Coming to Lincoln

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Bruin Steve

New member
Hello, Husker friends,

My wife and I will be coming to Lincoln for the game on November 2 and I was hoping some of you might share some advice with me.  

We are actually flying in on Wednesday...but we are renting a car and heading first to Kearney (my wife's home town) for three nights.  The plan is to drive to Lincoln Saturday Morning.  Our flight out is on Sunday, so we booked a hotel for Saturday night near Omaha airport.  We bought a parking pass for the Center Park Garage--on 11th between O and N. 

So, my questions:

I am assuming the drive in from Kearney should take around two hours, correct?  

How early should we try to arrive in Lincoln?  (Game time is 2:30 pm)

Walk straight to the Stadium?  Or anything to see or do along our walk?  Or, of course, maybe get some lunch...recommendations?

Looks like the game should end at about perfect time for dinner...Should we eat somewhere in Lincoln?  Or get the car and drive somewhere?  Could reasonably eat anywhere between Lincoln and Omaha airport...any recommendations?  Thanks.

We really look forward to our trip to Nebraska.

Steve

 
Bruin Steve said:
Hello, Husker friends,

My wife and I will be coming to Lincoln for the game on November 2 and I was hoping some of you might share some advice with me.  

We are actually flying in on Wednesday...but we are renting a car and heading first to Kearney (my wife's home town) for three nights.  The plan is to drive to Lincoln Saturday Morning.  Our flight out is on Sunday, so we booked a hotel for Saturday night near Omaha airport.  We bought a parking pass for the Center Park Garage--on 11th between O and N. 

So, my questions:

I am assuming the drive in from Kearney should take around two hours, correct?  

How early should we try to arrive in Lincoln?  (Game time is 2:30 pm)

Walk straight to the Stadium?  Or anything to see or do along our walk?  Or, of course, maybe get some lunch...recommendations?

Looks like the game should end at about perfect time for dinner...Should we eat somewhere in Lincoln?  Or get the car and drive somewhere?  Could reasonably eat anywhere between Lincoln and Omaha airport...any recommendations?  Thanks.

We really look forward to our trip to Nebraska.

Steve
Click to expand...


Hey there Bruin Steve,

I used to live in Lincoln but no longer do, but I will do my best to answer your questions.  

1.  Your parking garage should work just fine. We normally park there too when we come back for games.

2.  I would recommend getting to downtown early as they have a nice farmers market and there is a lot to do on gamedays in downtown Lincoln (restaurants, bars, shops).  

3.  The gates open 90 mins before kickoff, so if you want to be there as early as possible, I would head for the stadium around 12:30 to 12:45.  It only takes about 10 minutes to get to the stadium from the Haymarket/Railyard area.  

4.  You can eat lunch before the game and dinner after.  The benefit of eating dinner after is that you avoid the mass of cars leaving at that time.  Omaha certainly has a lot of options too if you prefer to exit the gameday crowd scene. There are not really any places between Lincoln and Omaha but there is a decent outlet mall.

If you share what kind of food you are looking for, many on here can give you recommendations.  

 
Bruin Steve said:
Hello, Husker friends,

My wife and I will be coming to Lincoln for the game on November 2 and I was hoping some of you might share some advice with me.  

We are actually flying in on Wednesday...but we are renting a car and heading first to Kearney (my wife's home town) for three nights.  The plan is to drive to Lincoln Saturday Morning.  Our flight out is on Sunday, so we booked a hotel for Saturday night near Omaha airport.  We bought a parking pass for the Center Park Garage--on 11th between O and N. 

So, my questions:

I am assuming the drive in from Kearney should take around two hours, correct?  

How early should we try to arrive in Lincoln?  (Game time is 2:30 pm)

Walk straight to the Stadium?  Or anything to see or do along our walk?  Or, of course, maybe get some lunch...recommendations?

Looks like the game should end at about perfect time for dinner...Should we eat somewhere in Lincoln?  Or get the car and drive somewhere?  Could reasonably eat anywhere between Lincoln and Omaha airport...any recommendations?  Thanks.

We really look forward to our trip to Nebraska.

Steve
Click to expand...
Enjoy the trip and gameday experience!

only thing I’ll add- I would bank on 3 + hours from Kearney to Lincoln, depending on when you leave. My guess is you’re going off Google maps on the 2 hour drive time estimate- there will be traffic on I-80 from the masses making there way to Lincoln. 
 

if you can I’d strongly recommend going to Lincoln the night before so you can enjoy the Saturday experience from the min u wake up 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bruin Steve said:
Hello, Husker friends,

My wife and I will be coming to Lincoln for the game on November 2 and I was hoping some of you might share some advice with me.  

We are actually flying in on Wednesday...but we are renting a car and heading first to Kearney (my wife's home town) for three nights.  The plan is to drive to Lincoln Saturday Morning.  Our flight out is on Sunday, so we booked a hotel for Saturday night near Omaha airport.  We bought a parking pass for the Center Park Garage--on 11th between O and N. 

