UNO Magazine: Big Trip

The following story appeared in the most recent issue of the UNO Magazine, which highlighted the efforts being made by UNO alumni, faculty, staff and students to promote health and wellness. Read the magazine online as a Flipbook or download a PDF.

When the pandemic moved classes to Zoom halfway through the spring semester in 2020, UNO then-sophomores Seth Varner and Austin Schneider headed back to their hometown of Wahoo, Nebraska, to regroup.

Between classes, they picked up a few hours at the local Dairy Queen, where they’ve both worked since high school. And in these strange times they pondered what they’d do for entertainment for the foreseeable future.

Varner, a business administration major, had an idea.

“It had always been kind of like a childhood dream of mine go out and visit all the towns in Nebraska,” he says. “So I got to thinking about it, you know, since everything is shut down, Austin and I could hop in a car and go visit these towns.”

To be clear, this wouldn’t be a handful of places. Nebraska has 531 incorporated hamlets, villages, towns and cities.

Schneider, also a business major, remembers his initial reaction was “Are we crazy?”

But he was more than game. He responded with an immediate “Let’s do it.”

Before they knew it, Visit 531 Nebraska was born. Little did the longtime friends know this endeavor would make them celebrities of sorts, at home and away, as well as enthusiastic advocates for tourism.

Day trippers

Setting their itinerary for the trip had to revolve around school. So Varner and Schneider made Wahoo their home base and planned to first conquer the eastern part of the state via a series of day trips.

Supplied with plenty of hand sanitizer and disinfectant, soon they were hitting 15 or 20 towns a day, setting out at 7 or 8 in the morning and returning home after dark.

Often, they had a traveling companion in tow. Their roommate and fellow UNO classmate, Jack McGonigal, frequently joined them on the road. Other times, a friend or family member would tag along.

Getting social

Creating a social media page to share their travels was an afterthought.

“We always had the idea take our picture with a welcome sign, just to prove we had been there,” Varner says. “But we were only going to make a little scrapbook at the end of it — ‘Yup, this is the thing we did all summer.’”

As more people wanted to see where they’d been and where they were going, they created a Facebook page. Within a couple of weeks, the account was blowing up, says Varner.

The site quickly became a place not only to document their experiences and provide some trivia, but also for followers to comment on their own memories.

“It just became this whole thing where people wanted to let us know, ‘When are you going to be in this particular town?’ or ‘Would you like free admission to this museum?” Varner says. “It was just absurd how quickly everything blew up and changed.”

The kindness of strangers

In July 2020, the travelers headed west on an 8-day, 4,500-mile, 190-town trek.

They zigzagged through that part of the state twice, from the southwest corner to Grand Island, to the Scottsbluff area and the Sandhills, and back up to Chadron over to the Norfolk area.

A GoFundMe site they’d set up earlier helped fund gas, food and other expenses. Frequently, though, they accepted the kindness of strangers — many of whom have since become friends — to offer a donation, a free meal or a complimentary stay in their town.

By summer’s end, Varner and Schneider had racked up about 10,000 miles. They saved their hometown of Wahoo for their 531st stop, where they were treated to a parade and were presented with the key to the city by the mayor.

Where next?

After arriving home, Schneider says, “Countless people asked, ‘So what state is next?’ We thought it how fun it would be to do a whole another state and see what it has to offer.”

They only needed to look a little east for inspiration. This past summer, they set off on their next challenge: visiting all 930 incorporated Iowa towns. In late September, they rolled into Carter Lake with a total of 14,000 more miles on their odometers and another mission accomplished.

And though it’s too soon to tell if they’ll take on a third state next year — they’ll be going into their senior year and expect to be busy — it’s a definite possibility.

Generosity and hospitality

After graduation, Schneider hopes to work in the medical sales industry or in the coffee business (he loves the stuff). Varner has been inspired by their travels to start his own travel agency one day.

Both said they’ve been continually impressed by people’s kindness and pride in their towns.

“The way that Nebraskans and Iowans both welcomed two college boys into any community, whether that be a town of 50, 1,000 or 100,000, they all had the same thing in common — generosity,” says Schneider.

For Varner, “it’s the hospitality. We can’t believe the amount of support we’ve gotten. In the end, we’re two college kids going around visiting towns. Everyone is full of excitement and they want to tell us as much as they possibly can because they have that hometown pride. And it shows in every single one of these communities.”

Read More

Interested in learning more about the places Seth Varner and Austin Schneider have discovered? Now you can get the highlights of their trips — and learn a little about the towns they’ve visited — in book form.

“Visit 531 Nebraska: Our Journey to Every Incorporated Town in the State” was published in 2020. “Visit 939 Iowa” followed with expected arrival in late November.

Self-published, formatted and written by Varner, each book includes facts and stories about each town as well as QR codes (created by Schneider) that link readers to an online photo album that’s continually updated.

Click here to learn more about the books.