Recommend a route across Nebraska/Kansas (Omaha, Lincoln: motels, to move, places to eat)

[Ghengis]

will be traveling from NE to SW and was looking for a route across Nebraska and Kansas on our way to New Mexico. Pefer traveling the paved back-roads and of course avoid the interstates. Anticipating a May/June time frame and not in a huge hurry so it doesn't have to be the shortest route. Strongly considering a drive across the northern part of the state on Hwy 20 and into the Sand Hills region, tho I admit I know little of the area and any specific destinations there or in the state. Would like to stay somewhere in the country (small town) for the evening maybe along the Platte River (????).

Any advice or tips would be appreciated.

[JustMe_T3K]

Highway 20 all the way across Nebraska. It's pretty.

Or 20 to 81 then south to Kansas.

In Kansas I can't help.

[Gunluvver2]

Just stay on the two lane back roads and Nebraska and Kansas are both fantastic. Interstate 70 in Kansas and I-80 in Nebraska were laid out to move people across the country in a hurry. . . not to enjoy the scenery. The Interstate highways were the brainchild of Dwight Eisenhower, a Kansas boy. He was inspired by the highway system Hitler had built in Germany.

GL2

[jmgg]

Find a way to avoid western Kansas. Hands down the most boring drive I've ever been on. At least in western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska there are hills to drive over. It gives you the anticipation that there might be something on the other side of the hill. There usually isn't anything, but at least you have the anticipation. In Kansas, the only thing protruding up is the occasional giant grain elevators in the small towns.

I'd continue on driving whatever route you wish across Nebraska (or maybe South Dakota) and head south either via Wyoming/Colorado or down through just Colorado.

[jazzlover]

Over the years, I have made numerous trips across both states--east to west and north to south--over the 2-lane highways. While the Sandhills of Nebraska really are lovely, they are a long ways out of the way for a NE-SW route to New Mexico.

My route would be any of several across NE Nebraska, likely through Omaha or Lincoln, thence southward toward Topeka, Kansas. There are several nice secondary highway routes through the Flint Hills of Kansas, which are lovely. Then southwestward toward Liberal, Kansas and through the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles into New Mexico. Southwestern Kansas and the Panhandles are not terribly scenic, but there are some nice areas here and there. Once into New Mexico, there are a couple nice routes across northeastern New Mexico that have some pretty areas. I like the area around Folsom and Des Moines, for example.

Throughout that trip, there are numerous small towns with affordable non-chain places to eat, and "Mom and Pop" motels or B&B's. Kansas and Nebraska have some of the nicest folks around, especially in the small towns. That alone makes up for the less spectacular scenery. Compared to metro and resort Colorado places, the people in Nebraska and Kansas are ten times as friendly. That less-than-pleasant facet of Colorado is one of the ways that a lot of Colorado has really changed for the worse in the last few decades.