Friday, May 22

Not sure what I was thinking when I signed up to do a tour in May. There were no less than 100 of those big yellow buses in the parking lot when I got there. The school group was late and appeared to arrive without anyone in charge. They came in and immediately dispersed into the already busy and crowded court yard. We finally salvaged enough to piece together several groups of the remaining students. Evidently, the parents in the groups didn't get the memo that 10 docents had been requested to give them a tour to talk about animal classifications, adaptations, life cycles and habitats. My group of about six 3rd grade boys, 4 parents and a stroller headed into the North America region We stopped at the swans, talked about the pronghorn and how they are the fastest land mammal in North America and then on to the otters and bald eagles. At the eagles we lost one of the boys, 10 minutes later we found him with another group. Romeo evidently didn't want to be in my group. We crossed the train tracks and were in the wolverine cabin when we were told that the toddler that I assumed was in the stroller was missing. I was minutes from calling security to report a missing child before the parents came back with said child. The toddler was located back at the otters. I hurried through bears, cougars, wolves and moose and got them to the picnic area and wished them a good day at the zoo and headed the opposite direction. I would be surprised if they actually get back to school with the same number of students that they came with! When I got home Andy was enjoying a visit from one of our neighbors. I was so glad to see Mr. B having such a nice time. Tomorrow we may check out the flea market on S. High, just for the fun of it!! Happy Memorial Day Weekend.

*Pictures are at the battlefield of the Little Bighorn where Gen. George Custer and his men were killed and buried. Gen. Custer was later moved and now lies at West Pointe.