September 27

September 27, 2021 – Holland, MI to Omaha, NE

Now that the van was working as it should, I wanted to get some miles under the tires. Normally I like to limit my driving to a few hours per day, but this was going to be a long stretch. My goal is to get to Colorado in just a few days, then slow down and enjoy the mountains.

I also usually like to avoid highways and take the country roads, but since I’m just trying to get out west as fast as possible, I stuck to highway driving.

So, off I went.

My original plan was to stop overnight at a Walmart in Council Bluffs, IA. However, upon arriving at that location I noticed it wasn’t in a great area, and there were a lot of drugged-out people walking around.

I spent several years living in a major city and sadly have become pretty skilled at identifying people who are high on meth. I saw many people who were obviously high, and I just didn’t feel like it was the best place to stop.

I’m sure everything would have worked out ok, but I like to trust my instincts, so I located a rest area not far away that I could stop at overnight.

I’ve actually come to really like rest areas. The majority of them feel safe, have lots of open grassy areas to walk my dog, and for the majority of rest areas, parking overnight is no problem.

This particular rest area, which was West of Omaha on I-80, was situated on the top of a hill overlooking the vast farmland. After a long drive, it was nice to watch the beautiful sunset before I retreated to my van for the night.

Here’s a video I took right as the sun was going over the horizon.

Nothing else was too eventful on this drive. It was a long drive but I’m happy to have made it so far in one day.

This drive was a bit too long to make a timelapse video for, but here are some highlights.

And this is the route we took.