Monday morning, after checking out of our out of our hotel room, we were back on the road heading towards Madison, WI. We planned to drive to Omaha, NE, grab dinner, spend the night, and check out the zoo Tuesday morning.
After eating a tasty cheese curd appetizer, followed by bison burgers at BrewBurgers, we tried to settle into the car for the night. This did not go well. The temperatures were too warm and humid for sleeping in the car, and we were not in an area for setting up a tent. So, after about two hours of not being able to sleep, we started to look for a hotel. After driving by a sketchy looking place, and getting away from it as quickly as possible, we found a respectable looking hotel. Once in our room, we cranked up the A.C. and slept like babies until our alarm awakened us for breakfast on Tuesday morning. We did discover some things about our room that made us less than happy (a TV that didn't work, moldy caulking in the shower, a plastic bag over the smoke detector, and a duct-taped bathroom door). Upon alerting corporate to this, our stay was comped. SWEET!
The Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium proved to be the best thing we have come across in Nebraska! Nebraska has always been the flat, never ending state of nothingness on our travels. We like to visit zoos, and so far, this one is high on our list. The animals all seemed happy and well taken care of, there were lots of senior citizen volunteers greeting and talking to visitors about animals, and the exhibits were set up VERY nicely and interestingly. This zoo was definitely worth its reasonable $15 admission fee.
After leaving the zoo, we drove the remaining 6ish hours to Madison, WI. We caught up with Liz for a bit before heading to bed. A.J. was traveling for work and wouldn't be back until Thursday evening. We sure did sleep well! We never heard Liz leave for work and didn't get out of bed until 10:00!
We had a very unproductive Wednesday, and were perfectly fine with that! When Liz got home, we all walked to the grocery store for supplies to make the dinner we picked out, red lentil rice cakes with salad. Dinner was a success, definitely a meal we will make again!
