Today we drove from Cheyenne to Omaha. We have broken up our trip enough so that each day is only about 6 hours of driving. Today may be the longest day at about 8 hours. As we left Cheyenne, the geography immediately changed. We passed from the rockies to the great plains, and discovered... farms. We drove all day, and discovered that Nebraska is composed of gently rolling farms.
Today was another good day of driving, and Nebraska is both warmer and much less windy than Wyoming. Just before we arrived in Omaha, we passed through Lincoln. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln was the first university to invite me to apply to their graduate program. I never did, I think that I was perhaps too conservative with the programs that I applied to. I have mixed feelings -- Lincoln, NE is much closer to family than Morgantown, WV or even Waco, TX.
Our hotel has an indoor heated pool. As soon as I had the luggage in our room, our family jumped in our swimming suits and went swimming. We had a lot of fun. Braxton surprised me with his skill at swimming. He is right at the cusp of being able to swim. Unfortunately, he thinks that he is already there, Susie and I had to keep a close eye on him, because he kept jumping into the pool when we not close by. It wasn't until I let him struggle a little bit to stay afloat before helping out that he listened to us. The pool cover was rolled up at one edge of the pool. It had the appearance of blue bubble wrap. Tavin was fun. Every couple of minutes he would climb out of the pool to try to pop the bubbles.
Susie likes hot water. Unfortunately, this means that her showers and baths are too hot for me. She was excited to see the hot tub next to pool. I am not sure what had happened, but this hot tub was HOT!!! Susie valiantly tried to get in the tub, trying to gradually get use to it, a toe, a foot, or leg at a time, but she always had to get out again. She made a valiant effort, trying for a least 10-15 minutes, but she eventually had to give up. I know that there is some type of health concern about hot tubs, I cannot remember what, but just in case, I kept my eye on Susie as she tried the tub. This was not so easy as Tavin was wearing his swim suit with the integrated floatation and swimming all over the pool, and Braxton kept experimenting with swimming both just beyond my reach and far from it. At one point Braxton jumped into the pool on the far side of the pool from me. He actually did a fairly decent job treading water until I got there. I attempted to congratulate him for his performance while admonishing him not to jump in the water far from Susie or me.
We get to be tourists the next couple of days. We are currently discussing our different plans to visit church history sites. Then we are off to Ohio.
I was surprised by how many trees are in this state. There were more and more as we drove further East. I guess it really just shows how treeless Utah really is. We saw large flocks of birds during the drive. I think they were geese. They would stretch across the sky in great long lines. Just as you thought the flock had passed more would become visible.
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