N is for Nowledge

Ok, since when has Wichita, Kansas become so popular?!

We are planning a trip up to visit my parents and brother in Nebraska for Memorial Day Weekend. And we're driving up there.

Crazy? Yes. But, as we were making our flight plans, right before I clicked the button saying "Buy This Fare" (or something like that), we suddenly came to the realization that for $1300 less, we could drive up there and get there at the same time. That's persuasive.

Last year we drove up and drove all night in order to get there at 6am and let my parents take care of the kids while we slept a little. On the way back, we did the same thing and got home in time to let the nanny take care of the kids while we slept. However, that's just painful. So, instead, we're going to break the drive up into two days.

We thought it would be good to make it to Wichita the first day, which would be a long day, and then have a relatively short day the second day. The bonus to this plan also being the fact that we might make it to my hometown in time to have Runza for lunch! (after only 12 years of marriage, I have finally convinced my husband of the virtues of the cheese Runza!)

Imagine our surprise when we called a hotel in Wichita last night only to find that they are completely booked. The only hotel we were able to find was going to be $185 for one night!

This leaves us with a dilemma. Try to push on further to Salina? Too painful. Looks like we're going to try out a small town about an hour south of Wichita. This could seriously jeapordize our chances of having Runza's for every meal during our time in Nebraska, however. (yes, they're that good.)

Every time we try to make this trip to Nebraska, it's the same story. I swear, it's just about the hardest place to get to on earth. We've tried every approach. Driving: That's a 14 hour trip with no stops.

Flying: We can fly to Lincoln, which is only 1 hour away from my hometown, but we have to fly through Minneapolis on the way. Yeah, Minnesota is right on the way to Nebraska from Texas. Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Ohio, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska. Don't you know your geography?! And this trip only takes something like 9 or 10 hours from our house to my parents' house. Not a huge time savings. Plus, they always lose our luggage. It's hard to keep it straight when you have so many states to go through, you know.

We can fly to Omaha, which is 2 hours from my hometown. This actually isn't that bad because we can finally fly straight to Omaha. We used to have to take a flight that made a stop in Kansas City and then fly on to Omaha. Ridiculous.

So, at one point, we started just flying to Kansas City. It's only a 3 hour drive from there to my hometown.

They keep on saying that they're going to add a direct flight from Houston to Lincoln someday. I'll believe it when I see it...

But you know, as difficult as it is to get there, it's totally worth it. I get to see my family, for one, but there's no place I feel more at home.

I love to hear people make jokes about Nebraska. It used to make me mad because I love it so much, but now it just makes me smile because it's like I know a secret that they'll never know or understand. My heart belongs to that farm and prarie land.