NEBRASKA

Some mornings in Nebraska, the smell of something baking hits you before you even find the door. That…

The smell hits first: old wood, cold metal, a little dust. Somewhere past the third row of booths…

I pulled off a two-lane Nebraska highway because a low warehouse with a big parking lot looked like…

Somewhere north of the Niobrara River, the pavement runs out of things to look at and then suddenly…

Driving across Nebraska, you get used to the horizon doing very little. Then something enormous appears over the…

The first cold snap hits Nebraska and suddenly a flatbed wagon full of straw sounds like the best…

Pull off a Nebraska highway into almost any county seat and you’ll spot a long, low building with…

There’s a plain brick building in Nebraska that looks like every other old storefront on a small-town main…

The gravel road in eastern Nebraska doesn’t promise much, just fence line and pasture and the kind of…

Southwestern Nebraska has a way of hiding big stories behind small buildings. I pulled off a gravel-shouldered road…

There’s a particular kind of hunger that hits about an hour into a drive through southeast Nebraska, when…

Half the best meals in Nebraska hide behind doors that need a coat of paint. You pull into…

The last paved road runs out, and then it’s just washboard gravel, cattle, and grass taller than your…

There’s a brick building in south central Nebraska where a fiber optic river of colored light runs through…

The plan was coffee and a quick lap around a Nebraska downtown, nothing more. Then a narrow storefront…

The first time you roll down the window on a cool October morning in eastern Nebraska and hear…

Somewhere in central Nebraska there’s a village of a few hundred people where the main street smells like…

I went looking for a cheap dresser in eastern Nebraska and came home with a bag of vintage…

There’s a stretch of eastern Nebraska where the parking lot fills up before the lunch rush even starts,…

The paper bag gives it away before anyone takes a bite. Grease spots spread across the bottom, cinnamon…

Some of the best afternoons in Nebraska start with a wrong turn into a strip of quiet storefronts…

Somewhere in eastern Nebraska, past a stretch of gravel and a long line of brake lights, there’s a…

The parking lot gives away almost nothing. A gravel pull-off, a sign, a gap in the trees, and…

Some of the strangest places in Nebraska hide in plain sight, sitting under a parking lot or behind…

Somewhere out in the Nebraska Sandhills, the pavement thins, the cattle outnumber the mailboxes, and you start wondering…

Somewhere in northwest Nebraska, on a downtown corner where the storefronts still have their original glass, there’s a…

There’s a stretch of south Lincoln where the pavement gives way to gravel and greenhouse plastic, and it…

Some of the best meals in Nebraska come from buildings you’d drive right past without slowing down. I…

Somewhere in north-central Nebraska, the highway stops being scenery and starts being silence. You crest one grass-covered dune,…

Somewhere in southwestern Nebraska, a two-lane road runs past a village so small you could miss it while…

Gravel roads in southeastern Nebraska have a way of ending somewhere more interesting than the map suggests. I…

Drive past enough brick giants in Nebraska and you stop wondering what’s inside them. I made that mistake…

Nobody expects to find a proper pot of tea and a tray of tiny sandwiches in the middle…

You can spot it from the highway in Nebraska long before you know what it is: a pale…

I went looking for a cheap afternoon out in Nebraska and ended up at a sandy beach with…

Half the fun of driving Nebraska back roads is reading the signs. Some of them make perfect sense,…

Sand between your toes in Nebraska sounds like a setup for a joke, right up until you’re standing…

I went looking for lunch in Nebraska and ended up in front of a neon sign with a…

Driving across Nebraska on the interstate, you get used to the same rhythm: corn, sky, an exit sign,…

A gravel-shouldered road along the Platte River in eastern Nebraska doesn’t look like the kind of place where…

Somewhere in western Nebraska, past the gas stations and the drive-thru signs, there’s a park where a band…

Some of the best stops in Nebraska sit in buildings that look like they could just as easily…

Driving through southern Nebraska, you pass a lot of small white houses with front porches and square wooden…

A strip mall in Nebraska is not where most people expect to find braided Ukrainian cheese or a…

Some of the best stops in Nebraska announce themselves with nothing more than a small sign along the…

I pulled into a Nebraska parking lot expecting nothing but painted lines and a long walk to the…

Gravel crunching under the tires, canyon walls rising where Nebraska is supposed to be flat, and no sign…

Somewhere out on the Nebraska prairie, past a grain elevator and a row of quiet houses, there’s a…

I pulled off a two-lane in southern Nebraska expecting a gas station and a chance to stretch my…

Some storefronts in Nebraska give away nothing from the sidewalk. A plain brick front, a window stacked with…

Some of the best stops in Nebraska don’t announce themselves. You pull off the interstate expecting a grain…

Driving west across Nebraska, the land stays flat for so long that your eyes stop expecting anything. Then…

The smell hit me before I’d even shut the car door – butter, cinnamon, and something faintly yeasty…

Some places in Nebraska look like nothing at all from the highway, and then swallow your entire afternoon….

Somewhere along a two-lane highway in northeast Nebraska, a tall white rectangle rises out of a mowed field,…

There’s a gravel turnoff in eastern Nebraska where the rows of trees start close to the road and…

There’s a gravel road in eastern Nebraska where the corn suddenly stops and the color starts. One minute…

Somewhere in northern Nebraska, a gravel road bends around a hill and a thousand-pound animal steps out in…

Some of the best Saturdays in Nebraska start with a building that looks like nothing from the highway….

The smell hits before the door even shuts behind you: bacon on a flat-top, coffee that has been…

Some of the best afternoons in Nebraska start with a building you almost drove past. A plain brick…

The scoop clinks against the side of a clear bin, and suddenly buying two cups of rolled oats…

Some of the best meals in Nebraska happen by accident, usually somewhere around hour six of a drive…

Brick walls, wood floors, and a wall of spines you have not seen stacked anywhere else in central…

There’s a specific sound you only hear in October in Nebraska: the dry rasp of a pumpkin vine…

There’s a building in central Nebraska that looks like it belongs on a postcard from somewhere much farther…

Some of the best stops in Nebraska announce themselves with nothing more than a smell. Cocoa and warm…

Most people picture Nebraska as corn rows and cattle pasture, flat to the horizon in every direction. Then…

Some of the best breakfasts in Nebraska come from buildings that give you almost no warning. I walked…

Some buildings in Nebraska look like nothing much from the road, and then you walk inside and your…

Driving north out of Omaha on a cool October afternoon, the corn along the highway looks like corn…

The storefront doesn’t announce itself. You could drive down the block twice in eastern Nebraska and never guess…

Most people pull off Highway 61 in western Nebraska expecting sand, sunburn, and a cooler full of sandwiches….

Driving Interstate 80 across eastern Nebraska, you pass a low glass-and-steel building that looks like it could be…

Somewhere between a gas station stop and a wrong turn, I pulled into a Nebraska town at dusk…