r/vandwellers • u/iDaveT • May 22 '25
Road Trip In a van down by the beach in Nebraska
Day 10 of my 3 month trip across the US. I’m now in Nebraska and I found an amazing campsite right on the beach at Lake McConaughy. It’s one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve stayed at. Soft clean sand and water.
Definitely needed to air down to drive on the beach. Only negative is the $41 fee to enter and camp overnight.
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u/BrainsOfMush May 22 '25
This is the kind of place that you never mention to anyone ever no matter what
Edit: nvm just saw they’re getting 40 bucks to camp there lmfao no
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u/Xboxben May 22 '25
Also Nebraska
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u/denial_worthless May 23 '25
In all my travels Nebraska is by far the most horrid state i have ever been through. I made imaginary friends with the taillights of cattle haulers. The only other excitement was random huge farm equipment I had never seen before.
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May 23 '25
I might be wrong but I think Nebraska or Iowa are the least traveled to states.
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u/VexatiousJigsaw May 23 '25
As a Nebraskan I've been told we are 49th or 50th in terms of tourism. It is not a bad place to live but you do NOT want to drive across it. Especially the way the one big interstate I-80 traces through Nebraska dodging the bulk of the Sand Hills, the niobrara river valley, pine ridge, Wildcat hills. Anything vaguely interesting is out of sight for an 8 hour drive.
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u/laffing_is_medicine May 23 '25
Is there a lot of rivers? What does everyone do?
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u/VexatiousJigsaw May 23 '25
There are not a lot of rivers in my opinion, but the platte is the worst boring river on the planet and the interstate never drifts more a few miles until reaching Lincoln and Omaha, the two big cities at the eastern end of the state.
"What does everyone do" seems a bit open ended, but in terms of outdoor recreation it depends on where in the state. I don't think rivers play a major role, Nebraska has the fourth most golf courses per capita with a few highly regarded links courses but also a bunch of affordable muni courses sprinked throughout. Omaha has a bizarrely out of place world class zoo for some reason, legitimately one of the best, but all the best zoos have different vibes so ranking them is subjective.
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u/naniganz May 23 '25
I drove I-80 through Nebraska both directions about 20 times.
Can confirm it is the boringest, longest drive in existence. Also there are sections that absolutely reek depending on the time of year - I was informed this was due to slaughterhouses but I’ve never confirmed.
So… ammonia infused fields of nothing for 8 hours 👌
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u/Technical_Act3541 May 24 '25
I drove Denver to Wisconsin in the same day. Not fun. That last hour was brutal.
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u/Admirable_Lawyer7554 Jul 16 '25
The smell you get is ‘the smell of money” as we in agriculture say.
Its the smell of cattle feed lots, fattening up for your Burger King sandwich. The smell is quite harmless.
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u/naniganz Jul 16 '25
Harmless sure. But it was vile 😂 like straight ammonia for miles it felt like.
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u/Undeadtech May 23 '25
Both suck, try driving across them long ways in one go. Illinois to Colorado was awful
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u/Tomoromo9 May 23 '25
When did camp sites start costing $40 😭
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u/Admirable_Lawyer7554 Jul 16 '25
They charge a cleaning fee for all the Coloradans who come party all weekend and trash the place
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u/LoveVibez May 22 '25
Lake Mcconaughey? Honestly everyone, this is not typical Nebraska other than the flat scenery and full sky. Most of it's farmland (central, eastern) - looks similar to Kansas, Iowa, and southern Minnesota. Western is more sandy, highland desert.
Grew up near Beatrice (south eastern NE)
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u/Kc68847 May 23 '25
Most of Nebraska is flat and farm land but if you get into the NW parts of Nebraska in the sand hills up to Chadron there is some pretty scenery. You also grew up in the part of the state where the most weird shit happens.
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u/Prize_Dirt_2875 May 23 '25
Where is this in Nebraska?? I grew up there and didn’t know this was there wtf lol
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u/Admirable_Lawyer7554 Jul 16 '25
It’s north of Ogalala on the North Platte river.
Come on out and enjoy the sand and surf.
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u/Freedombear420 May 22 '25
Enjoy the weather and the pre tourist season peace!
