7 Things Nebraskans Always Grab at a Gas Station on a Road Trip
Nebraska’s stretch of Interstate 80 runs 455 miles. The state was the first in the country to finish its entire mainline interstate system, according to Omaha news station WOWT.
That’s a long drive.
Nebraskans who’ve made that drive know exactly what belongs in the console and the cooler before the on-ramp.
These are the things Nebraskans always grab at a gas station on a road trip.
1. Casey’s Pizza
Casey’s General Store sells a made-from-scratch pizza out of the same counter where road-trip drivers pay for gas.
That’s not a side hustle.
Casey’s has grown into the fifth-largest pizza chain in the United States without opening a single stand-alone restaurant.
The chain got its start in Iowa decades ago and spread the same way into Nebraska: No dining room, just a pump island and a hot case.
Casey’s made it official in 2023, trademarking itself as the country’s Official Pizza and Beer Headquarters.
On many routes between towns, that pizza case is the closest thing to a hot meal for miles in either direction.
2. Quiznos at Pump & Pantry
Bosselman’s Pump & Pantry gas stations have been building actual Quiznos sandwich counters into their Nebraska locations since 2022.
The first opened in Kearney.
Bosselman is a Nebraska company through and through, headquartered in Grand Island and family-run since 1948.
Columbus and Grand Island each got a Pump & Pantry Quiznos in 2023, Fremont followed in 2024, and six more locations are planned across the state.
The setup lets Bosselman keep the pumps out front while a national sandwich brand runs the counter inside.
A toasted sub at the pump is a road-trip stop that’s distinctly Nebraska.
3. Beef Jerky
Beef jerky and other meat snacks get serious shelf space at a gas station.
That’s the state’s economy talking.
Nebraska led the nation in beef and veal exports in 2023, shipping $1.78 billion worth around the world.
The state also led the nation that year in commercial cattle slaughter, with 6.8 million head processed.
Nebraska was also among the nation’s top two states for cattle on feed at the start of 2025.
A rack of jerky by the register is just that ranking, shrink-wrapped.
4. Coffee at Sapp Bros
Sapp Bros Travel Centers is a familiar name along the state’s interstate exits.
The chain started as one truck stop in Omaha in 1971, built by four brothers named Bill, Dean, Ray, and Lee Sapp.
It’s still growing.
The company now runs 18 travel centers across the Midwest and marked 55 years in business this year.
The anniversary came with cookout fundraisers for the American Cancer Society at stores across the chain.
Many regulars won’t drive past a Sapp Bros without topping off the cup first.
5. Ice for the Cooler
A bag of ice for the cooler is a practical grab on a road trip, not an afterthought.
The distances demand it.
Nebraska’s share of Interstate 80 runs the full 455 miles across the state, part of the mainline interstate system Nebraska finished building before any other state in the country.
That’s the distance from the Iowa state line near Omaha all the way to the Wyoming border out west.
Restocking the cooler before a haul like that just makes sense.
How Long Nebraska’s I-80 Takes
Nebraska’s speed limit on rural interstates like I-80 tops out at 75 miles per hour, the fastest the state posts anywhere.
At that pace, driving the state’s entire 455-mile share of I-80 without stopping takes a little over six hours.
6. Corn Nuts
Corn-based snacks like corn nuts and kettle corn show up in heavy rotation at a gas station.
Corn built this state.
Nebraska is the nation’s third-largest producer of field corn, trailing only Iowa and Illinois.
The state topped 2 billion bushels of corn for the first time in 2025, according to the Nebraska Farm Bureau.
A gas station snack aisle in farm country tends to sell what the fields outside are growing.
7. Kool-Aid
Kool-Aid started in Nebraska, not a lab in some coastal city.
Hastings is the town.
A cold Kool-Aid Jammer or a jug mixed from the powder is standard inventory in the cooler case at any gas station.
Edwin Perkins invented it there in 1927, and Nebraska’s State Historical Society still credits him by name.
He ran the business out of Hastings for several years before relocating it to Chicago in 1931.
Kraft makes it now, but the name on the packet traces straight back to that one Hastings chemist.
Psst! How much do you know about Nebraska’s strangest landmarks and biggest claims to fame? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Nebraska Road Trip IQ
Answer these questions about Nebraska’s oddest landmarks and biggest claims to fame. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Which Nebraska monument sits right on top of Interstate 80?
Nebraska's Original Cross-Country Highway
Interstate 80 wasn't Nebraska's first coast-to-coast road.
The Lincoln Highway was dedicated in 1913 as the nation's first road built to run all the way from New York to San Francisco.
It cut straight across the state from Omaha to Kimball.
That's the whole state.
It took decades to finish paving it.
The very last unpaved stretch of the Lincoln Highway anywhere in the country sat near North Platte.
It wasn't paved until 1935, more than two decades after the route was announced.
Interstate 80 took over as Nebraska's main road in 1962.
The old Lincoln Highway still runs through the state today as one of Nebraska's official scenic byways, a slower parallel route for anyone willing to get off the interstate.
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