My favorite thing in Omaha had nothing to do with the College World Series

My favorite part of my trip to Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series left me wandering in the middle of the night somewhere between the ballpark and my hotel.

It also brought me closer than I’d have preferred to becoming a physics lesson with an oncoming public bus.

Remarkably, it did not involve a single drop of alcohol.

And I’d happily sign up again.

Lend an ear as I sing the wonders of Omaha’s bike-sharing program.

To start, I was there to cover Georgia at the College World Series, the Bulldogs’ first appearance in this grand event since 2008.

However, because of the jacked-up hotel rates downtown and my blind lust for Marriott points, I settled on a hotel about six miles west of Charles Schwab Field.

Normally, this would be an Uber situation. But my discovery of Omaha’s Heartland Bike Share, a nonprofit that stations e-bikes all over the metro area for public use, piqued my curiosity. (I have an admittedly weird affection for alternative forms of transportation.)

So after Georgia’s first game on Monday night, I downloaded the app and purchased the CWS plan. ($25.68 for 72 hours. It’s free for residents.) Using its locator map, I walked out into late-night Omaha to find the nearest bike station and deepen my relationship with my Marriott points account.

A 53-year-old husband and father from out of town tooling around on an e-bike past midnight — the app’s algorithm was probably cringing on my behalf.

Regardless, I was soon lost in the experience, especially once I figured out that, in order for the motor to serve a purpose other than deadweight, you actually had to turn it on.

It returned me to my childhood days pedaling my Schwinn one-speed around my hometown of Northfield, Illinois, thrilled by the liberty it granted me to meet my friends at the park or to go buy baseball cards at the nearby convenience store.

Rolling through neighborhoods down near-empty streets, I discovered and felt a new city in a way you can’t in a car, traveling at a slower pace and not encased in a glass and metal box.

Along the route laid out by my phone, a handful of bars kept the night alive. Farther away from downtown, crickets chirped. A couple of establishments offered a gentle reminder to stay alert astride my purple-and-white street machine: Dingman’s Collision Center and Burton Prosthetics.

I parked at a station perhaps 200 yards from my hotel, my adventure complete and my endorphin level surging. I was all in on Heartland Bike Share.

To be outside, see different parts of Omaha and do something new was reason enough.

On my first ride to the stadium, I saw three young boys playing baseball on a small diamond in a park. On my last day, I stopped to visit a downtown public garden I happened upon.

I hurtled down hills, fancying myself a Tour de France cyclist screaming down the Pyrenees, albeit one whose vélo had a basket in the front.

Further, as I experienced it, riding an e-bike is basically like pedaling an exercise bike on the lightest setting. The motor was doing nearly all the work. It gave the self-satisfying appearance of hearty exercise without the actual effort.

In that way, it’s kind of like pickleball.

My close call with the bus happened on an afternoon ride to downtown. I stayed on the sidewalk because of the heavier traffic (as best I can tell, permissible in Nebraska) and at one point turned to avoid an obstacle.

But I swerved more sharply toward the street than I intended just as a bus came motoring along from behind.

I braked safely, but perhaps five more feet and I could have re-created the scene from E.T. where Elliott rides through the air on his BMX bike.

As for the other aforementioned adventure, after Georgia’s second game, I saddled up on a dud whose motor kept shutting off, so I had to replace it at a station along the way to the hotel.

However, when the app was slow to release a new bike, and I tried to help by restarting my phone, it decided I was at a different station a few blocks away.

Unfortunately, even with the help of a phone, my sense of direction is terrible, and the search took longer than you would expect for a grown adult. And, naturally, my phone was down to its last sliver of battery power.

Wheels of misfortune.

Long past midnight, I envisioned a postmodern triple whammy: 1) My phone dying before I could unlock a bike; 2) then being unable to summon an Uber; 3) having to rely on my incompetent internal compass to find my way back to the hotel.

It was fitting for this baseball trip.

Not only did Omaha’s bike share take me out to the ballgame, but it also didn’t seem to care if I ever got back.

Mercifully, the app eventually unlocked a bike and my phone kept working until I made it back to the hotel.

The Bulldogs, eliminated from the CWS after four games as their best-in-class offense went cold, could have benefited from such serendipity.