Chapter 91

The next morning he woke up to his phone buzzing on the night stand next to him. After a few seconds, the buzzing stopped and Richie reached over for his phone. Once again, it started vibrating in his hand, displaying a call from Jon. He quickly declined the call, looking over at Sarah, making sure he had not woken her up but she seemed comfortably asleep next to him. Instead, he shot off a quick text to Jon telling him he couldn't answer right now and asked what he wanted.

A few minutes later, he carefully turned around and reached for Sarah. Very gently he tried to wake her up.

"Hey sweetie?" He asked, waiting for a slight reaction from his wife. "I'm just going to the gym for a quick run. I won't be long."
"Mmmkay."
"We'll go explore Lincoln after, okay?"
"Mmmkay."
He chuckled to himself. "I got it." He gave her a quick kiss and got up from the bed. Letting his wife go back to sleep like she obviously wanted to.

"Why are we at the gym at 7am in the morning while we have a show tonight?" Richie asked halfway through their run, he had started to enjoy working out again now that he was on the road but he would still rather be asleep at this time.
"I couldn't sleep." Jon shrugged.
"So you figured I should be awake as well?" Richie asked, pretty familiar with that kind of consideration from Jon.
"Not necessarily." He replied. "I just enjoy going for a run with you and we talk."
"Oh."
"We have good talks."

Richie thought back of all the talks they had had the past week, it had helped him a lot but how would those talks have helped Jon in any way? After all, most of those conversations had been about his issues.

"I missed that, you know?" Jon asked.
Richie nodded, he did understand that. "Yeah, me too." He agreed but then couldn't help himself. "But I have a much prettier blonde upstairs in my bed."
Jon shook his head, feigning hurt. "Always insulting my looks. It's just cause you're jealous."
Richie laughed out loud as he pressed the stop button on the treadmill so he could safely laugh. "Yeah, right!"

Once they finished their runs, they went into the breakfast room, picking up some breakfast before heading upstairs. Most of the hotel was all of their crew so picking out breakfasts at hotels was fairly safe, luckily they were such a large group to take up half or more of the hotels they stayed at.

Upstairs they said goodbye before going into their rooms, Richie was careful with the tray of food he had brought up. No reason for Sarah to have to wait on breakfast if he could bring it right up to her.

Inside the room, he was met by Daniel standing up in his crib.

"Hey buddy, you're up already?" He asked, not really expecting an answer. "Is mommy still sleeping?" He put the tray of breakfast down and picked up his son. "I know, such a sleepy pants." With Daniel he walked to the bedroom, ready to wake Sarah up and get their day going, they had lots to visit today and had to be back by 4pm. There'd be lots of time for it all.


About an hour later they walked into the Nebraska Capital Building, approaching the building and seeing the outside of it, they never would have guessed that the inside looked this amazing. Mosaic tiles set beautiful pictures in the floor, the walls, the details were so precise and exquisite.

Richie walked over to a desk that offered them tours, Sarah behind him with Daniel in the stroller. He paid for them to go on a private guided tour of the building. If he was going to be a tourist, he wanted to see it all and not be distracted by everyone else in a group. The extra cost was almost always worth that.

As they walked through the building they stopped at almost each mosaic they found to learn it's history along with the history of Nebraska itself. This was what Sarah wanted to do when she had told him she wanted to see the whole world. Even if he was starting out in their own country, there were so many things to discover. He wanted to give her everything, because that's what she deserved, even if he had to visit every single museum in the country.

They reached the 14th floor by elevator to bring them a breath taking view of the entire city.

"It's so flat." Sarah remarked as they looked around them.
It was impossible to disagree to that. "No ocean or mountains, nothing."
"Does show how large this country is though."
"There's that." Richie agreed, wrapping his arms around his wife. "Very large and there's nowhere I'd rather be in that large country than right here with you."
"You're sappy."
"You love it." He pointed out gently, followed by a kiss.
"True." Sarah agreed. "Where are we going next?"
"Something for Daniel but I think you'll like it too."

After a quick car ride, they were once again unloading Daniel's stroller from the trunk of the SUV. It was a hassle to bring it everywhere but it was surely worth it for Daniel.

"The zoo?" Sarah asked as she watched Richie set up the stroller, holding Daniel in her arms until he could sit down.
"Yeah." He looked up at her, questioning his choice. "Is that not okay?"
Sarah shook her head. "It's fine. You're right Daniel will like that."
"Okay," He said, finally getting all the pieces to click together, "Ava loved zoos forever, pretty sure she still does, so I thought Daniel might too."
"He's going to love it."

As they walked into the zoo, the first animal they encountered was a tiger, making Daniel very curious to look at him in the enclosure. Sarah loved his reaction to the animals they saw as they moved on to the giraffes, this time making Daniel look up at them from his stroller Richie was pushing for him.  They continued their walk on the path to their right.

"Hey, there's a train." Richie pointed out as it approached on the tracks. "We're going on the train." He said determined.
"Oh are we?" Sarah asked, as she watched him with the same excited expression on his face as Daniel did when he saw the tiger and giraffes. It made her smile. "Maybe after we see everything up close."
"Not a maybe."

They crossed the train tracks and continued on into the larger part of the zoo to explore more of the animals. Seeing Daniel's excited reaction every single time he saw a new animals was something they both surely would never forget. He loved seeing all the animals, this kind of excitement was something they hadn't seen that often from Daniel.

The zoo wasn't that large and they made it through in an hour, ending at a play area with a cafeteria where they paused so Daniel could play in the sandbox and to have a quick snack. After the zoo it would be back to the hotel quickly, then head out for sound check almost right away. It was past nap time already and Richie's change room would have to do for that purpose as well.

From the cafeteria, Richie walked over to the sand box where Sarah and Daniel were digging for dinosaur bones. He carried a drink tray and a bag of popcorn, losing little kernels from the top as he sat down next to Sarah on the edge of the box.

After having been out of his stroller, Daniel was very reluctant to get back in his stroller, surely attracting enough attention from everyone around them.

"Do you want to just carry him?" Sarah asked, hoping it would stop Daniel from screaming his head off the entire time.
"Yeah, if you push." Richie said, hoisting Daniel back up in his arms instead of trying to get him to sit in his stroller. The walk back wouldn't be that far, surely he could carry him for that long.

The path lead them back to the train station, the train approaching once again.

"We still have to do the train ride."
Sarah frowned. "Daniel's tired though, maybe we should just go back to the hotel so he can sleep."
"Oh." He pouted but tried not to, for Daniel's sake. He knew his son was tired and a nap would probably be most beneficial right now.
His reaction made Sarah sigh, "Do you really want to go on a train that much?" she asked, even though she could see he wanted to.
"I like trains."
"Okay, let's go."
"Are you sure?" He didn't want to do something that would make him happy at Daniel's expense.
Sarah nodded, heading towards the train station. "He's not screaming anymore at least."

He adjusted Daniel in his arms and followed Sarah into the station, excited to get on the train around the zoo. They found a seat in the second wagon, Richie sneaking into the window seat with Daniel who looked up around him before laying his head down again to watch out the window. Richie gently stroked his back, he knew it wouldn't last long.

Sarah leaned into him, holding on to his arm as the train started moving, listening to it chug as it went along. They could still see some of the animals in their enclosures as the train passed by around all of them again.

"He's asleep." Richie said as the train past by the play zone where Daniel had tired himself out to begin with.