Day 17 - Omaha, Nebraska and a Visit to the Botanical Gardens

Our next major stop would be in Missouri but to get there from the Badlands, we worked in two nights, one in Mitchell South Dakota and one in Omaha, Nebraska.  Nebraska is one of three states I hadn't been in before.  So now I only have Wisconsin and North Dakota left!  Probably won't make those two but that is okay!

In Omaha, we decided to visit Lauritzen Gardens which is Omaha's botanical gardens and also the site of several of the Union Pacific iconic railroad cars.  Omaha was the headquarters for this railroad and the money to found this garden.  It was really a very nice garden with a guided tour in an open bus which was lovely.  The weather was a little iffey though we didn't get any rain.

Lovely water lily ponds to greet you.

View from the ride.

These twig elephants greeted you inside the visitor center which is attached to the large greenhouse.

 This is a Bat Flower which was new to me.  It was in the greenhouse as were all of these others.

Creeping Fig.

 Lantana.

 Natal Lily.

There were lots of orchids which are among my   favorites!

Nothing can beat the orchid show in NYC in the spring of each year though.

After the tour through the gardens, we headed for our hotel which ended as  real test of endurance.  We couldn't blame it on the GPS this time.  We ended up going around in circles on and off a major many many lane expressway for a good half hour.  Finally Vicki basically said she was going to take the first road she saw which was into a small shopping center.  Well, the motel was indeed there but you had to go through the shopping center and by the Social Security Administration Bldg to get to it.  There was no other entrance -- we looked.  They had a map with a figure 8 on it in the motel to explain how to get back to the expressway!  Yes, you had to do a figure 8 to even get to this shopping center.  We were not happy campers!  The next day our agenda was to head to the Missouri Star Quilt Company and then visit with Vicki's brother who lives just outside Kansas City, Missouri.  We would stay in KC and then head on to St. Louis where we would be for two nights.