Every year we make a trip and return to Missouri to visit family, handle car registration, insurance, and other general housekeeping stuff that keeps our processes running smoothly to allow us to continue our Nomadic Travels.
This return to Missouri was a little bit different. Commonly we are looking for the most direct route. Not this time. You see, we began this journey from Texas and drove to our first home base near Orlando, Florida. From there we worked our way up the eastern seaboard, then across the northern states, down the west coast and through the southwest.
In those travels, we missed Nebraska, Colorado and Oklahoma. So, we were faced with leaving New Mexico, going through Oklahoma and arriving in Missouri. Or, we could go north into Colorado, drive across Nebraska and go down into Missouri. We opted for the latter so we could get 2 states accomplished. This led us on a 1500+ mile return to Missouri.
We left Albuquerque and drove almost straight north to Denver, Colorado. As soon as we got into Colorado, we began to say “everything is so green.” It was no more green than Missouri. The thing is, for 1/2 a year we had only really seen sand, rocks and clay. So, what we were seeing that was “so green” was actually just grass.
However, the Colorado Mountains we were driving through were a beautiful sight to see. We have a family friend in the Denver area so we decided to pull off and have an early dinner with him. It was doubly nice because they had a restaurant we had not seen since Round Rock, Texas. It is called Torchy’s Tacos. And they have the best queso we have eaten. Great dinner and great conversation with a good friend.
We made it just north and east of Denver before we pulled in for the night. We stayed in a Clarion. It is advertised as a budget hotel. But, this place did not seem like one and was quite nice. It is located in Fort Morgan, Colorado. The rooms were extremely spacious, they had LCD TVs in them, desks, fridges, a bar sink and a bathroom large enough to turn around in (they are usually so small you can’t get out of the shower without stepping onto the toilet).
After a good night’s rest, we were up bright and early taking advantage of Clarion’s free breakfast and then we were “On The Road Again”…cue Willie Nelson song now.
This is one of the LONGEST legs of any journey we have taken. Actually, we have driven this far. We just did the day before. But, it seemed like forever. I am talking about our drive across Nebraska. We drove for between 400 to 500 miles from the western side to the eastern side of Nebraska.
I know this will be a shocker, but the only thing we saw for those hundreds of miles was corn, corn and more corn. Corn for as far as the eye could see in all directions. It should be no surprise, their college team is called the Nebraska Corn Huskers.
We pulled into the capitol city of Nebraska for the evening, Lincoln. Even in their capital city we saw patches of land with corn on it. We decided to stay the night at a Holiday Inn Express. The rooms were nice and had very similar amenities as the Clarion. In my opinion, the Clarion was nicer and more comfortable. However, the Holiday Inn Express won the breakfast battle. Wonderful breakfast with a lot of choices.
After refueling our bellies and the tank of Ebony, we were “On The Road Again” and Missouri bound. Within about an hour, we were out of the land where corn never ends and into the land of the Show Me State, filled with beautiful hills, hills and more hills.
Later that day we arrived at the house of Mama Nomad’s parents to settle in and rest. However, the life of a Nomad seems to never be one of resting for long. We are glad to be here to cool our heels a bit. But we will be back at it again very soon. Safe Travels.
