by The Potter Sundry
The Potter Sundry in Potter, Nebraska, claims to be the home of the Tin Roof Sundae. I’m not here to argue with any excuse for ice cream.
It’s a small cafe with lots of great breakfast items. We had a delicious breakfast and then ordered a beautiful tin roof sundae, even though we weren’t hungry any more.
I wanted my own, but Doug thought it more prudent to split one since we’d just eaten. Doug is very unreasonable sometimes.
The High Point of Nebraska
Once upon a time we were working on getting to the high point of each state, but it’s been quite a while since we’ve bagged one. Panorama Point is the high point of Nebraska, and as is common with such a flat state, its high point is right down on the border with Colorado and Wyoming, two states that are emphatically not flat.
We had to drive the van on miles of unpaved roads; they were in overall very good shape, but it was very slow going and the van had to get washed after (inside and out). The high point itself is on private property — a bison ranch, to be exact. So it’s possible that when you arrive it will be closed to visitors, or that when you get to the actual high point the bison could prevent you from exiting your vehicle. We obviously got lucky on both points.
The cover photo to this post was taken on our miles of driving on unpaved roads to access the high point.
Pony Express Station
One of the quickest stops ever was to this Pony Express Station in Gothenburg, as there’s not much to it.
Did you know that the Pony Express was short-lived, operating for just 18 months starting in 1860? It originally had 190 stations every 5 to 20 miles on its route between Missouri and California. Reliable telegraphs made it obsolete.
Runza
I’ll just quote from wikipedia about why we were on the lookout for the food called Runza on our travels through the state: The runza is a regional cuisine of Nebraska, with some commentators calling it “as Nebraskan as Cornhusker football.”
So what is it? A yeast dough bread pocket with a filling of ground beef, cabbage, onions, and seasonings. Right.
I was surprised to find that the recommended place to get it is the fast food chain Runza, which was founded in Nebraska in 1949. But that made it easy for us, so we gave it a shot. Doug was underwhelmed, but the chain is known for some other “delicacies,” so we’ll have to try again someday.
Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge
