As a child, I owned a pair of white roller skates—I think they might have originally belonged to my mother. I recall rolling around and around the top part of my parents’ driveway, the only paved part of the road. I skated for what felt like hours, trying not to trip over one or both of the cats, who thought I should be petting them. While I was in college, the in-line skating boom of the 1990s hit, and I skated outside with friends, trying not to trip over my own feet.

I don’t remember visiting a roller rink, but several of the people mentioned in this month’s Nostalgia article have fond memories of skating around and around various roller rinks in Omaha, wearing bell bottoms and big pompoms on their skates and spending the weekend with their friends.

My husband and I spent the majority of March watching films through the Omaha Film Festival. This is one of our favorite events in Omaha, although we have missed being there in person the past couple of years. The 2022 festival included one weekend of live events, and one of those events was an in-depth conversation with Academy Award-winner Mauro Fiore, the cinematographer behind hits such as Avatar, Training Day, and Spiderman: No Way Home. Although the talk had a limited attendance, all readers can learn more about this Omaha-based filmmaker through our feature on Fiore in this month’s edition.

During spring and fall, I often take a different route home from the office—driving I-80 East instead of Highway 34 East, then traveling south on Highway 275 through the Loess Hills. Kelly Madigan also enjoys traveling through the Loess Hills, but she prefers to walk. She has also walked north to south through the Nebraska panhandle and taken other long excursions. Her story is the subject of our other main feature.

As a youth traveling to Colorado, I always knew I had reached a different portion of the U.S. when we hit Grand Island. The air felt drier, the earth became barren, and for a short while, I became distracted from my books and Walkman as we traveled near the Sandhills of Nebraska. Editorial assistant Julius Fredrick and photographer Sarah Lemke took an adventure to the Sandhills for this edition, traveling Highway 2 to the sites of the scenic byway and stopping in roadside cafes in towns of under 1,000 people.

As the weather warms and the days become longer, many places in Omaha and around Nebraska offer events and festivals to celebrate the spring. Memorial Day weekend is also at the end of the month. That’s why we focused on stories of adventure in this May edition. There are a lot of great articles, I hope you enjoy them all.

This article originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of Omaha Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.