{"id":8544,"date":"2017-04-24T10:00:15","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T15:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=8544"},"modified":"2017-04-18T00:45:50","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T05:45:50","slug":"great-plains-trip-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2017\/04\/great-plains-trip-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Plains Trip Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8597\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/GoldenSpike.jpg\" width=\"330\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/GoldenSpike.jpg 330w, http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/GoldenSpike-232x300.jpg 232w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 330px) 100vw, 330px\" \/><br \/>\n<em><strong>August 2, 2016:<\/strong> The Golden Spike Monument in Council Bluffs marks the east end of the <a href=\"http:\/\/railroad.lindahall.org\/essays\/brief-history.html\">Transcontinental Railroad<\/a>, as designated by Abraham Lincoln himself. However, the <a href=\"http:\/\/journalstar.com\/news\/state-and-regional\/nebraska\/jim-mckee-railroad-depots-have-extensive-omaha-history\/article_1884f6ad-4b1e-5efa-bb4c-4dcc3c392fa9.html\">first rail bridge to Omaha<\/a> didn&#8217;t open until March 1872.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Broken Bow, Nebraska \u2014<\/strong> This trip is about two-lane roads and historic trails: NE 92, the Oregon Trail, and the Lincoln Highway. As a member of the <a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/2015\/05\/21\/oregon-trail-generation\/#rBhHvYwgZPqc\">Oregon Trail Generation<\/a>, with those factors in mind, there&#8217;s really only one way to chart the passage of time, right?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8545\" alt=\"counter02\" src=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/counter02.png\" width=\"353\" height=\"140\" srcset=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/counter02.png 353w, http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/counter02-300x118.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 353px) 100vw, 353px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Oh yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Route: US 30, IA 330, I-80 with old IA 925, I-29, 25th St, 9th Ave, get to IA 192, US 275, US 75, I-80, I-680, US 6, NE 92<\/p>\n<p>With the threat of rain along I-80 I took 30\/330 to Des Moines, and it worked surprisingly well. West of Des Moines, I picked up the White Pole Road, aka IA 925, aka Old Highway 6, and also made stops in Earlham (unvisited) and Walnut (school). Then, in Council Bluffs, I stopped to see the Golden Spike Monument, and took pictures of the new <a href=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/ends\/statelines\/us275.html\">South Omaha Veterans Memorial Bridge<\/a>. By now, it was a beautiful sunny day, and I got to my first Lincoln Highway item: the brick section in Elkhorn.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8596\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/ElkhornBrickLincoln.jpg\" width=\"550\" height=\"310\" srcset=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/ElkhornBrickLincoln.jpg 550w, http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/ElkhornBrickLincoln-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Preserved brick section of the Lincoln Highway between 180th and 192nd Streets. With the upgrade of US 6 (West Dodge Road) to a full freeway, the east end is reached via the 168th Street exit. Built in 1920, it was only part of the Lincoln\/US 30 for a decade, until it was rerouted via Blair.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From there, it was time to get familiar with NE 92. Really familiar. Sadly, this exacting travel got an asterisk; I had to take about 10 miles of gravel where 92 was closed off for bridge construction. Otherwise, the conditions were perfect and I got to Broken Bow, setting up camp for the night at the Big 12 Motel.<\/p>\n<p>Fresh with the spirit of exploration, I attempted a local delicacy. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omaha.com\/living\/the-better-half\/runza-the-story-of-one-of-nebraska-s-most-treasured\/article_6e0b5a51-b017-5a23-b5cd-92f2c06a5d88.html \">They call it a Runza.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>August 2, 2016: The Golden Spike Monument in Council Bluffs marks the east end of the Transcontinental Railroad, as designated by Abraham Lincoln himself. However, the first rail bridge to Omaha didn&#8217;t open until March 1872. Broken Bow, Nebraska \u2014 &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2017\/04\/great-plains-trip-day-1\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trip-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8544"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8602,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544\/revisions\/8602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}