July 6

Number of miles traveled: 236
Start: 10:48a CDT - North Sioux City, SD
Finish: 12:26a CDT - North Sioux City, SD
Stops: Rosenblatt Stadium (Omaha, NE), Lincoln Field (Lincoln, NE)

Sports are supposed to be about joy, feeling like a kid, enjoying a good afternoon at the ballpark. Apparently, this is not possible in Omaha. For one of the few times in my life I witnessed a sporting event where the fans seemed like they were there because they were watching a 6th grade performance of Our Town and they had absolutely no other choice. The two pictures on the right, taken during the game, show the 3-digit crowd at their boredest, not even getting exicited about the dancing peanut, one of four Omaha Royals mascots. The Royals did defeat the Colorado Sky Sox 12-0, which included another grand-slam homerun and another ejection.

After leaving Rosenblatt Stadium and the Warren Buffett bobblehead behind (which you can purchase here), we ventured the 75 minutes to Lincoln to see the first-year Salt Dogs as they battled the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks in Northern League action. The home team lost 14-8, which much to our delight and keeping with tradition, featured both an ejection and a grand slam home run. In what have to had been a first, someone offered us bandwith at their house to get their blogs updated. My mother has always told me not to share data with strangers, so we politely declined. The mascot tyranny continued, as Homer the Saltdog was viciously attacked by Craig. Notice the park (Haymarket Park) gives you a clear eye view of Husker Stadium, where the Nebraska Cornhuskers play. Which was the topic of conversation on sports radio both before and after the game.

After both games, a fine meal was enjoyed by those who did not get the glazed carrots at the Omaha Perkins (write me if you need the joke explained).

A sign in our hotel room bathroom. Apparently the printer did not understand the concept of formatting the text differently if it was "quoted".

A sign on the door of a gas station in Missouri Valley, Iowa. Usually with signs like this, there had to have been an incident.