A great day at the Zoo and Waterpark

We were fortunate to have another fantastic day. We got up and had a great breakfast and hit the road for the renowned zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. We had read great things about it and were happy that the high praise was well deserved. The highlights of the zoo would have to be the Desert Dome pictured, the Rainforest which had a cool rope bridge that we are seen standing on, the Butterfly Pavilion, and the shark tank walkway in the aquarium. We had a blast at the zoo.

I took over 200 pictures which made choosing a few to post very difficult. The habitats for the animals seemed like the perfect balance of allowing the animal to be in its natural habitat while affording people great access in a non-obtrusive way. The only zoo I have been to that rivaled this one is the Miami Metro Zoo which has moats instead of cages. Sherrill and I went there many years ago just after we were married but before our boys were born.

We left the zoo after a four hour visit, grabbed a bite to eat and headed to our next stop for the night in Mitchell, South Dakota. We had to find a Red Box video dispenser. If you haven't discovered Red Box yet consider this your official welcome to a great service. For a dollar a night you rent a movie and take it back the next day to any Red Box in the U.S. We had rented two videos the day before at a McDonalds a few states ago and had to drop them off, but that proved to be a little bit harder than I imagined. We stopped at a McDonalds in Iowa (we didn't even know we'd be going to Iowa but that's where Rebecca said we needed to go to get to Mitchell, S.D. so we listened) and I ran in and asked a worker if there was a Red Box in this McDonalds. She got a very confused look and looked at me as if I was not the sharpest tool in the shed since I had apparently misplaced my red box. A helpful manager intervened and told me that Red Box hasn't gotten this far north. I was relieved that someone in Iowa had heard of Red Box but not so happy that it apparently was no where nearby. Sherrill called my mom who went online and discovered that in Sioux Falls, S.D. at at Hy Vue or some such name (Think Safeway) there was a Red Box. We plugged the address into Rebecca and set the Hy Vue as a way point and off we went. Rebecca and my mother saved the day. While dropping off the videos I got some Crazy Glue for my sneaker and the boys and I picked out snacks that could conceivably last us the rest of the 20 plus days left on the trip. We headed back out onto the road to get to our hotel. We pulled in to the saddest looking Econo-Lodge that you could ever imagine. I would say its best days were in the past but I'm not sure if it ever had anything that could be referred to as its best days. What made it worse was that we had passed a Comfort Suites two miles before that boasted in large letters,clearly visible from the highway "We Have A WATERPARK!!" Sherrill had given me the address of the Econo-Lodge as we left in the morning but she had gotten the information from a hotel confirmation letter and not from the master itinerary list. As it happens I called all of the hotels on July 1st to make sure that they knew we were coming and to make sure that the room could fit all five of us. When I called the Econo-Lodge they said that there was no room in the whole hotel that could sleep five. I went online and found a good deal at a Comfort Suites not even realizing that a waterpark was awaiting me. We realized our mistake while consulting the master itinerary list before we went into the Econo-Lodge. We hightailed it away from the Econo-Lodge and made a dash for the waterpark. The waterpark consisted mainly of a tube slide that can be seen in the picture. The tube exits the building, makes a few spine-tingling turns and dumps the unsuspecting rider into the pool at the bottom. It was out of this world. For forty five minutes the three boys and I (and Sherrill a few times) sprinted from bottom to top to slide over and over again. I was the only one to sustain any injury, and it was of course my own fault. I flipped off of my inner-tube while going backwards down the slide without holding the tube. I got a little bump on the head, but that didn't stop me from sliding many more times. I did take a break to get my camera from the car but there were no towels, so I ran up to the room and then out to the car in my bathing suit. I explained myself as I hustled by startled onlookers. Their expressions reminded me of the McDonalds worker from earlier in the day. The pictures show a fraction of our joy.

That's about it for today. Sherrill and the boys are fast asleep as I type this and, I will join them soon. We're sleeping in a bit tomorrow because our main attraction, The Corn Palace, is quite close by. Who knows what adventures await? I am sure there will be adventure though.

Trip Statistics:

Total distance travelled: 1731 miles

Total Police radar traps: 7

Tickets: 0

Wildlife sightings today: 0 or a few thousand if you count the zoo