Middle of the Country travel - sites to see NE, KS &OK?

A couple weeks after seeing Yosemite, Red Wood Forest and all those parks, the Mrs. just booked a trip for Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma.
Enlighten me.
I've seen pictures of the west side of those States. Looks awesome. (Not Black Hills SD awesome) but we still want to do it.
Please give me ideas of what to do and see.

Kansas be sure to see all the flat land. You can't miss it. LOL
I always liked Kansas City, Missouri. Fantastic BBQ there. Jack Stack BBQ is my fav and voted best a number of times.
The Power and Light District is a lot of fun. Weird name but it is the place to be in KC. Howl at the Moon is there along with 50 other places.

OK, we've shuffled things.
Here's a city to city idea of our route.
Plan is to hit 9 States in 9 days.
If you're wondering "why in the hell would he do this trip" - my answer is we want to see all 50 States. For me, I'll only have 3 left after this trip (ND, WA, AK).
Fly into New Orleans, fly out of Milwaukee WI.
We could use some help on what to do/see along this general route.

I have been in all of these states at one time or another. Most have nothing remarkable like Montana or even California. But your working on a bucket list.

IOWA STATE FAIR August 7-17, 2025.
Best State fair in the country.

Wisconsin Dells, sort of worth the time. State fair there is also exemplary. July 31 to Aug 24th

Rochester MN. Pretty if you like flat country cities. Lots of lakes.

Little Rock AR. Go to Hot Springs just a bit west. Lots of history there. Beautiful country. Take Highway 7 to some lovely Ozark mountains and lakes. Highway 7 goes north to Russellville where it meets I-40 and you can go west to Oklahoma.
What is there in Oklahoma is mostly boring. Which is why we gave it to the Cherokee. And then took it back
That said the eastern part is "Indian Nations" and there are a few casinos and tourist traps there. US 75, AKA "Indian Nation Parkway," goes north and south. North will get you to Tulsa.

Not much but there ain't much there I would find interest.

If you're wondering "why in the hell would he do this trip" - my answer is we want to see all 50 States. For me, I'll only have 3 left after this trip (ND, WA, AK).

The last three on your bucket list interest me.
I’ve never been to North Dakota or Alaska, but would like to see them. I have been to Washington state. It is quite beautiful. Don’t miss seeing Mt. Rainier. A quick additional side trip to Vancouver, Canada is a nice plus.

Hope you enjoy your trip and someday the completion of your bucket list.

Just got back. 11 States in 10 days.
Did the route @FrancSevin said. Missed the fairs.
We drove about 2,500 miles, most of it on back roads.
Pics and places of interest to come (after I get the Mrs. paperwork and pictures).

bczoom said:

Just got back. 11 States in 10 days.
Did the route @FrancSevin said. Missed the fairs.
We drove about 2,500 miles, most of it on back roads.
Pics and places of interest to come (after I get the Mrs. paperwork and pictures).

Click to expand...

Happy to hear you had a good trip.

Some of the cities we went to.

New Orleans is a real shit hole. It's seriously gone down hill. We drove the "famous" places if you want to call them that but didn't feel safe getting out of the car so we got out of town pretty quickly.

Branson MO & Wisconsin Dells were both ghost towns. They pretty much shut down after Labor Day.

Oklahoma City was pretty nice (and clean). Seemed like a pretty large contingent of liberals but they were well behaved.

Omaha NE & Council Bluffs IA were both very nice areas. Museums, Zoo, market historic district... Because we got into Council Bluffs relatively early in the day, stopped at a casino. The Mrs. isn't a fan so I figured we'd just spend a few minutes. Dropped a $20 into a penny slot machine. (BTW - a penny slot is actually around 75-cents per spin). Made a few bucks then went to a different machine and made a few more. Bounced around a couple more machines and ended up $100 in about 45 minutes. Cashed out and put the $120 in my pocket. The Mrs. was very happy with this as there's a steak house in Omaha she wanted to visit (Gorat's) but didn't want to drop a couple hundred for a dinner there. I said we'll take the $100 and go have brunch there the next morning. Sure enough, the bill was over $100 but we had a great meal (we split a $67 steak and had other breakfast items). BTW - This is one of Warren Buffet's favorite places to eat. Drove past Warren Buffet's house. A modest home considering his wealth.

Rochester MN was just OK but we didn't spend much time there so it's not fair for me to judge. Spent hours in the countryside in MN which was beautiful.

