Wide Open Land - the American Midwest

 

Out we are again,,, to the Midwest of the U.S.A. this time. Our flight from Munich to Denver on Wednesday departed in the afternoon, which made the 2.5-hour train trip to the airport by train bearable. The plane, a Dreamliner (Boeing 787), was full to the last seat. There was a third person in our row (hate this 3-4-3 configuration!), and, what I especially hate, is the fact that nowadays the plane is dark for 10 hours. People darken the windows completely and it feels like night without being the right time to sleep.

 

Anyway, we survived, flight was smooth, and, we arrived to Denver with only a slight delay. Immigration went quick with Global Entry, luggage took a bit longer, then a bus ride to the rental car station and a bit of waiting there till we underwent the usual inspection/selection process between several SUVs, some of them real big. After some back and forth, we chose a Toyota RAV4, 2024 model, and arrived to our airport hotel about 2 hours after touch-down, at 9 pm. Dropped our luggage and went out again to a nearby brewery, Danico, to have a drink, a.k.a., IPA. Deadbeat we went to bed afterwards, but sleep was fitful.

 

At 7 we got up, at 8 am we left the hotel in sunny, warm weather. It's been a 3-hour drive to Ogallala, our first stop in Nebraska. Uneventful drive, not much traffic (mostly trucks), a constant 77 mph (123 kmh) with switched-on cruise control through wide open land, partly pasture, partly fields, lots of cattle, not too many settlements. Dusty, windy, flat - and, so, so different from all our landscapes at home!

 

Arrived to Ogallala before noon and had a full, exciting day there! More on that coming up!