Omaha, Sioux Falls to Rapid City, SD

July 29: Post 1 -- By staying in downtown Omaha last night, I was able to walk to City Hall from the hotel. This is very convenient.

I got up there sometime after 9 AM and got into line for the metal detector, which seems to be normal for larger City Halls. However, in this case, the security was just for a particular courtroom. Since I wasn't going to court, I had to duck back out of line. I was able to get a Zoning map for Omaha -- my first one this trip. I also got a website reference to check the map online.





Once done with the map, I went outside and took some pictures of City Hall and the County Courthouse which was next door. It was nice and sunny out today, which was a switch from yesterday. I also noticed that this was the third city where downtown did not seem very busy in the middle of the day. It could be because it's summer or the economy is bad or something else. I just don't remember Sacramento or some of the larger cities in California being this quiet.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my time in Omaha, Nebraska.


I was on the road up to Sioux Falls, South Dakota around 10:30 or so. If you are wondering why I chose to visit Sioux Falls rather than Sioux City, which is bigger, there are a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to get a range of cities during my vacation, not just the biggest ones. Second, Sioux Falls is right at the junction of I29 and I90 which is where I was going to change my route from North to West. It seemed natural to stop off there. During my trip up to Sioux Falls there were a lot more of the moves of both north and south flow onto one roadway. I realized that in some cases, the repair work wasn't just resurfacing the highway, but completely rebuilding it - new dirt, new gravel and then a new surface. I started wondering if any of this work was funded by stimulus money (from what I understand, it's unlikely). I also saw more fields of corn, wheat and other things I wasn't sure about. I got a picture of one of the fields when I pulled of the road to rest for a while.

Anyway, the weather remained sunny until right before Sioux Falls. In fact all of the pictures in Sioux Falls were taken while it was raining. I'm sensing a pattern:) I put on my raincoat, but realized what I should have brought was my fall jacket. For the most part, the rain wasn't so hard it would have soaked the jacket and it would have been much more comfortable to wear. More in my next post.