Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Heading from the mountains to the plains - Denver to Omaha

Hello!

VERY short blog tonight, as I didn’t get to sleep until almost midnight last night, and it was a tiring drive today.

Up about 6 and down to breakfast about 6:30 am.  Breakfast OK but not great, but as my Dad used to say, it filled the hole!  On the road about 7:45-ish.  Very quick and easy route from the hotel to the freeway, and soon we were heading east, driving, of course, right into the sun!  Truly, though, it was a slog driving all the way to Omaha – something like 8 ½ hours, and with an hour time change, we didn’t get to our Homewood Suites until almost 6 pm.

Countryside was mainly flat and agricultural, although we did follow the route of the Platte River for some distance.  Certainly not photogenic, so no shots along the way today.  Weather was in the low 70’s and very pleasant.
Old Town Omaha!



Loved the name ... Drastic Plastic!

We stopped at North Platte NE for lunch at Penny’s Diner, which is alleged to be the best place in town.  Truly, I hope not, as it really fit more into the Kemmerer WY food category – where the best restaurant there is indeed the Pizza Hut!  R had a BLT and I had a cheese-bacon burger, both with fries.  R not sure what part of the potato the fries came from, but they were fine. 

Our suite tonight is number 602 in the Homewood Suites, and it’s a wonderful and really large corner unit; views in two directions.  Omaha itself has been a very pleasant surprise!  While we were driving in, there literally were no people anywhere around!  It seemed almost deserted, like Detroit used to be when people didn’t go there.  Literally right across the street from the hotel is the TD Ameritrade Stadium, home of the College World Series! Figure (hopefully) we’re about two weeks early, as the Arizona baseball team is still in the mix.  The stadium looks really lovely, and as Robert says, I’m just miffed that we can’t go there tonight to watch baseball! 

One of the recommended restaurants in the area was Plank, a seafood house in “old” town Omaha.  Who knew?!  Less than a mile from the hotel (but we drove) and there was a really lovely restored area with lots of shops and restaurants, very similar to Old Town Pasadena.  Would really love to explore one day; Omaha is definitely a place that deserves a return visit!
Plank Seafood

My wedge salad

R's clam chowder (which looked a lot like mine...)

R's trout 

Found this cute little bunny having dinner at the hotel!

We were seated in a lovely booth along the wall.  R had chardonnay and I had a glass of Prosecco.  I got a fabulous wedge/blue cheese/bacon/tomato salad, followed by a bowl of really amazing clam chowder.  R started with the chowder and moved on to their trout meuniere (in butter), which came beautifully presented with green beans and fingerling potatoes.  He cleaned his plate!  Done by about 7:45 pm and back to the hotel minutes later. 

Now to post the few pictures that we have, and then I’m heading straight to bed!  Need more sleep than last night, that’s for sure!

Tomorrow we head across Iowa and to Effigy Mound National Monument in Iowa’s northeast corner, and then on to Madison, Wisconsin.
More later!
Much love,
m
xxx



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