Lincoln, NE to Hastings NE on US Route 6

Lincoln, NE to Hastings NE

130 Miles

From Shoemaker’s Truck Stop in Lincoln, Route 6 is detoured onto Interstate 80 for about 20 miles (lots of roadwork going on across the country on this highway!), then rejoins its existing alignment in Milford, NE, and the Blue River State Recreation Area.  This drive was scenic, undeveloped and otherworldly green; like cruising through Paul Bunyan’s Golf Course.

Pour House
Friend, NE

Pour House
Friend, NE

Entrance to Pour House
Friend, NE

Pour House Vintage
Friend, NE

Humus Plate at
Pour House
Friend, NE

Pretty soon I came to the small town of Friend, where entrepreneur and screen-writer, Carrey Potter has set up a lovely wine-tasting bistro called Pour House within a slowly-being-restored Friend Opera House.  The small town “Opera House” is a grandiose moniker for the factory-type building that served as a theater and gathering place for residents who craved culture on the Plains.  Many of these Opera Houses across the Midwest are in decay, but Carrey is turning back the clock in little Friend, NE. She rents from the Friend Historical Society and is renovating in stages.  Next door to the contemporary tasting room an event space called the San Carlo Room is booked until 2018 for High School graduation parties.  Wildly popular Murder Mystery Dinners and of course the tasting room featuring nine Nebraska wines and others draw people from 100 miles away.  In August, Carrey plans to open yet another Friend Opera House establishment – the Mary, Mary Quite Contrary Art Gallery.  Carrey loves to play on words, reflected in the names of her house vintages; Betty White, Sknow White and Little Red Wrightinghood (which has a sweet snap a bit like a wine cooler).  I enjoyed it along with a good, fresh Humus Platter (comes with olives, cut cucumbers, warm pita bread and tabuli salad) while taking advantage of Pour House’s free wi-fi.  I found a friend in Friend.

I drove through several small towns; Exeter and Sutton (with a sign pointing to a “waterfowl production area,” and wondering whether they meant “protection.”)

As I approached my town for the evening, Hastings, NE, I began to see strange grass covered mounds that upon further inspection appeared to be bunkers.  I’d heard about these, and learned later that Hastings was a Naval Ammunition Depot (NAD), and these bunkers stored bombs and small arms manufactured in town.  The Government confiscated farmland five miles wide and 8 miles long in the 1940’s – and that “theft” is still a sore subject today among the farmers’ children and grandchildren. The camouflaged sod-covered bunkers are all that remain from that era, but they are still quite jarring to see.

Hastings Museum of Natural History
Hastings, NE

Kool Aid Exhibit
Hastings Museum of Natural History
Hastings, NE

Hastings has one attraction worth popping into, if only to see an IMAX Movie or the largest dead animal display this side of the NY Museum of Natural History. The Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History and Planetarium is the stuck in 1955 time-warp kind of place I loved as a kid.  Lots of rocks and minerals, taxidermy’d animal dioramas, what I discovered to be the “largest collection of mounted Whopping Cranes in the world,” and a hodge-podge of “grandma’s attic” stuff.  But this is not why you should go out of your way to come.  That would be; one - the High-School-History-Fair-quality Kool-Aid exhibit, showcasing everything you ever wanted to know about Edwin Perkins, the man whose mind dreamed up the famous “just add water and sugar” powered drink.  Even though Kool-Aid was never made here, the fact that the idea for it was germinated in Perkin’s Mom’s kitchen in Hastings is a big deal to this town.  Edwin Perkins was a mail-order and marketing genius of the highest order.  He even came up with an early smoking cessation product called “Nix-O-Tine,” which sold like gangbusters in the early 1900’s.  A man way before his time.

And 2 -  The other reason to stop into the Hastings Museum is to pay your respects to its founder, Albert Brookings who is interred beneath the floor of the basement.  He really loved and believed in this place!

blue moon coffee house
hastings, ne

Eat:  I had a sandwich at the cute Blue Moon – a colorful Starbucks alternative that’s a hit as a meeting place for local groups and teens who want to study.  I saw both, and my grilled PB&J was just right.

Lana Waldron, Owner in Period Dress
Grandma's House B&B
Hastings, NE

Guest Room, Grandma's House B&B
Hastings, NE

Stay: Though there are larger chain hotels in Hastings, I chose to stay at the new Grandma’s House B&B.  It’s new only in months running as a B&B.  The Victorian house itself was built in 1879 and came into possession of the great-granddaughter of the second owner by fluke. This great-granddaughter, Lana Waldron, dreamed of the house long before she ever saw it.  When a childless Aunt passed away, Colorado resident Lana found a picture of the Hastings, Nebraska house among the estate boxes, and she recognized it as the house from her dreams.  She surprised her grown children by up and leaving Boulder, CO and moving to Nebraska to run a B&B in the old family home.  With two charming, renovated light-and lace-filled rooms, Lana’s cooked-to-order-fresh from the hen breakfasts (or huevos rancheros whipped up by her partner, Don Olson), and her upbeat, winning personality, Grandma’s House will be a very busy place. FYI- Lana has three little rescue dogs and three chirpy birds, so if that’s a concern, Grandma’s is not for you.  For all animal lovers, however, you will find kindred spirits.