Friends from Wahoo aim to visit all 531 towns in Nebraska

Throughout the pandemic, with many businesses closed, a lot of people have been staying home. But, that's not the case for two college students from Wahoo.

The pair are embarking on a Nebraska roadtrip like no other.

Seth Varner and Austin Schneider say they were going stir crazy at home, so they set a goal to visit every single town in Nebraska, no matter how big or small. All 531 one of them.

The goal is to finish by the time they go back to college in the fall.

"When we came home from college, we had nothing to do except play video games and work all the time," Varner said. "So I turned to Austin, and I was like, 'Hey, do you want to go on a roadtrip?'"

So far, the pair of Wahoo natives have visited 152 towns. They started in the village of Ithica, where the population is just 148.

"We've got most of the south part of the state done already," Schneider said. "We have a few more trips to the north part of the state, and then one more to the south, and then we have a big week long trip planned where we go to the west part of the state and get those done."

Varner and Schneider have traveled about 2,500 miles, bringing along their friends, and their nearly 10,000 Facebook followers.

"If you put it in perspective, that's the town of Wahoo times two," Varner said. "Or, it's several sections of Memorial Stadium if you want to think about it that way."

The two have even brought along a very special mascot: a stuffed Energizer Bunny.

"He just keeps going and going, so it's kind of like us," Varner said. "It relates that way. We never stop going. The journey never ends, really."

For a road trip during a pandemic, they make safety their number one priority.

"We try to stay in the car as much as possible, and only get out to take a picture with the welcome sign," Schneider said. "If a town is a hot spot for the virus, we wear masks to take our photos and we use hand sanitizer after every town, always, just to be safe."

Varner and Schneider will end their journey where it all began, in their hometown of Wahoo.

"We wanted Wahoo to be special, so Wahoo will be our 531," Varner said.

Next up, on Sunday, Varner and Schneider will be hitting nineteen towns in Northern Nebraska, including Norfolk, Wayne, Stanton and West Point.

You can follow along with their journey on their