largest Pitcher of Kool-Aid. There’s no end to the excitement we encounter on our adventures.
Hastings, Nebraska… birthplace of Kool-Aid
The terrain flattened out to the Nebraska of our imagination. Field after field of corn, grain elevators in each town with railroad tracks alongside. We were constantly reassured we were on the right highway with historic signs every few miles. There was an abundance of roadkill along this stretch… skunks, rabbits, raccoons, deer and a few flat, gory, gutsy unidentifiables. Take our word for it; no pix provided.
We needed the blow-up map inset of Lincoln to negotiate our way through the city, but it was much better signed than Denver. We spied the Nebraska State Capitol from a distance, standing sentry overlooking the city. We decided to deviate from the route to downtown K Street to get a better look at the Capitol building and we’re glad we did.
The Nebraska State capitol building in downtown Lincoln is 362’ high. Constructed 1922-1932, it is in the Art Deco/Gothic Revival architectural style. Fun fact: Nebraska has the only unicameral legislature.
As we approached, we saw a group of uniformed Union soldiers standing at attention under the watchful eye of Abraham Lincoln in front of the Capitol. One soldier was reciting the Gettysburg Address. A 272 word, three minute eloquent speech that resonates as appropriately today as it did in November 1863. We stayed for the rest of the 20-minute program, a moving tribute to commemorate the anniversary of Lincoln’s speech.
Re-enactment Union soldiers commemorating Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
An unexpected sight in the heartland was the lighthouse in Gretna, now an RV park with a tiny lake. The word LINOMA was printed vertically down its side. We figured it out… Lincoln Omaha. US-6 became the O-L-D Highway: Omaha, Lincoln, Denver.
Another slight detour in Elkhorn led us to a mile-long brick section of the Old Lincoln Highway, one of the first transcontinental highways (auto trail) dedicated in 1913.
We passed by the well-known Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Town. It was closed, but we think we might like to stop here on our return trip to see the World’s Largest Ball of Stamps at the Leon Myers Stamp Center. Always something more on the bucket list!
US-6 East through Omaha is called Dodge Road. We followed it downtown and parked to visit the outdoor sculpture park at 14th and Capitol. “Pioneer Courage is a homage to the bravery, courage, and entrepreneurial spirit that defined the generation and left an indelible impact on the American character. Visitors are … encouraged to walk along with the larger-than-life pioneers and to envision what it must have been like to set off on a journey unlike any other. This sculpture park is the largest installation of bronze and stainless steel work of art in the United States and one of the two or three largest in the world.” It was impressive!
Across the Missouri River and we were in Council Bluffs, Iowa. More farms, more cornfields. This is Bridges of Madison County country. A few years ago, we visited most of them if you’d care to take a look.
We arrived at a Love’s Truck Stop in Clive, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines, after dark. It was cold, raw and drizzly, but we cuddled up in Blanche under a mountain of blankets and spent a comfortable night. Noses cold, feet warm.
We’ll be deviating from our blue highway adventure next time to visit friends and relatives a bit further south, but you won’t be left out. There’s lots to see along the way and you know us, we hate to miss anything.