Road trip, middle of day 3

I'm in Columbus, Nebraska [map], a medium-sized small town (for Nebraska). About 90 minutes ago I finally turned off I-80, around the halfway point between San Francisco and New York, and turned onto US 30, which goes northeast for a while. The US highway parallels the train tracks, and in the 90 minutes I saw four long freight trains. I drove through tiny towns with one gas station with a convenience store attached, one grain elevator, and a collection of houses. Usually there are two brick buildings on what used to be the center of town, but the highway is often a few blocks away from those. Other times, such as Central City, you go right through town.

Between towns it's flat farmland. Rolls of hay lie on the edges of fields, long irrigation contraptions stand on spindly legs, and a few inches of snow lies between rows of brown stubble. In western Nebraska there was almost no snow, but there's much more the farther east I get.

The day turned very gray, but checking the radar I see that a storm is to my northeast, and since I intend to drive due north from here along US 81, I think I'm going to miss it.