Omaha, Nebraska

We took I-80 all the way across Nebraska, camping for a night at the loudest rest stop ever, to visit our friend, Ben Thomas, in Omaha...of course, this was at the end of August but I'm just getting round to posting it now.  I met Ben through Couchsurfing when he came to Austin for a friend’s bachelor party.  Couchsurfing is a great website to meet people, find a free comfy couch to crash upon, and get quick local insight while traveling.  So here’s Ben’s shorthand take on Omaha, Somewhere In Middle America.

Home of the TV dinner, the Reuben sandwich (there’s some controversy over the originator but Omaha’s in the running), the one-time richest man in the Universe-Warren Buffet, five Fortune 500 companies, the largest indoor rainforest, and birthplace of Malcolm X.  They also have a ton of thrift, antique, and junk stores because he says jokingly, “we have no future so we’re tied to the past”.  Conner, Dan, and I rode our bikes down to the Old Market area (so cute!) and the boys went to go get a beer while I antiqued it up.  I went to three stores in two hours.  They’re huge with so many hidden rooms to scope out that before you know it, you’re down in the basement and you still have an hours worth of looking to go.  My favorite was Second Chance on Jackson St downtown.  I snuck a couple photos in.

Old Market St area downtown Omaha

Plastic Santas at Second Chance antique shop

Ben was super sweet and organized a last-minute acoustic gig for the boys at O'Leavers Pub. If I lived in Omaha this would probably be my go-to bar as well.  They even sponsor an adult Soapbox Derby.  How fun would that be?  Probably a lot.

Surprise!

Ben has this cute crab in his apartment...

But check it out, it's an ash tray!  I mean, catchy right?  But get this, this is what really bowls me over.  He got it at the anti-abortion thrift store a block from his house--the store is called Surprise.  What the fuck?  There's a place of commerce that supports this in our fair land of Middle-America?  I was so astonished that I made him show me where it was before we left town.