No Way To See Omaha

Kongo spent the week in Omaha. As the clue in Monday’s New York Times crossword indicated, it’s the name of an indian tribe and a city in Nebraska. Kongo goes there three or four times a year on business but this time there was such a busy schedule he spent all his time in his master’s briefcase longing to get out and DO SOMETHING.

So, there was a plan to get some pictures in a bean field or corn field. There are a lot of bean fields (as in soy beans) and corn around the city. Once when there was a brief opportunity to do it, Kongo’s photo master sank his Ferragamo loafers up to the tassels in field muck and the mosquitos came so we passed on that opportunity. Kongo made a foray to the Riverboat Casinos in Council Bluffs, Iowa and was hoping to get a shot next to a winning jackpot but alas…there were no winning jackpots. Not for two nights running and so much for that idea.

Omaha: No traffic to speak of, even during rush hour. It’s like…where is everyone? It was even during the College World Series and Kongo had a ticket for the final game but Arizona won the whole thing early and so much for that.

Downtown Omaha Skyline (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

OMA is a nice, friendly airport. The TSA agents read your ID and call you by your first name and wish you a safe and happy (yes, “happy”) trip. Everyone smiles. There are …and this is a newsflash…Omaha Steak kiosks in the airport. Kongo used to bring back frozen packages for his father-in-law but left on a 6 AM flight on Friday so it was too early for the steak sellers this trip.

The Eppley Airfield (OMA) is located just a fe... — The Eppley Airfield (OMA) is located just a few miles northeast of downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Carter Lake is shown just behind the main terminal to the east. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There’s Boys Town right off the freeway. And Mutual of Omaha. Warren Buffett has a home here. One of Kongo’s favorite George Clooney movies, “Up in The Air” was based on a very frequent flyer who lived in Omaha. Kongo didn’t see him but did talk to one nice lady who claimed to have seen George in the Omaha airport.

Kongo always promises himself that the NEXT time he visits that he will do more than business meetings and quick runs across the Missouri River to the Casinos. Omaha is supposed to have a nice zoo (of course, it’s not the SAN DIEGO ZOO, but Kongo likes zoos).

And did Kongo mention the weather? Hot. Sweltering. Blast Furnace. Swamp Underwear Muggy. It was over 100 almost every day and it doesn’t cool off much at night. Kongo is no climatologist but after a week in Omaha he’s thinking GLOBAL WARMING is alive and well in Nebraska and if that a foretaste of what is in store for us in the future, we really need to DO SOMETHING about it while we can. In any event now that Kongo is back in much cooler San Diego he’s not sweating so much and that is a good thing.

Visit Omaha. It’s a nice city with nice people.

Have fun. Travel Safe.