The MoBiles: Papillion/Omaha, Nebraska (State #34)-Walnut Creek Recreation Area

APRIL 17-24, 2016

This week we stayed at Walnut Creek Recreation Area in Papillion, Nebraska on the outskirts of Omaha. It was a small but pretty campground. Sites were only $17 per night but there were no water or sewer hook-ups. But since we carry a lot of hose after a similar situation our first year, we had no problems with getting water refilled at a spigot a site over. The sites were spaced well and had pretty green grass and trees. The view from our site was pretty nice too.

And the playground was directly across from us.

We did not do as many outings this week as the past few weeks but that's okay because I had some errands to do and was happy to have a little break. But the bad news is that somewhere between Kansas and Nebraska one of the leaf springs on the trailer broke and damaged a tire and broke the brake line. AND since the part available was a 5 leaf spring instead of the 4 leaf spring we had, it meant changing out all 4.

I am so glad that we did not have another blowout. And we are so lucky that Greg is able to make these repairs himself because having to put our home in the shop creates a whole other layer of difficulty. The downside though is that it meant that EVERY evening after work, he had to work on repairing the RV. Of course, the first leaf spring to change was the most difficult and each one after that was easier but replacing the brake wire wasn't simple and he ended up needing to replace the whole brake assembly. Fortunately, he completed most of the work by Thursday so that he only had one more small thing to do on Friday, which was his birthday! So we were able to make it out to dinner but the poor guy worked so hard this week!

So here's what we checked out around town:

Our first outing was to Rotella's Bakery for a tour. It smelled so delicious!

We donned beautiful red hair nets ;) and headed in. It was just as you imagine a tour to be with all of the ovens and conveyor belts. The tour was done in reverse order which I thought unusual but still fun nonetheless. At the end, we were each given a loaf of bread and a big bag of breadsticks. Then we bought a few more bread items in their retail store, so we got all of this bread for $3! And at the end of the week, we still have more than enough bread! Ha ha

Our second and VERY fun trip was to the little town of Murdock.

There, the kids attended “school”. The Murdock Historical Society converted an old 1906 high school gymnasium into the 1890s schoolhouse. The school offers a 3-hour or 5-hour school day so that children can experience what it was like to attend school in that time period. In preparation, the children are to learn the pledge of allegiance (from 1890s), memorize a poem to recite (which we did not do due to time constraints), and dress and bring a lunch appropriate for that time period.

They are also expected to behave as children would have back then-Do not speak unless called upon and stand when speaking.

Jacob was a little leary as usual but Jordan just loved it. They read with the teacher, worked on spelling and math, recited a poem, played recess games and worked on their handwriting with a dip pen.

It was great! It would have been better had their been other students that day but we are so grateful that they would accommodate our small “group”and it was only $5 per student!

Our final outing was to the Henry Doorly Omaha Zoo as a family. We had heard that this zoo was amazing and so we were stoked to see what the hype was about. The first section we went to was the desert dome. It was quite impressive indeed. Everything felt so close up and open. They have done an incredible job!

And beneath the desert area was a section called Kingdoms of the Night which is the world's largest nocturnal exhibit. The swamp section was really cool. You walked along a boardwalk through gar, alligators, nutria and beaver. Everything was right there!

Sadly, though, my excitement mostly disappeared after that. This “World's Best Zoo” is undergoing a major renovation. It WILL be totally awesome but it wasn't when we visited. MANY of the big animals were not on display and no one informed us that we would't see any animals when we purchased tickets for the Skyfari gondolas and the train. So I was a little put off by that especially after we already paid full price for tickets.