5-Day Midwest Road Trip: Kansas City, Manhattan, and Omaha

We decided to combine two of our loves for this year’s annual trip: UCF football and an American road trip, so we set off to Kansas and Nebraska for five days of football, midwestern small-town charm, and, of course, plenty of good food and craft breweries. We packed a lot into five days, from college football and BBQ to mushroom-shaped rocks and sleeping in a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail. 

Below is our full itinerary from Kansas City to Omaha, with links to all of our stops. 

Day 1: Arrive in Kansas City 

We scheduled our flights to arrive at the same time and made a dinner reservation accordingly, but of course, the trip started with a long delay for Alicia’s flight from Boston. That gave Dana some time to pick up our rental car and luckily, we still landed in Kansas City, Missouri in time to kick off our trip the only way you should in KC — with barbecue.

Alicia has been to Kansas City once before so we hit up a favorite of hers from that trip - Jack Stack BBQ. They are famous for their burnt ends, a Kansas City BBQ classic, so that’s what we ordered! It was just as good as Alicia remembered. It’d been a while since we’d seen each other in person, so we spent a lot of time catching up and chowing down.

After dinner, we hit the road and drove about 1.5 hours west to Topeka for the night. We stayed at the Endeavor Inn & Suites, Trademark Collection by Wyndham. It was close to the highway and we knew we’d be arriving late and leaving early, so it seemed like a good option. Plot twist: it wasn’t. The room reeked of smoke and the air conditioner was wonky and loud. The breakfast was…well, Alicia refused to drink the coffee and made Dana detour to a Starbucks before hitting the road. Oh well, it was safe and got us closer to Manhattan, Kansas for the game the next day. 

Day 2: Game Day in Manhattan, Kansas 

Our second day was all about college football and classic game day fun in Manhattan — home of Kansas State University. We, of course, were cheering for the visitors - Go Knights! With an 11AM game time (thanks time zones), we weren’t sure what to expect. We parked at the Aggieville Garage (1318 W Laramie) so that we were equidistant to the stadium and the downtown area. There was plenty of parking at 9:30AM (an hour and a half before game time) and not much going on in Aggieville at that time, so we walked the 30 minutes to the stadium. Not much tailgating with such an early game start, so we made our way into the stadium (don’t forget your clear bag - regular bags aren’t allowed in stadiums).

We sat in section 428 and were two sections over from the other UCF fans (ChatGPT steered us wrong in our section selection!), but the K-State fans around us were all very friendly and welcoming. At half time, we headed over to the visitor section (430) and found some open seats so we could be around other UCF fans. It was a tough loss for us on a really hot day, but always fun to support our team on the road.

After going to the Iowa State game last year (and Dana having season tickets to UCF in Orlando), we were a little surprised by the tameness of the stadium, but it was family weekend (and early and hot) so maybe not the norm.

Post-game, we made our way to O’Malley’s Alley, a classic college bar perfect for post-game celebrations. We were the old ladies sitting in a booth slowly drinking our beers, so we decided a brewery was more our speed and headed to Manhattan Brewing Company where we found other Knight fans - including the bar tenders who turned out to be UCF grads and one of Alicia’s sorority sisters she hadn’t seen since graduation. Small world! To finish out our Manhattan, Kansas adventure, we headed to Tall Grass Tap House for dinner and a final flight of local beer. We’ve officially been to Kansas!

We, of course, waited too long to book our trip and all hotels in Manhattan were full (pro tip: book early for game weekends), so we stayed at the Sonesta Essential Junction City about 20 minutes away. It was much better than the night before (though we were so deliriously tired that we thought the a/c just wasn’t working and were hot all night, only to realize the next morning that we weren’t using the right control panel).

Day 3: Explore Kansas on the drive to Nebraska 

Day three was our big driving and exploring day on our way to the Spring Ranch Campground.  First stop: Mushroom Rock State Park – a quick stop for the 0.2-mile Mushroom Rock Trail, featuring mushroom-shaped sandstone formations. We don’t recommend going out of your way for this odd little rock formation sandwiched between fields of wheat and corn, but if it’s on your way, it's an interesting little stop to stretch your legs.

Next, we headed to Wilson Lake State Park to hike the Wilson Lake Loop Trail. It’s a winding, looping trail so you don’t far, but you get a ton of great views of the beautiful lake.  There was no shade, so we were pretty toasty by the end. We worked up an appetite (and a hike just isn’t the same without a post-hike beer) so we headed to Fly Boy Brewery in Sylvan Grove, Kansas just before the Nebraska state line. The beer and the food were both good, but what we found so fascinating was the town itself - the main area (a total of one block) had a quintessential Americana main street look, but the brewery seemed to be the only active storefront. We later looked up the population and discovered the town is only home to 291 people. As city dwellers ourselves, we really enjoyed experiencing the small towns we came across on this trip. The lifestyle is so different from our own, and we wish we’d had more time to really soak it in and better understand what small-town life in Kansas and Nebraska is like!

