With no mountains to climb, waves to surf, the state's challenge is a river

As we're reminded over and over, Nebraska doesn't have mountains like Colorado and Wyoming, and doesn't have the beaches of California or Florida.

That's one of the reasons, we're told, the Cornhusker State is among the least visited of all the states.

I even heard this during a recent distillery tour out in Kentucky: "You're from Nebraska!" the tour guide exclaimed. "Isn't that the least-visited state in the union?"

Geez.

But we have an abundance of rivers in our state.

From the "mile wide and an inch deep" Platte and its multitudes of Sandhill cranes, to the quiet solitude of the Niobrara, t...