Omaha Zoo Trip / Adventure!

Last weekend we made our way to the Zoo at Omaha, NE.  That was our first trip to Nebraska.  We have been slowly crossing off all of our states.  We made our way from Kansas- through Missouri, Iowa- and then to Nebraska.  Well...  We had a hard time on our way.  We got a flat tire in the camper. NOT GOOD!!

Lots of fun on the side of I29 at mile marker 97... not so fun next to the interstate.

I had to call the police to lend me a hand.  The lug wrench didn't bite enough on the lugs to pull the camper tire off.  The trooper lent a hand and we were able to put the spare on.

It was funny how the kids could care less about the flat tire until the state trooper showed up.  Traci took the opportunity for a photo op.  :)

It was easier to change the tire than I expected.  I didn't realize that with a double axle trailer, you can put a large block under the front tire- then pull the trailer up onto the block.  Doing that pulls the flat tire up off the ground- eliminating the need for a jack.
As a result of this- we decided it would be best to replace the tires on the camper with our upcoming trip.  Trailer tires are unpredictable.  Their year of manufacture is one indicator or wear- but you never know how much they have been sitting around- so regular replacement is a good idea.  That will save you a lot of money over the repairs from potential damage from a blowout- especially at high-speeds.  We were fortunate that the blowout didn't do too much.  The tire was shredded and the tire pieces tore up a small piece of aluminum directly behind the tires.

The damaged piece of aluminum..  

The plastic piece up in the wheel well was also cracked.  We are going to figure our repairs in the near future, but it wasn't too bad.
We had reservations at the Offutt AFB family campground through their MWR.  This campsite was great.  Despite our late arrival, the host met us to give us our site number and be sure we were taken care of.  We set up for the night and enjoyed our stay.  The site was $20 for the night and included electricity, water, and sewer hookup at the site.  The site also had free wifi service.  The kids enjoyed that.

Jacob on his iPad mini

 I did my homework that night and scheduled an appointment in the morning for new tires at the Exchange.  We dropped off the camper and then drove to the Omaha Zoo for the day with our friends- the Lamborns for the day.  We had a lot of fun at the zoo!  If you are ever in the area- check it out!

LeAnn and Traci on the Sky-Safari- getting to see the exhibits from above.

LeAnn and Jacob posing for a pic

After we were done at the zoo, we went back to the exchange to pick up the camper.  I'm going to briefly describe what happened.

• They determined that the lug nuts on the camper were bad and needed replaced.
• They replaced them with a larger size of lugs- making it harder to get a lug wrench on it than originally- my issue at the side of the highway.
• I tried to purchase a socket that would work at Sears in Omaha- but they didn't have one.
• I returned to the store the following day (Saturday) to have them put the original sized lugs back on- or find me a wrench that would allow me to change a flat.
• They found me a wrench socket that would work- a 21mm thin wall deep well socket- Sears doesn't carry them.

So- after our late evening after the zoo- and the camper pickup- we decided to meet our friends over at a large Bass Pro Shop to look around and grab some dinner.  It was a lot of fun.  We decided to just spend the night in our camper again a second night- in the Bass Pro Shop parking lot.  That wasn't our first choice, but all of the campgrounds were full for the Memorial day weekend.  We enjoyed out stay and got up in the morning to look around a large Camping World store in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  It was really nice!  Those stores have about everything you can possibly imagine for a camper!

After we resolved the lug issue at the exchange, we were ready to make our way home.  LeAnn had been battling with poinson ivy for the previous week, but her poison was pretty bad- and getting worse.  We stopped at an urgent care clinic to get her some medicine to help make the poison go away.  After that we headed home.

We had a nice time over the weekend.  The flat tire was a pain, but the damage could have been far worse.  If it were on the driver side, that flat would have destroyed the waste-water systems and the water inputs.  I'm glad we were in a location where we were able to get help with the tool I needed to get the tire changed too.  We are one step closer to going on the road full time!