The Sandhills Scenic Byway, or Nebraska State Highway 2, encompasses 272 miles from Alliance to Grand Island, Nebraska. It is one of the loneliest stretches of highway in America, with vistas of grass-stabilized sand dunes in every direction. There are some attractions – historical museums, a vineyard, and a working cattle ranch, for example – but it is easy to get lost in the stark beauty that surrounds you. The Sandhills feature primarily dry grassland, but also include lakes and wetlands fed by a groundwater reservoir. They are grazed on by a large quantity of livestock.

The Sandhills are also a migratory stopping point for hundreds of species of birds, most notably Sandhill Cranes. For about six weeks every year, four-fifths of the world’s Sandhill Crane population rests in the Platte River Valley.

Cars zip by sparingly. At several points, I pull over and photograph the surroundings. The silence and solitude provide a strange sense of comfort and freedom. Every so often I encounter a small town, mostly consisting of just a few shops or buildings with a handful of houses sprinkled in the distance. These towns are invariably located just off the highway and across railroad tracks, which run alongside the highway. In the blink of an eye it’s back to miles and miles of dunes, sometimes dotted by cows or windmills, and then out of nowhere another town appears. It’s Sunday, and in every town, it seems all the shops are closed.

The next town is Hyannis. A wonderful black and white metal sign reads “Welcome To Windmill Country Hyannis Ne.” Like some of the others, it partially exists on a hill. There’s the Grant County Courthouse, Hyannis Elementary School, the faded-looking Village Apartments, and the curious KD’S Jumble Shop. And then the Hyannis Hotel: a large banner advertising Bud Light and welcoming Rodeo Fans hangs from the balcony, far more prominent than the little wooden sign with the business name that sits above the white door. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. According to the hotel’s website, “Hyannis was one of the heaviest cattle shipping points on the Burlington railroad line. The town was also the commercial and social center for a very large area of the sparsely populated western Nebraska. Constructed in 1898, the hotel became a gathering place for people near and far including ranchers who brought their cattle to the railroad for shipment.”

Inside, visitors can saddle up at the bar, have prime rib (on Saturdays), and stay overnight for $70. The walls are decorated with a “history of the Sandhills way of life.” But since it’s Sunday, it’s closed. The grocery store? That’s closed, too.

The local high school mascot is the Longhorns; the football team that fall would finish 5-4, and it was involved in some lopsided affairs – winning the opener 78-6 against Potter-Dix, for example, while falling to Riverside in the finale 79-0.

As I complete my journey by going as far east as Hazard before turning south for Kansas, I imagine how some people find the scenery invigorating and beautiful, while others would call it one of the most boring drives of their lives. The Sandhills is a near-religious experience for me. It asks for nothing, gives hardly anything, and is very nearly devoid of all services for the traveler. It makes me feel smaller, but bolder. In the evening I arrive at Kearney, a city of about 30,000 that, lit up and after miles of the Sandhills, looks like a metropolis.