So, my questions:

I am assuming the drive in from Kearney should take around two hours, correct?  

How early should we try to arrive in Lincoln?  (Game time is 2:30 pm)

Walk straight to the Stadium?  Or anything to see or do along our walk?  Or, of course, maybe get some lunch...recommendations?

Looks like the game should end at about perfect time for dinner...Should we eat somewhere in Lincoln?  Or get the car and drive somewhere?  Could reasonably eat anywhere between Lincoln and Omaha airport...any recommendations?  Thanks.

We really look forward to our trip to Nebraska.

Steve
Click to expand...
I'm going to the game that weekend and live about 45 minutes west of Kearney.  We will be leaving around 6:30 or 7:00.  It's typically about a 2.5 hour drive, but there is a ton of construction and it's game day.  So, I would expect about a 3 hour drive.  That will get us to town by 10:00 and give us plenty of time to tailgate and get to the game around 2:00.

Hope that helps.

 
Don't count on a quick exit if you drive out of Lincoln after the game.  It can take 1-2 hours just to clear the game day traffic depending on when you leave the game.  Sometimes it is 30-45 minutes just to get out of the parking garage.  Eating in the hay market after the game is the way to go if you aren't in a hurry. 

Buzzard Billy's is my families favorite pre game place on game day but there are plenty of options with menus available online.  The Single Barrel has great steaks and HopCat is a solid place for a simple meal like a burger.  Just google Lincoln Haymarket restaurants for options.   

There are plenty of large tailgate areas where most welcome outsiders.  There is live music and cold beer at Rock the Dock for several hours before the game.  It is a short walk from there to the stadium.  The Nebraska Band is awesome imo and anyone can go watch their pregame warm up close to the stadium.  Plenty of other things going on down there so you should find something that suits you and your wife.

Hope you enjoy the experience.  Nebraska game days can be a blast.  This will be a really important game for Nebraska so the crowd should really be into it.   

 
From where you are starting, considering it will be gameday, I would count on it being closer to a 2.5-3 hour drive. You have to take into account the massive amount of traffic.

 
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Thanks for all of the recommendations/advice.

I guess we'll try to leave Kearney by 8:00 am to give us at least 3+ hours when we get to Lincoln.  I'll Google some of the restaurants and plan to eat dinner while traffic thins out (Anyone know if the parking garage will allow us to leave the car there an extra couple of hours after the game while we eat?).

I'm really looking forward to enjoying the game day experience in Lincoln.

Steve

 
Bruin Steve said:
Thanks for all of the recommendations/advice.

I guess we'll try to leave Kearney by 8:00 am to give us at least 3+ hours when we get to Lincoln.  I'll Google some of the restaurants and plan to eat dinner while traffic thins out (Anyone know if the parking garage will allow us to leave the car there an extra couple of hours after the game while we eat?).

I'm really looking forward to enjoying the game day experience in Lincoln.

Steve
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No problem leaving the car there for a while.

 
Second what everyone else has said. We hope you have a safe trip and a great time, well...with everything except the result of the game of course.

 
Your garage happens to be within a block of one of the best restaurants in Lincoln. Call today to see if you can get reservations for Dish at 11th & O. 

Bruin Steve said:
Anyone know if the parking garage will allow us to leave the car there an extra couple of hours after the game while we eat?
Click to expand...


From the Park & Go website, where you likely bought your pass:

"Single game passes are only valid on the day of the game. Single game passes are only valid for one entry and one exit, No In/Out Privileges. RV Reservations are Allowed 6:00pm Friday - Noon Sunday."
 
So you should be fine to enjoy dinner after the game.
 
First of all, you must try the Corn.

Hey if yall wear UCLA shirts to the game, the Husker fans will be super nice to you.  They will say Hi, Welcome, thanks for coming, and wish you good luck.  Will probably offer yall some cold drinks.  

If yall lose the game, Husker fans will clap and tell you how good your team is and to keep your chin up.  

If yall win, they won't say anything bad - to your face lol.  Instead they will log-on here to vent.

Enjoy Lincoln and have fun

 
admo said:
Hey if yall wear UCLA shirts to the game, the Husker fans will be super nice to you.  They will say Hi, Welcome, thanks for coming, and wish you good luck.  Will probably offer yall some cold drinks.  
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Of course, I will be decked out in Blue and Gold UCLA gear...My wife, OTOH, also plans to wear blue...but, in her case, what she plans on wearing is her "Kearney High School" T-shirt!

 
Bruin Steve said:
Of course, I will be decked out in Blue and Gold UCLA gear...My wife, OTOH, also plans to wear blue...but, in her case, what she plans on wearing is her "Kearney High School" T-shirt!
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SACRILEGE!!!! Your wife should be dressed head to toe in Scarlett & Cream if she's from Kearney!! Deep in her heart she knows this to be true!

 
No...My wife says it's BLUE!

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