Across the Midwest

As we made our way across Missouri and Iowa, the landscape really started to flatten out. Before we knew it, we were deep into the vast plains of the Midwest. But that doesn't mean the fun flattened out! Some of our favorite memories of the trip were in the "flyover" states of Nebraska and Kansas.​​

Neeeeebraaaasssskkkeeeerrrr

I don't even remember where it started, but the minute we entered the state, we came up with this weird way to say Nebraska (see the above title). It stuck for the rest of the trip — and beyond! 

Besides creating a new name for the state, we also had a lot of fun around the campground. We stayed at the Louisville State Recreation Area in Louisville, Nebraska. It's in the eastern part of the state, just over the border from Iowa. 

The park itself was okay. If we were kids, it'd be great! It was a pretty big campground with plenty of loops and sites. In the middle, there was a little pond with a huge inflatable floating jungle gym course! We didn't partake, but it looked like a blast for kids!

For most of the stay (which was only a couple days), we stuck around the campground, did a lot of walking, and (naturally) some drone shooting. 

The real superstar of the entire Nebraska stay was a restaurant. On one of our last mornings, we got a hankering for a good breakfast. After a quick Google search, we headed to the Wicked Hen Farmhouse in nearby Springfield, NE. It was so good, we rated it as one of our favorite restaurants on the entire trip!

Their breakfast food was absolutely DELICIOUS! They had sausage gravy and biscuits that I'll remember for a long time. But the real claim to fame was their breakfast sandwich. It was a massive homemade cinnamon roll cut in half and filled with eggs and bacon. It sounds weird, but it was incredible! If Nebraska wasn't so far away, we'd probably be there every morning!  

Kickin' it in Kansas

On the way to Kansas was quite a few hours of nothing but absolutely, incredibly, ridiculously flat farmland. While the drive itself might not have been particularly interesting, heading into our campsite at Minooka Park in Bunker Hill, KS was nothing short of incredible.

The flat land opened up to reveal a huge lake, complete with hills, sandy beaches, and even lakeside cliffs. It was stunning! (even by non-Kansas standards). 

Our campsite was right on one of the cliffs. We had incredible views of the lake and plenty of space to enjoy our time outside with a few "sodas." And I'm sure you called it, but we also took a few amazing drone videos!

It was a lot of fun being in such a cool Kansas spot, but there was one thing that got us a bit concerned. They were calling for thunderstorms... And when you're in Kansas, you don't take thunderstorms lightly.

These storms were on every news channel. Even some of the other campers with Kansas license plates were heading home. Naturally, we were a bit cautious. Since we were sitting right on the cliff, we swapped to another campsite on the other side of the hill. It wasn't nearly as pretty, but we hoped it was more protective.

That night, we endured our first official Kansas thunderstorm. There were super-loud thunder cracks, giant wind gusts, and lightning like we've never seen before, but we came out the other side just fine. Luckily, there wasn't any damage around the campground. Everyone woke up and went about their day like normal. 

The morning after the storms was so pretty, I just had to get some drone footage of the sunrise over our new campsite:

We didn't really get out and explore any of the surrounding areas (there wasn't much out here), but Kansas turned out to be one of our favorite stops on the trip. Minooka Park was surprisingly gorgeous! But now, we were off to Colorado and our first true taste of the West.