Small-town shenanigans: "Fun" things to do around Lincoln

As the weeks go by and you’re all getting more comfortable with your schedules, many of you may be looking for things to do outside of school. There are students here at Union from all over the country, so coming to the empty fields and flat horizons of Nebraska may be quite jarring for some of you. Luckily you have me, a homegrown Nebraskan native, to tell you about a couple of the fun activities you can do here in Lincoln. 

Cruising down O Street: Many of you may have gotten to Union by driving here, so why not relive the excitement of that road trip by driving some more! If you take any of the main roads north, you’ll eventually run into O Street. O Street is the longest straight street in America and offers the people of Lincoln the fun nighttime activity of just driving down it. Driving in a straight line and wasting your gas? What’s not to love! This is also where you can run into a whole slew of interesting people. From high school kids who just got their first car and want to race everything with a pulse, to dudes in their thirties who think not having a muffler will finally land them a girlfriend, you can truly meet some fascinating people on O Street. 

Exploring downtown: After your exciting drive down O Street, you might feel a craving for some good food or maybe some ice cream. If this is the case, you can always head downtown to the Haymarket. This is a fantastic area of town where you can do exciting things such as driving around for hours trying to find a parking spot, getting lost due to the inconsistent pattern of one-way and two-way streets, trying to spot the only other sober people downtown on a Saturday night or photobombing all the amateur photoshoots that happen in that one alleyway with the lights. Whatever it may be, you are guaranteed to find something interesting to do in downtown Lincoln. I can’t promise it will be fun, but it will be interesting.   

I hope this guide of possible activities to do in Lincoln has helped you in some way. Lincoln may be in the middle of nowhere, and there may be cornfields less than 30 minutes away in every direction, but there are plenty of places to go and things to do here to take your mind off that fact. 

By Caleb Schaber