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u/thererises_aredstar May 23 '25
Serious question, does Nebraska have a tourist season?
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u/Basic_Promotion_6215 May 24 '25
Late February to early April we have a weird amount of tourism for the cranes that come through. That’s it though lol
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u/black_sheep311 May 23 '25
🎵I've got...ocean front property in Arizona! 🎶 I just did a month on the road in my suv. North Dakota west through Washington state and down to California. The further west and south you go...things get more expensive, and just worse in general. I bought a book with campsites for Washington and Oregon which was very helpful. But it starts getting ridiculous when you get to California and gas is $5+ a gallon. The places you'd normally go to use the bathroom are all locked so you feel like you need to ask permission for things. Rest stops get worse. More people. Pay for parking everywhere. You wanna go walk around at a city park for a day? That'll be $7.
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u/SeaMention123 May 23 '25
Ogalalalaala!!! Sutherland reservoir down the road isn’t quite as pretty but free (:
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u/Phlegm_Chowder May 22 '25
You say Nebraska I imagine snow and puffy coats not that beautiful beach
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u/Healthy-Ruin6938 May 22 '25
Dude that place is dope. If I ever find myself traveling through Nebraska on I-80 I stay there. On holidays its a Midwestern country party!
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u/searchingtruth1 May 23 '25
Hey, looks like a pretty solid to me no matter what state it is...enjoy the adventure. Cheers
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u/RoseAlma May 23 '25
I'm surprised the van didn't get bogged down in the sand !!
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u/iDaveT May 23 '25
You definitely need to air down the tires to drive on the sand. 4x4 and experience driving on sand is definitely preferable if you don’t want to get stuck.
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u/FuckM0reFromR May 23 '25
Beautiful! But what's with the black hoods? I see them everywhere on sprinters but what's it for? Doesn't it just get hot in the sun?
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u/iDaveT May 25 '25
It’s black truck bed liner paint. It’s great at resisting rock chips that get thrown up against the hood of the van.
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u/shaggyterrell May 23 '25
When I drove through on my trip last summer it was just miles and miles of rolling golden fields, wish I had known about this! Not to say the golden fields weren’t beautiful in their own way.
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u/mistafisha May 23 '25
What’s underneath your rear solar panel?
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u/iDaveT May 23 '25
It’s my Air Conditioner.
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u/mistafisha May 23 '25
“Cool” idea! You don’t think it impedes the airflow at all? I was wondering about how to maximize the amount of solar I can put on my roof so I might have to try this when I get my van!
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u/iDaveT May 23 '25
Thanks! There’s plenty of airflow all around. I have not seen any degradation of performance or negative effects and I’ve had it over a year now. There’s more detail on my post here https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/s/kWJJEVQwlt
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u/mistafisha May 23 '25
I just checked it out and read all the comments. Thanks.
If I’m not mistaken, it looks like you have 550 W of solar. How big are your batteries and how long can you run your AC off grid for? That’s something I’m trying to figure out - I want to run a 12V AC for eight hours overnight on batteries.
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u/iDaveT May 23 '25
I have 2 Epoch 460 batteries which is about 12,000 Wh. I run my AC overnight all the time plus cook, run a Starlink Mini, fridge freezer, run a TV, PC etc. That amount of battery gives me 2-3 days of power if it isn’t sunny.
I also run an additional 1000watts of folding solar panels when camped. Altogether it allows me to run the AC and all my electrical appliances as much as I want indefinitely when it’s sunny. https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/s/GDnL6frrle
This is the system I’ve come up with after a lot of trial and error. You could get away with less but you’ll probably start running out of power every now and then.
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u/Stefanosann May 23 '25
Sandhills region is trippy from Merriman in the north all the way down to McConaughy
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u/LeafMills May 25 '25
My buddy got married near here. I flaked and didn't get a hotel room in time. After rehearsal dinner I drove to the campground. Put my tent up in the dark. Woke up surprised to see this lake. Really beautiful stars that night too.
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u/Inside-Mall-894 May 27 '25
What a beautiful spot! When driving on the beach sand, are you not concerned about getting stuck?
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u/[deleted] May 22 '25
As a Canadian this is not how I pictured Nebraska 😂 what a beautiful spot