Nebraska 2017

Total Solar Eclipse: Beatrice

Sunday, August 20 through Thursday, August 24, 2017

We drove from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to various destinations in Nebraska and Kansas, including the main objective of the trip: viewing the total eclipse of the sun at Homestead National Monument of America (near Beatrice, Nebraska), on August 21. (Note to non-Nebraskans: "Beatrice" is pronounced, "bee-AT-riss.") We also visited the SAC (Strategic Air Command) Museum in Ashland, Nebraska, the Willa Cather home in Red Cloud, Nebraska, the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states, near Lebanon, Kansas, and the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas.

I tracked the trip with a Bad Elf GPS Pro+ GPSr (GPS receiver). There were a few problems:

I forgot to start the receiver a couple of times...the first was the drive from the hotel in Grand Island, Nebraska to (and from) the dinner restaurant, and
...when we left the hotel in Grand Island...until we were mid-Hastings, Nebraska. This led to a double track from downtown Hastings to the gas station in southwest Hastings.
In both cases, substitute tracks were added to make up for the holes. They are documented below.

NOTE: the downloadable GPX tracks are the full GPX files, while those shown on the provided "view map" links are simplified (with minimal effect on geographic accuracy) for much faster viewing.

Original GPX tracks are unedited.

Businesses are named below for reference only. No endorsement should be inferred. If you wish to see my opinion of the places mentioned, see TripAdvisor (for those that I have actually rated).

Overview

Overview map—This is a composite map of all the GPS tracks on a blank US/Canada map.
All GPS tracks / view map—The whole trip, including walking, driving, etc.

Sunday, August 20

GPX / view map —Driving from Oklahoma City to Bellevue, Nebraska. Includes driving past my former residences (off Schilling Dr, Bellevue...which has been torn down, and the former Chateauroux Apartments off Galvin Rd, Bellevue) and to a gas station, finally to the hotel.
GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel to our dinner spot (Village Inn).
GPX / view map —Driving back to the hotel.

Monday, August 21

GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel in Bellevue to the Gage County Fairgrounds in Beatrice, Nebraska. We left the hotel about 4:20 a.m. CDT, and arrived at the parking area in Beatrice about 6 a.m. CDT!
GPX / view map —The bus ride from Beatrice's Gage County Fairgrounds to Homestead National Monument of America, where we observed the total eclipse of the sun several hours later.
GPX / view map —Our meanderings (walking) at Homestead National Monument of America. We observed the eclipse from the southwesternmost point in the track.
GPX / view map —The bus ride back to Beatrice (the Gage County Fairgrounds, where my car was parked).
GPX / view map —Driving from Beatrice to our hotel in Omaha, Nebraska. We took U.S. 6 instead of I-80 for a while, based on the recommendation of both of our navigation systems, plus a detour around Ashland based on one of them.
GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel to a restaurant for dinner in west Omaha, Nebraska.
GPX / view map —Returning to the hotel in west Omaha, Nebraska.

Tuesday, August 22

GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel in west Omaha to the SAC (Strategic Air Command) Museum in Ashland, Nebraska.
GPX / view map —Driving from the SAC Museum to our hotel in Grand Island, Nebraska.
GPX / view map —Driving to/from dinner from/to our hotel in Grand Island, Nebraska. (This track is from Stu's GPS receiver.)

Wednesday, August 23

GPX / view map —Driving from our hotel in Grand Island, Nebraska to Hastings, Nebraska, including visiting an old Navy installation east of town. This track ends at a gas station in Hastings, and overlaps somewhat with the next track. (This track is from my car's navigation system.)
GPX / view map —Driving from Hastings, Nebraska to Red Cloud, Nebraska. (This track overlaps the last 20 minutes or so of the previous track.)
GPX / view map —Walking in Red Cloud, Nebraska, including the opera house (same building as the Willa Cather visitor center), the old bank, and the (Willa) Cather childhood home.
GPX / view map —Driving from Red Cloud, Nebraska to our hotel in Hutchinson, Kansas. Includes a short side-trip to the Geographic Center of the Contiguous 48 States, just northwest of Lebanon, Kansas (about 10 km south of the Kansas/Nebraska border).
GPX / view map —Driving from our hotel to a restaurant for dinner in Hutchinson, Kansas.
GPX / view map —Driving back to the hotel in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Thursday, August 24

GPX / view map —Driving from our hotel to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. Includes walking from the parking area to the Cosmosphere across the street.
GPX / view map —Driving from the Cosmosphere to dinner in Wichita, Kansas. We had selected the Bella Luna (west) restaurant, but the Waze app somehow took us to the wrong one (the car's navigation system didn't recognize the address of the west-side site, so I didn't use its guidance, relying only on Waze....)
GPX / view map —Driving from Wichita, Kansas back to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.