Let's Go Places: The Great Blogger Road Trip, Part Five

 

Friends, the Great Blogger Road Trip of 2026 has been epic.  But it can't last forever.  Let's have our last hurrah before Kyria and I head home.

Day 13

Start: Pierre SD

End: Lincoln NE

States Traveled In: South Dakota, Nebraska

Ohio License Plate Sightings: none

Things We Did: Had an epic walk in lovely weather around Pierre, toured the capitol, and drove to Lincoln

Eats: eggs, sausage, and potatoes from the hotel breakfast bar, car cooler sandwich, and wings for dinner (Kyria got ribs and I traded her a wing for a rib).  Plus an unpictured salad and an unpictured beer flight.

Media Consumed/Road Trip Activities: we started listening to You With the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate (it's good but also a very tough listen), about half of the Hamilton soundtrack, and various podcasts.  We knocked back another two episodes of UK Traitors at night.

Best Thing: the morning walk in Pierre, which included our self guided capitol tour

2nd Best Thing: whoa, Lincoln is a hoppin' city!  Was not expecting that.  We had a nice walk around after dinner.

Worst Thing: there's no getting around it, even with two of us driving is starting to get very monotonous.  The scenery is SD was beautiful, and Nebraska is much less so.

2nd Worst Thing: You With the Sad Eyes is a tough listen.

Day 14

Start: Lincoln NE

End: Ottawa IL

States Traveled In: Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois

Ohio License Plate Sightings: none, but we saw a truck with a Nebraska license plate that had a business name and address from Ohio.

Things We Did: Toured the capitol, ate lunch in Omaha and drove by Warren Buffet's house afterward, and started the official drive home.  As retired people we are usually off the road by 6:00, but this day we were in the car until 8:00 (still six hours of driving total).

Eats: hotel breakfast and a rueben smackdown for lunch.  We both had half of a reuben sandwich for lunch with a starter course of rueben eggrolls.  Dinner was the 2nd halves of our sandwiches eaten in the car.

Media Consumed/Road Trip Activities: random podcasts, and two episodes of UK Traitors at night.  Challenge accepted: we will finish season one before Kyria and I part company.

Best Thing: The capitol.

2nd Best Thing: lunch in Omaha

Worst Thing: the capitol tour!  Being in the building was amazing, the tour was less so.  The other members of the tour were a high school class celebrating their 55th reunion.  I've been on plenty of tours with grade and middle school classes, and the difference between kids and adults is that the kids have always been well behaved and don't talk while the guide is speaking.  The tour guide was very passionate, but she brought "grade school teacher" energy that wasn't a good fit with the vibe of the former high school class.

2nd Worst Thing: none!  I was expecting the drive to be as tedious as the day before, but the time moved.

Day 15

Start: Ottawa IL

End: Birchwood HQ

States Traveled In: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio

Ohio License Plate Sightings: none in Illinois, many in Indiana, many in Ohio lol

Things We Did: morning hike at Dayton Bluffs Preserve near the hotel, drove to Birchwood HQ, had dinner with Hubs and Doggo.

Eats: hotel breakfast, odds and ends from our snack stash for lunch, and a chicken sausage/roasted broccoli/roasted potato bowl for dinner (one of my standard dinner staples that I can whip up on short notice).

Doggo wasted no time in claiming her seat at the table.

Media Consumed/Road Trip Activities: Podcasts!  We knocked back a few episodes of The Moth, the Acquired episode on Ikea, and some random travel hacking podcasts.  We ended the evening with another episode of UK Traitors.

Best Thing: We're home!!!

2nd Best Thing: the morning walk at Dayton Bluffs

Worst Thing/2nd Worst Thing: The inevitable end of the journey is in sight.  We have another day to chill at Birchwood HQ before Kyria leaves for her next adventure.

Thanks for hanging out in semi-real time for the Great Blogger Road Trip of 2026!!!  Let's plan on meeting up in a few days for another post with the overview of the trip, more of an explanation of how we planned it, superlatives, and a photo dump.

P.S. Kyria's side of the story is here

P.P.S. if anyone needs us today, we'll be on the couch finishing season one of UK Traitors.