Nebraska

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Nebraska is a state in the Great Plains region of the United States of America.

	nebraska Travel Guide : 1 Regions 2 Cities 3 Other destinations 4 Understand 5 Talk 6 Get in 7 Get around 8 See 8.1 Itineraries 9 Do 10 Eat 11 Drink 12 Contact 12.1 Phone 12.2 Internet 13 Stay safe 14 Get out 15 External links

Regions

Nebraska regions as defined by the Nebraska Division of Travel and Tourism:1 (http://www.visitnebraska.org/)

• Frontier Trails – south-central
• Lewis and Clark – northeast
• Metro – Lincoln and Omaha metropolitan areas
• Panhandle – west
• Pioneer Country – southeast
• Prairie Lakes – southwest
• Sand Hills – north-central

Cities

• Omaha
• Lincoln
• Bellevue
• Grand Island
• Kearney
• Fremont
• Hastings
• North Platte
• Scottsbluff/Gering
• Norfolk
• Columbus

Other destinations

• Pine Ridge – a historic region of pine forests, rugged buttes and badlands formations in the northwest corner of the state.

Understand

Nebraska has a reputation of being a flat, monotonous region of farm and ranchland, but this stereotype has come from the many people who drive across Nebraska on the Interstate 80 corridor (the Platte River valley). Those who venture off this heavily travelled road discover that Nebraska does have a subtle, wide-open beauty that is all its own.

Talk

The vast majority of Nebraskans speak American English with a neutral "Standard Midwestern" accent. In some rural areas of the state, people speak with a slight accent best described as "country twang"; this accent is also easy to understand. Nebraska is largely devoid of unusual terms for everyday items, with a few exceptions:

• Soda is nearly universially referred to as pop.
• Beer served from a keg at a bar is a draw; a half beer/half tomato juice drink in rural areas is a red draw.
• The of Norfolk is pronounced Norfork and the town of Beatrice is pronounced Bee-at-riss

and the town of Papillion is pronounced Pap-pill-yun.

Nebraska does have a small, but fast-growing, Hispanic population, largely concentrated in its medium-sized cities and Omaha. In these areas, governments, businesses, and community organizations often provide services in Spanish.

Get in

By car: Nebraska's major national highway corridor is Interstate 80, which runs east-west across the state. Other major highways that enter Nebraska include Interstate 76 (from Colorado), US 81 (major north-south route), US 20 (northern east-west route), US 26 (from Wyoming), and US 385/Nebraska 71 (western north-south route).

By plane: The two major airports in Nebraska are located in Omaha and Lincoln. Omaha is served by all major airlines; Lincoln is served by Northwest and United. There are no direct international flights to any Nebraska airport. Other airports with commercial service are in Alliance, Chadron, Grand Island, Kearney, McCook, North Platte and Scottsbluff. The Sioux City, Iowa airport serves the northeast corner of the state.

By train: Amtrak makes stops several times per week on in Omaha, Lincoln, Hastings and McCook. Amtrak's stops are generally in the middle of the night.

By bus: Greyhound only serves Omaha. Two other companies, Arrow Stage Lines and Burlington Trailways, make a number of stops in other Nebraska cities.

Get around

Nebraska is a large, sparsely populated state; the vast majority of Nebraska can only be seen by car.

See

• Scotts Bluff National Monument – large rock formations in the midst of flat land
• Chimney Rock National Historic Site – a landmark for travellers in the 1800s, this 500 foot-tall stone pillar marked the end of the prairies and the beginning of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
• Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park, near Royal – an active paleontological dig displaying the remains of rhinos, camels, and three-toed horses that lived in the area 12 million years ago.
• Toadstool State Park, a large expanse of a rock formation known as "toadstools" often seen in the Roadrunner cartoons. They are basically very large boulders sitting on top of small spires of rock.
• Migration of millions of cranes, waterfowl and other birds along the Platte River in spring and fall months.

Itineraries

Do

• Attend a Nebraska football game at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln
• Canoe, kayak or tube the Niobrara River in the Sand Hills
• Enjoy a cheap beer in one of the many bars south of the University of Nebraska campus in Lincoln

Eat

A past Nebraska slogan was The Beef State, and much of Nebraska's cuisine can still be best described as "meat and potatos". Stop in any Nebraska city or town and you'll be likely to find low-cost, high-quality, home-cooked dining options. Nebraska's cuisine has been influenced by the numerous immigrant groups that have settled in the state; for example, you'll find German and Scandinavian dishes in the northeast, Czech meals in some areas, and numerous Italian restaurants in Omaha.

Drink

• Kool Aid- The official drink of Nebraska. It was invented in Hastings Nebraska where there is also a museum dedicated to the drink.

Contact

Phone

The availability of Nebraska's mobile phone service varies greatly. Eastern Nebraska (generally along a line east of US 81) and the I-80 corridor are well-served by all major carriers; coverage for GSM networks outside of southeastern Nebraska is spotty. In the rest of the state, digital service is only provided by Alltel's CDMA network. Between towns in central and western Nebraska (particularly in the Sand Hills and the Panhandle), they may be no mobile phone service at all.

Public pay phones are rapidly disappearing; many of the smaller towns now only have one. In rural areas, many businesses will let people make local calls.

Internet

Nebraska has, given its population and size, fairly extensive Internet connectivity; however, public Internet access in Nebraska can be hard to find. (Internet cafes are practically nonexistant.) In many places, the best option for public Internet access is a public library; in rural areas, libraries are often only open for a few hours each week.

WiFi Internet access is now provided by many Nebraska businesses, particularly in Omaha and Lincoln. Recently, many hotels and motels statwide have added Internet connectivity as an additional amenity.

Stay safe

Nebraska is, on balance, a very low-crime state. Many people in rural areas do not lock their doors or take the keys out of their vehicles. Omaha and Lincoln have crime rates that are roughly on par with similarly-sized cities; crime rates do vary considerably among neighborhoods in Omaha.

Severe thunderstorms, hail, and tornados are not uncommon during the spring and summer months; Nebraska is in "Tornado Alley". Stay informed of current conditions if severe weather threatens, as conditions can change very rapidly. Nebraska TV and radio stations provide excellent severe weather coverage.

During the winter months, blizzards and ice storms do occur, and dangerous wind chills are a possibility. High winds can take even a limited amount of snowfall and form very large drifts -- beautiful to look at, but dangerous if you are stuck far from help. It is important to find a local weather forecast whenever you plan to travel through the more sparsely populated areas of the state.

Get out

Lincoln and Omaha are less than four hours from Kansas City.

Western Nebraska is within a half-day drive of Denver and other destinations in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming.

External links

• Nebraska Division of Travel and Tourism (http://www.visitnebraska.org/)
• Information on Ashfall Fossil Beds (http://www.ashfall.unl.edu/index.html)