My Next Big Thing: See it all

12 hours, 48 minutes, and 870 miles of highway lie between here and Omaha, and the agriculture show kicks off 45 minutes out of town and gets serious after Nashville. Impossibly neat rows of corn corn corn roll across hundreds of acres along the way, and there's a super bonus spotting the currently copy-catted real farmhouses reigning amongst fields, silos, and barns.

My maiden visit to Omaha was in the 1990s, through the largesse of Delta Air Lines. At that time, the internet and mobile phones were making their way from The Jetsons to the rest of the world and younger, unenlightened me found downtown Omaha dull. I took a look around for shopping, found little, and pronounced this Delta city lackluster and newly penciled in on my no-fly list.

I was older and somewhat wiser in 2021 when Steve and I hit the road for Omaha and College World Series Trip #1. This was when I discovered all those cornfields lining the way, and that Omaha looked like a brand new city I had never seen before, polished up for the college baseball fans of June. Shiny as it was, the Vols went down in early games, and we were in and out of town in a flash. The high point of Omaha 2021 was going round and round in circles looking for an obscure statue of Chef Boyardee, so finding him was a big bonanza.

It was the same road to Nebraska in 2024, this year paved with brighter hopes for Tennessee. Baseball was the reason for the season, but there was also delectable sightseeing to be had. Omaha hotel rooms were going at a ridiculous premium, so we landed in Lincoln, an easy 45 minute drive away. Lincoln, the state capitol of Nebraska and home of the mighty Cornhuskers served up plenty to see. We took a look at all of the above there, not to mention we had already dropped into the University of Missouri on the way up.

Amidst the cornfields and pastures on the road from Lincoln to Charles Schwab Field, an extraordinary glass and cedar structure suddenly appeared up on a hill beside the interstate. So surprising was this sight that it merited a lightning fast google (“glass structure I-80 Nebraska”), and a hop off Exit 432 for a miniature visit at the Holy Family Shrine, a lovely place in the middle of semi-nowhere. Built by a group of faith-filled people, it's a beautiful and serene spot for travelers stopping by along the way to baseball and anywhere else.

Besides the Vols, Omaha had some fine things to see—Big Boy, a massive 1944 Union Pacific steam locomotive (also sitting high on a hill above Interstate 80); the Birthplace of Gerald Ford—a pretty garden commemorating the house where the 38th President was born (his presidential golf bag lives in a glass and brick showcase): Creighton University (basketball school); and, last but not least, a shiny silver 15’ sculpture of spaghetti on a fork (just like it sounds).

I recite these not-fancy (some might say mundane) landmarks because I have become a huge devotee of finding opportunities to see new things that are a little or a lot significant. I've dragged a fairly enthusiastic Steve to sights he didn't even know he wanted to see, and I want to sign you up to look at great things, too.

Countless layovers in 45 states on my calendar of times past reveal that I could have done a better job seeing what each locale had on offer. I was an idiot at the time, taking the weekly (or more) drop into sundry cities across America for granted. I never considered that Delta days would be a limited time offer, but years go by and here we are. While I was mostly busy looking for shopping—of all things—I should’ve been out looking at state capitols, universities, gardens, trains, and Chef Boyardee.

The longer one gets to be around, the more evident it becomes that life moves lightning fast and brings changes of all kinds, some of which can alter the landscape of your whole world in an instant.

With time being so dear, here is what is always on my mind: We may never get back this way, so we'd better have a good look around while we're here. (Even if it's just admiring cornfields and farm houses from the car window).

Enjoy wherever you are, and see everything you can, while you can.