This leg of my trip was a huge disappointment. There isn’t really
anything neat to look at around here. I was expecting to see some mountains and
forests but all you see is GRASS, endless plains of freaking grass. I know that this is
the Great Plains region but damn, can’t there be the random mountain or canyon along
the way? The next time I drive across the country, I am going to go around Iowa and Nebraska.
Des Moines – There is actually a pretty large Asian population
here, which I did not know beforehand. I was definitely not expecting to see Asian
grocery stores and Vietnamese restaurants in the middle of Iowa. Des Moines is
kind of spread out but quite small in terms of its downtown area. The highlight
of this city is that I found an Asian-themed (tastefully done) pizza place
called Fong’s Pizza. The pizza was pretty good and the story is that before the
pizza place was in business, the space was occupied by the first Chinese
restaurant in the state of Iowa and the next business owners wanted to keep the
Asian tradition going.
North Platte – When I asked the hotel check-in girl, “What
cool things are there to see in town?” and she replied with “nothing”, I probably
should have moved on with my road trip. Well, I figure I didn’t drive out here
to not see anything in Nebraska so I drove around town and eventually found Union
Pacific’s Bailey Yard, the largest railroad classification yard in the world.
For $6 I had the chance to ride up in an elevator six flights and look at the
rail yard. It wasn’t very good value for time or money but then again, what else are you going to
do in Nebraska?
My buddy Jae, who also took Highway 80 from New York to California,
informed me that southern Wyoming is also full of grass and just as boring as Iowa
and Nebraska. So I will be changing my
route and taking a detour through northern Colorado.
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