Shortly after leaving the brewery, we noticed a sign that pointed to “the geographic center of the continental United States”. This felt like a detour worth following! We headed down a back road and came to a tiny little cul-de-sac settled amongst the farm land with a sign marking the geographic center and a tiny little church (so random). 

We continued on our drive through beautiful plains and, to our surprise, rolling hills, to our most unique stay of the trip — a covered wagon along the historic Oregon Trail at the Spring Ranch Campground. Oregon Trail goals: don’t die of dysentery, don’t lose oxen fording the river. The covered wagon was adorable and right next to a lovely, peaceful field. It was really cute inside and decorated perfectly - except for the massive gathering of flies huddling around the canvas top. I (Alicia) have a decent tolerance for the outdoors, but I was not about to sleep in a wagon full of flies and went on a rampage with the fly swatter. Much to Dana’s surprise (who had no faith in my ability to beat the swarm of flies), I was pretty successful in ridding the wagon of most of the annoying buzzing. Alicia: 1. Bugs: 0.

Since we were only staying one night, we decided to head into town to get dinner rather than attempting to cook over the campfire (if you have been following along on our adventures, you know this didn’t work out so well for us on our low country road trip). The neighbor who checked us into our wagon recommended we go to “Dewesee” for dinner, texting the owner to see if they were opening and laughing about how everyone knows everyone in a small town. She kept saying “go to Dewesee” and then finally told us the name of the restaurant - and that’s when we realized how small the town is: there is only one restaurant in the area, so no need to call it by name. It really sunk in when she told us the directions: make a left and then another left until you get to the black top road.” That was it. One black top road and one restaurant. We couldn’t have been more excited for this adventure. After she left, we looked up the town population: 43. 

We went for a quick paddleboard in the little pond on the property and then headed to dinner. Imagine our surprise when we walked into the restaurant and it was full! We counted the number of people inside - it was the whole town! We spent most of our meal eating in silence and eavesdropping on the people around us to get a little glimpse into their lives. The food was good, and we had a local beer before returning to our wagon to make s’mores over the campfire. 

In a surprise to absolutely no one, we struggled to get the fire going despite having fire starters and lighter fluid. We got enough of a flame to make our s’mores and sit outside for a bit (which included the sounds of howling coyotes not too far away!). We put out our fire, headed back into our wagon, killed a few more flies, and settled into our cozy beds for some much-needed sleep. 

Day 4: Exploring Nebraska: Lincoln Lunch & Omaha Evening 

The next morning, we drank our coffee overlooking the prairie and were joined for a few minutes by the campground owner. He was kind and interesting to chat with and let us pet his dogs. We decided to take advantage of the quietness of the property before heading out. We took our books to the pond and jumped on a pedal boat for some relaxing reading time. 

After relaxing and packing back up, we left the campground and drove about 2 hours northeast to Lincoln, Nebraska for a leisurely lunch stop. We had lunch at the Green Gateau, a charming bistro in downtown Lincoln with a cozy atmosphere and fresh, locally inspired dishes. Our food was amazing and a perfect little stop to break up the drive.

From there, we continued another hour to our final destination: Omaha. We dropped off our rental car at the airport and then headed to Magnolia Hotel Omaha, a stylish historic hotel with a free airport shuttle and a prime downtown location. Dana booked the hotel and apparently had some sort of Expedia status, so we were greeted with a bottle of champagne in our room. We felt quite fancy (especially after sleeping in a covered wagon the night before). We showered off the bug spray and sweat from our outdoorsy adventure, put on cute outfits, and headed out to explore Omaha’s Old Market. The Old Market District is a vibrant area complete with cobblestone streets, boutique shops, and local art.  Who knew Omaha was so trendy!? Our first stop was Hollywood Candy. I honestly don’t even know how to describe this place. It is a collector's dream: everything from walls of old Pez dispensers to old-fashioned candy for sale. We pursued the unique toy collections for a while and then headed out to window shop around the rest of the area (where I bought my son a little kids' book about Nebraska) and try out a few local breweries. We finished our night, and our trip, with an amazing dinner at Gather Omaha, a farm-to-table restaurant known for seasonal dishes and craft cocktails.

Day 5: Homeward Bound 

We wrapped up our road trip with an early flight home. The airport was small and easy to navigate, but the gates were separate, so we had to say goodbye in front of the airport. This road trip was the perfect blend of small-town charm, unique finds, and quaint scenery. From cheering on our UCF Knights in Manhattan to sleeping under the stars in a covered wagon, it was a reminder that the Midwest is full of hidden gems worth exploring.

And that’s another Dana and Alicia adventure in the books. See ya next time!

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