A general map of our trip

Some of the interesting parks or points of interest.

Crater of Diamonds park was a bust - Didn't find any diamonds. It's norm for the past several decades was at least 1 diamond found daily but they turned the ground a month ago and none have been found since.

Hot Springs wasn't at all what I expected (it's a city, but it's called a National Park). Nice area but when you're expecting nature and find yourself in a town, I wasn't sure how to react.

Dogwood Canyon was very nice. Great for a half or full day visit.

Thorncrown chapel was very, very nice. A half-hour visit is enough to enjoy it.

Fantastic Caverns was nice. Go underground on a riding tour for an hour or two. We've been in many, many caverns that have more impressive geology but this one has great history. It was an underground speakeasy during prohibition, bands play down there...

Effigy mounds was interesting but not impressive. I was expecting to see the 100' wide by 500' long by 40' high mounds. These weren't them as they were much smaller. Still a great visit as the wife and I effectively got a 2-hour private tour with a NFS Park Ranger. There were others at the start of the tour but due to terrain, everyone else turned back.

Pikes Peak was good for a short visit. It's a peak overlooking the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

The drive

First off, I found GENESIS vehicles to be garbage. We started with a G80 "luxury cough" sedan. Once we got to highway speeds it sounded like the rear end was going to give out. Drove to the next airport and exchanged it. They gave us a GV80 "luxury cough again" SUV. Everything about this vehicle was wrong but we felt quasi-safe that it'll get us through the trip. It barely made it.

From where we started (NOLA) to where we ended (Milwaukee) is a 1000 mile straight shot. Our trip was 2500 miles but we kind of knew that as we were zigzagging across the states.

The Mrs. is the navigator and ran an app on her phone for our route. She clicked on the option for NO TOLLS. I'm pretty sure that the app considered that as NO HIGHWAYS. That's cool, sort of, but we ended up on farm roads for a lot of the trip. Slowed us down but worth it as we got to see the real parts of the States, not an interstate view.

Summation

AMERICA IS BEAUTIFUL!!!! And so are the people.

Once outside the shit cities that are around the coasts, the rest of the nation is the same. Nice, friendly people, small towns, beautiful country...

I'm a smoker (and can't smoke in the rental car). On back roads, I'd pull over every hour or so to have a smoke. In EVERY State, when I was on the shoulder having a smoke, EVERY vehicle stopped and asked if I was OK or needed help. THAT'S TRUE AMERICAN'S.

bczoom said:

Some of the interesting parks or points of interest.

Crater of Diamonds park was a bust - Didn't find any diamonds. It's norm for the past several decades was at least 1 diamond found daily but they turned the ground a month ago and none have been found since.

Hot Springs wasn't at all what I expected (it's a city, but it's called a National Park). Nice area but when you're expecting nature and find yourself in a town, I wasn't sure how to react.

Dogwood Canyon was very nice. Great for a half or full day visit.

Thorncrown chapel was very, very nice. A half-hour visit is enough to enjoy it.

Fantastic Caverns was nice. Go underground on a riding tour for an hour or two. We've been in many, many caverns that have more impressive geology but this one has great history. It was an underground speakeasy during prohibition, bands play down there...

Effigy mounds was interesting but not impressive. I was expecting to see the 100' wide by 500' long by 40' high mounds. These weren't them as they were much smaller. Still a great visit as the wife and I effectively got a 2-hour private tour with a NFS Park Ranger. There were others at the start of the tour but due to terrain, everyone else turned back.

Pikes Peak was good for a short visit. It's a peak overlooking the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

Click to expand...

I thought that confluence Of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers was right here in St. Charles/ St. Peter's MO, just north of St Louis.
There is a small strip of hills there on the Illinois side. Never knew the names were Pikes peak.

FrancSevin said:

I thought that confluence Of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers was right here in St. Charles/ St. Peter's MO, just north of St Louis.
There is a small strip of hills there on the Illinois side. Never knew the names were Pikes peak.

Click to expand...

My bad.
It's the Mississippi and Wisconsin River.

I've driven over 5,000 miles in the last month or so my apologies as some are a blur.

When in Arkansas,..... I love to spend a few hours wading around in the water under the Myrtle Train Trestle.

..... No noisy crowds, lots of nostalgia, ... and a nice opportunity to get out of my shoes and wiggle my toes.