Summer Adventures 2016: #ThisisNebraska

When you grow up in a place, to you, that is home. Apart from my time in college, (Go NWC Eagles!), I have spent all of my life here in this fine state of Nebraska. To my surprise, not everyone is as familiar with my state in all of the other states. I still remember when we stopped in California to meet up with another church before heading down to minister in Mexico together. We managed to convince many in this LA area youth group that cow tipping was a regular past time in our community. That all we knew was farming despite the fact that in reality most of rarely went out of our urban communities. Perhaps Lincoln is not as large as LA, but we cannot exactly consider ourselves a town either.

Evidently this lack of knowledge about “The Good Life” state can be the norm when it comes to Nebraska. In fact, this was the sentiment that my friend, Deidra expressed in Chapter 4 of her book, Every Little Thing. When her husband mentioned that he thought he might like to put in his application for a pastoral job here, this was her response.

When it came to Nebraska, I was clueless. I am not exaggerating when I tell you I had to look up Nebraska on the map. I asked all the questions people ask who have never been to this part of this country: Are there any cities? Is everyone a farmer? Are there more cows or more people? Is there electricity? Indoor plumbing? I know, I know.

She goes on to talk about her first Husker football Saturday in Lincoln where she wondered if she had inadvertently ended up in a ghost town and could not figure out why everyone (everyone!) was wearing red. Okay, so Nebraska is not without its peculiarities. 🙂 Yet for me, Nebraska is still home. As I travel around the state this summer, I hope that you will come along with me. Besides telling you about some new exhibits that are coming to familiar favorite places, I am also planning on introducing you to many new places across Nebraska that have not been featured on this blog before. To the Nebraska where I have grown and loved!

Besides hanging out here on the blog, I also plan on featuring some more familiar places on the Facebook – taking you back to some of the places that we have already visited that you may forgotten about. Plus today is the start of my 92 day Instagram project: #thisisNebraska. Although this hashtag is not new to me, I think this thought perfectly expresses the diverse landscape and opportunities in Nebraska.

P.S. Have you followed this blog long enough to pick up on the fact that in addition to enjoying writing that I also love to read? On my other blog, http://www.sacredline.wordpress.com, I plan on “introducing” you to some of my favorite writers each week. In July, my favorite Nebraska authors who are personal friends of mine will be featured. What a perfect way to spend the summer – on the beach with a good book!