I've made a lot of fun of Nebraska (and Delaware). Ever since I've been planning this trip I've been saying that some states I visit will not be very interesting and I always give Nebraska as the example.

So I was pleasantly surprised in Omaha, Nebraska. It started off with a piece of luck. I had to get up at 4am in Des Moines to get the bus to Omaha. I slept the short two and a quarter hour journey to Omaha and arrived at 8am. I walked to my hotel and asked if, by any chance, they had a room ready for me already. There was one left so the first thing I did was to sleep for a bit longer. I wasn't worried about wasting some of my available time in Omaha.

I left my room at lunchtime and had one destination in mind - the Omaha Zoo. It was three miles from my hotel so I set off, as usual, walking there. The sky was completely overcast but it was still warm and very humid, and on top of that downtown seemed to be in a low point so the whole three miles were uphill.

I was glad to arrive and pleased that it only cost $11 to get in. I was especially pleased when I walked around and saw that, as the guide book promised, they did have a lot of good animals - lion, tigers, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, sharks, penguins, bears, and so on. I got several photos of the best animals but, for the first time ever, I started wondering if it was cruel. Some of the enclosures did seem very small for the size of the animal. My favourite was the polar bear that could be seen doing the backstroke in the water section of his enclosure. I also liked the Sun Bear, who was living the best life just sitting in a tree.

Once I'd done the three mile walk back to downtown - downhill this time thankfully - I walked around the Old Market district and it really was impressive. It was a six-by-three block area of old warehouses and factories that have been refurbished in recent years into a shopping and dining district. They were very proud of not having several independent coffee shops and none of the big chains like Starbucks, and no big box stores either, but I couldn't help wondering therefore why they had allowed a Subway to set up shop.

I was really impressed with the zoo and Old Market district so I apologise to Nebraska for being so hard on it. Aside from these two good things the city was still pretty dull looking. But from now on Iowa will be the new Nebraska. Sorry, Iowa.