Road Trip: Race Horses and Storm Chasers

     The road trip to Omaha rolled on as we spent the day with Ryan, who showed us the sights of his new hometown.

Ryan. Cherie and I saw the various markets and attractions of Omaha but for me, there were two stops that I wanted to see most of all and Ryan was kind enough to make that happen.

The first stop that I really wanted to make was a return to Omaha suburb Gretna and Werner Park, the home of the Omaha Storm Chasers, the AAA affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.

One thing that I didn't know before the trip was that the Storm Chasers didn't use the same ballpark downtown that is used for the College World Series.

I just assumed that was the case and was surprised to hear that the Storm Chasers had their own facility.

Werner Park didn't stand out from the interstate and it seemed to be tucked away in an area filled with industrial businesses and homes but it was easy to find and had plenty of places to park unlike the urban stadiums, where parking is always a pain.

Walking outside the stadium is a beautiful statue of Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson, an Omaha native who also attended Creighton University in the city.

The statue is very well done and captures Gibson's release from the mound perfectly.

We didn't stay very long, long enough to hit the team store, snap a few pictures, and watch enough to count Werner Park on the visited stadiums list.

We then returned to Omaha to look for a small monument to the racehorse Omaha, who was the third horse to win the Triple Crown, and who lived out his life in Nebraska after a poor career at stud.

Ak-Sar-Ben (Nebraska spelled backward) Race Course was the center of Nebraska horse racing before being torn down in 2005 and somewhere in the area, Omaha is buried.

The remains weren't found when the facility was razed although occasionally writers use modern methods to try to pinpoint where they may rest.

Now the area is called AkSarBen Village with an entertainment village, a park, and an arena that hosts events for Nebraska-Omaha sports teams.

We would return to the hotel afterward for the evening to prepare for a Memorial Day cookout the following day at Ryan's, which I had a surprisingly good time considering that it combined the outdoors and meeting new people, neither of which are noted as favorites of mine.

In our next and possibly final installment, we start our final day in Omaha, travel to Lincoln, say goodbye to Ryan and family, and take the long way home.

It is possible that there could be two posts depending on the length of the post.