I love Nebraska. It's awesome to celebrate the 150th birthday of the Cornhusker State today, and really all throughout 2017. Nebraska is a special place with lots of tremendous people. My home state will always be Florida but I really appreciate all that Nebraska has to offer, especially as a dad and husband.
Nebraska is, for the most part, a safe place. I don't always lock my truck. I've never owned a house key for any of our homes in West Point, Franklin, or York. We sometimes take for granted the high quality of life we have here.
Nebraskans are, almost always, pretty dadgum nice. I will never forget the winter of 1992 when I was driving into Nebraska during a snow storm. I was headed north into Omaha to see my girlfriend, now wife. As I got closer and closer to the Nebraska border on I-29, the roads got slicker and slicker. I was in my GMC Jimmy, a small version of a blazer is the best way to describe it. I spun out on I-29, screamed like a little girl at a horror movie, and ended up in the median facing south. My little Jimmy with its Florida license plate was stuck. Within 5-minutes, just 300 seconds, two different cars (with Nebraska plates) had risked their own injury by stopping to check on me. Wow! I couldn't believe it. I remember thinking to myself that if that had happened in Florida, I also would've had two people stop within 5-minutes, but most likely their intent would have been to mug me, not help me!
Nebraska is under-rated. We have lots of awesome things here. The College World Series, the Henry Doorly Zoo, Chimney Rock, the Sandhills, and much, much more. While I love Omaha and Lincoln, I really like small town Nebraska too. The awesome little pizza joint in Pender, the bar in Republican City where they take shiner shots on Memorial Day Weekend, the mom and pop restaurant in Orleans that has the best patty melts this side of the Pecos River, and the Cuming County Fair in West Point are all amazing.
Nebraska is proud. Czech Days in Wilber, Yorkfest, The Annual Car Show in West Point, and other community celebrations show the amount of PRIDE we have in Nebraska. I love going to state level school activities like wrestling and track & field where you see folks from Cody-Kilgore next to folks from Omaha South. I love the beauty of Gering and Scottsbluff and the Republican River area between Red Cloud and Alma. I love seeing turkey and deer all over the place. I love all of the awesome places to fish and golf.
Nebraska offers it all. We have the city boys that wear skinny jeans and skinny ties that use hair gel and hand lotion daily. We also have the good 'ol boys that have belt buckles bigger than kindergarteners and skoal rings in every pair of jeans they own. We have folks that drives Ferraris and BMW's and small towns where if you drive anything other than a pickup truck, you're looked at a little differently. Nebraska is diverse but it is together, too.
Don't take Nebraska for granted. We enjoy safety, great people, more attractions and things to do than we realize, and a great quality of life. I'm proud to have married a Nebraskan and to raise four kids here. Nebraska feels like home.
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