Nebraska 2019

Nebraska: Omaha

Friday, May 24 through Tuesday, May 28

We drove from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Omaha, Nebraska to visit several attractions that I/we had missed previously (I lived in Bellevue, Nebraska in the early 1980s). We visited the Henry Doorly Zoo, Lauritzen Gardens (which didn't exist when I lived in Nebraska), the Durham Museum, Joslyn "Castle," Heron Haven, among other minor attractions, and we re-visited the Homestead National Monument of America (west of Beatrice, Nebraska) to see what it's like without many hundreds of people there (as it was during the 2017 total eclipse of the sun).

I tracked the trip with a Bad Elf GPS Pro+ GPSr (GPS receiver). There were a few problems:

I forgot to start the receiver once...so there is no track from the hotel to the first night's dinner spot.
Several tracks include stray wanderings that are entirely the result of GPS inaccuracies. Two of the most egregious errors were manually removed (noted in the list as "edited").

NOTE: the downloadable GPX tracks are the full GPX files, while those shown on the provided "view map" links are simplified (with minimal effect on geographic accuracy) for much faster viewing.

Original GPX tracks are unedited, except as noted.

Businesses are named below for reference only. No endorsement should be inferred. If you wish to see my opinion of the places mentioned, see TripAdvisor (for those that I have actually rated).

Overview

Overview map—This is a composite map of all the GPS tracks on a blank US/Canada map.
All GPS tracks / view map—The whole trip, including walking, driving, etc.

Friday, May 24

GPX / view map —Driving from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Omaha, Nebraska. We stopped at Towanda, Kansas for lunch, and at Emporia, Kansas partly to wait out a thunderstorm that might have had hail in it (it crossed the interstate ahead of us).
GPX / view map —(edited) Walking from our dinner place back to the hotel. (The walk from the hotel to the dinner location wasn't recorded, and was a bit more of a zigzag path.)

Saturday, May 25

GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel to the parking area for the Henry Doorly Zoo.
GPX / view map —Walking through the Henry Doorly Zoo. We started in the northwest, then walked generally clockwise through the zoo (except the northeast spur/loop was at the end of the visit).
GPX / view map —Driving from the Henry Doorly Zoo to the hotel.
GPX / view map —Walking to/from dinner from/to the hotel.

Sunday, May 26

GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel to Best Buy (to buy a memory card for my camera), then to Lauritzen Gardens.
GPX / view map —Walking from the parking lot to Lauritzen Gardens (entrance), then to Kenefick Park, and back to the gardens. We took the main path generally clockwise, and the northern loop counter-clockwise.
GPX / view map —Driving from Lauritzen Gardens to the Durham Museum.
GPX / view map —GPS "noise" as we toured inside the Durham Museum.
GPX / view map —Driving from the Durham Museum to dinner, and back to the hotel. The tracks in the area of the dinner location include some significant "GPS wander".
GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel to the parking area for Heartland of America Park.
GPX / view map —Walking through Heartland of America Park. We walked in a generally counter-clockwise direction, and spent a lot of time near the southern end of the walk, taking photos of downtown Omaha and the fountains in the lake.
GPX / view map —Driving back to the hotel from Heartland of America Park.

Monday, May 27

GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel to the parking area for the Joslyn "Castle".
GPX / view map —Touring the Joslyn "Castle" (includes a couple of stray "GPS wander" tracks to the south of the house), and driving from there to Heron Haven.
GPX / view map —Walking through Heron Haven (a wildlife viewing park). We took the eastern loop in a counter-clockwise direction. The southern extension into one of the ponds is actually a boardwalk.
GPX / view map —Driving from Heron Haven to Bellevue. We attempted to drive to the Gifford Farm, but the road was closed, so we circled to the right, and headed back northwest to Mandan Park. From there we went to a restaurant in Omaha for dinner.
GPX / view map —"GPS noise" around the restaurant.
GPX / view map —Driving from the restaurant back to the hotel. The initial part of the track appears to be off by about half a city block (about 50 m) to the south of our correct location.

Tuesday, May 28

GPX / view map —Driving from Omaha, Nebraska to Homestead National Monument of America ("Homestead NMoA"). It rained almost continuously from Lincoln to Beatrice, but quit just as we departed Beatrice toward the monument.
GPX / view map —Walking within the Homestead NMoA Heritage Center. The spur track to the west of the building (the cobweb of tracks near the center) is "GPS wander," as are the two loop tracks just north of the building. The longer spur to the north is valid.
GPX / view map —Driving from Homestead NMoA Heritage Center to Homestead NMoA Education Center.
GPX / view map —Walking in the Homestead NMoA Education Center. Unlike most mainly indoor tracks, this one appears to be fairly accurate.
GPX / view map —(edited) Driving from Homestead NMoA to Oklahoma City. We stopped in Newton, Kansas for dinner...and to wait out another storm with probable hail as it passed between Newton and Wichita.