When we arrived in Omaha last night, it was hot. Not just hot, but the hottest weather we had yet encountered on our trip, and let me remind you that we were in the desert in Utah. For reasons unknown to me, Jeff and the kids sat outside last night while I grilled chicken. Even I had the sense to stay in the RV, where the air conditioner was running. There wasn't anyone else outside in the entire campground.
The air conditioner held up last night, it's first real challenge since Utah. So many nights in Colorado, New Mexico and South Dakota were cool enough to either run the fan or nothing at all. Last night was not that kind of night.
After the air conditioner froze up early in the trip, we took it easy on it. We only ran it on the low setting, and at at the lowest level of cool. Nothing to stress it out again. But because it was so hot out, the lowest setting wouldn't get the RV cool enough to sleep.
I moved the dial up a bit on the level of cool and hoped for the best. I woke up at some point in the night and edged it a bit cooler. It was dripping water already - not a good sign. But I wasn't about to shut it off. At least it wasn't frozen.
We made it through the night with just some water dripping on the pull-out bed and the floor. I laid a towel down to deal with it. After Ruth got up, we put the couch back in place, and put out a pot to catch the dripping water.
Our plan for today was to take the kids to the Henry Doorly Zoo. We visited the zoo two years ago and the kids really liked it. Because we got in late yesterday and spent all day on the road, we let the kids stay up after dinner, until about 11:00 p.m. So getting them up this morning was not easy. I just let them sleep.
We finally headed out to the zoo around 10:00 a.m. I don't think we looked at the temperature, other than knowing the weather reports said it would be about 97. It was definitely hot out. Fortunately for us, the zoo had lots of indoor exhibits that were air conditioned. We started with an indoor exhibit, and then walked around to see some animals. Our clothes were drenched with sweat and we got some bottled water to keep hydrated.
When we got up to the top area, I suggested we ride the sky ride back to the bottom, because I wasn't sure I could walk all the way back. It was hot even in the shade, and there were no indoor exhibits in that area.
To cool off, we got some drinks at the snack bar. Then we went to see a movie about caves at the IMAX theater inside the zoo. The cavers and cave divers are crazy people if you ask me, but the movie was great and the theater was air conditioned. The Henry Doorly Zoo also has an aquarium, so that's where we headed next. Nice and cool.
Before leaving the zoo, we walked through the jungle and nocturnal animals section. By then, we had seen enough and were scorched. When we left, we noticed that the entrance gates were closed, even though it was only 3:00 p.m. We wondered if it was because of the heat, or maybe they close the gates before closing time.
In the nicely air conditioned Jeep, Jeff and I plotted the rest of our afternoon. Neither of us were excited about going back to a hot RV with questionable air conditioning. The temperature on the car's thermometer was 105 degrees. I found a children's museum but wasn't too thrilled with the idea, and the kids wanted to go swimming. Jeff joked about going to a hotel with an indoor pool. Then he wasn't joking. He didn't need to twist my arm.
We went back to our hot RV, grabbed toothbrushes, toiletries, bathing suits and some other stuff, and threw them in the RV. We drove about five miles down the road to a Holiday Inn Express with an indoor pool, and got a room.
We feel smarter already.
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