Here comes the 2nd day of our moving journey. Yesterday was leaving Illinois and coming to Iowa. You can access to the first day from here.
Our plan for the 2nd day is to go all the way to Lincoln, Nebraska. It’s about 301 miles and 4.5 hours drive.
First destination is to the capital of Iowa, Des Moines. The road was pretty open on the way and it seemed it was windy because of that?! I found a lot of wind turbines on the horizon!
At Des Moines, we had a lunch break, in addition to taking care of our kids, Orbit and Aksel. Since it was Sunday, we didn’t see many people in downtown. We randomly selected a spot to park just to take pictures and find a restaurant – at Pappajohn Sculpture Park.
I got out of the car and walked around the sculptures. Then, I found a sculpture made by Japanese. The explanation shows the artist was Ms. Yayoi Kusama. She was born in 1929 and designed her pumpkin sculpture in 2014. Wait, what?? I doubted my eyes. It means when she designed it, she was already 85 years old… You are never be too old to do anything yeah? How amazing!! She inspired me quite a bit!
We chose a Vietnamese restaurant called A Dong. I always order a Pho when I go Vietnamese restaurant, but since we had to eat in the car, I knew it was a bad idea to get noodles. So instead, I ordered a BBQ pork and shrimp on the rice. It was really good for sure! Although, it’s just my car got a fish sauce scent for a while after LOL
Once you leave Des Moines, there is pretty much nothing to look around until you enter Omaha, Nebraska. And the same goes throughout Nebraska lol
I felt the same when we crossed country from Los Angeles, CA to Naperville, IL back in 2018, but I believe this area is really harsh to drive. Not only there is not much attractions to look around, but also the road is just pretty straight and no scenic point. Just like you were a kid, you will get super excited to see cows and horses.
My husband was suffering from drowsiness while driving. And of course, me being lack of sleep due to taking care of Aksel throughout the night was easily knocked down in the back. So we decided to entertain ourselves with trivia quiz and stuff.
Regardless of the try, we needed to stop at a gas station for an energy drink. So we stopped at a small town called Adair.
Yet, it still takes 2 hours to the final destination from this point.
Probably Omaha is the largest city in Nebraska. It may be nice to stop at. However, since my husband said he can handle driving through, we passed the city and drove to the capital of Nebraska as well as our final destination, Lincoln.
One thing I haven’t checked prior was the location of the hotel. After getting off the freeway, we had to drive for about 20min or so. I almost felt like we were driving in the residential area. Our son, Aksel, was maybe tired or hungry, he started crying and all I could do is to play with his toy. Oh my, I can’t even remember how many times I wished to hold him in my arm while driving LOL
Crib was available for use (next to TV) 
Of course with a kitchen!
I requested a crib when I booked the room like last time. So when we enter the room, the crib was prepared ahead. Some locations may not even check my requests until I check in, but seems like this place did.
We left Iowa around 10 am and arrived Lincoln at 5:30 pm. Despite the distance and estimated time, it took way longer as we had to make multiple stops. For the next few days we have 6, 7 hours drive, so let’s relax for now.
Just like the other Residence Inn in Iowa, we had a complimentary breakfast. Luckily we got hot breakfast this time. Although, it wasn’t a buffet style, it was better than the Residence Inn in Iowa City (Grab and Go breakfast). It probably has a different Covid-19 protocol in Nebraska.
Ok then, the trip still continues to the next blog!