This was a record day on many levels. First, it was the largest number of miles that we drove in a single day. In fact, it is the largest number of miles I have ever driven in a single day in my life. Second, we had our earliest departure time in history (8:20 a.m.)--not my personal record but the record for this trip and possibly the earliest departure in the history of our travels together.
From Denver we took I-76 which eventually turned into I-80. We crossed into Nebraska, stopped for fast food, stopped again at the caboose in Grand Island for tourist information, and basically didn't stop again until we arrived in Omaha. Once in Omaha we proceeded to the Old Market area, an area mostly of restaurants on cobblestoned streets. We enjoyed an Omaha steak dinner at a microbrewery restaurant, although we didn't enjoy the prices. Then we had ice cream and walked around Old Market. We walked through the ConAgra headquarters park. I'm calling it a park because it had trees and fountains that were lit up and flags and something that looked like a trail or a golf course across the water. Very beautiful. Paradoxically, all I could think about was whether that company would be a good stock investment or not based on how much money it seemed to have.
We left Omaha around 9:00 p.m. and stopped across the river in Council Bluffs to do a little gambling. (I think we lost a dollar there). We also went out on the deck and looked at the Missouri River and the view of Omaha at night. Very nice. Then we drove straight on (not much else to do in Iowa on a foggy night) to the Motel 6 in West Des Moines where we arrived shortly after midnight. It was a fairly new facility and much nicer than I expected it to be.