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Panda Ride 2006 |
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Getting those hard to get
panda tickets was easy. Keeping track of who's riding and who's
canceling was much more complicated.
The weather forecast
called for hurricane-strength winds today. But it didn't look too bad
when I woke up. I gave Joan a ring and we decided to ride. No sooner had
I posted our decision on the list that some kind of rain/snow came down
hard. Fortunately it didn't last long. But my phone was ringing off the
hook with cancellations.
By the time I left home,
the roads were wet but otherwise conditions were fine for bicycling. And
by the time I got to Georgetown the sun was out and I was sweating. So I
decided to stop and take one of my two base layers off, in the process
treating morning rush hour traffic to a show of striptease. I don't know
if they were honking at me or they were just annoyed with the traffic
jam. Or both.
At Dawson I found nobody.
But soon Cathy arrived. She's our new Babe and it was very courageous of
her to join us today. Althea followed and then finally Joan arrived - a
bit late but we're always happy to see her. We waited a few more minutes
in vain hope of more company, then we departed.
Wind over the Roosevelt
bridge was a bit annoying but nothing that would stop us. I've ridden
over those bridges in much worst wind. In fact a few days ago while
riding over the 14th street bridge I had to stop because the wind was so
strong in my face that I couldn't breathe. Today was a piece of cake.
We were planning to meet
Katherine but she wasn't there. Oh well, we hope she's recuperating well
from surgery and will join us on a bike soon. But we did find my
teammate Ilana who happened to be visiting the zoo with her sister. What
a coincidence!
It turned out that the
guards were letting anybody see the pandas today, ticket or no ticket
- there was no crowd. And they were not enforcing the 5-minute viewing
rule either.
But there was no baby
panda at first. We saw dad panda and mom panda. Then we spotted
something moving next to a wall, but we just couldn't see the little
critter.
After a little while
zookeepers came in to deliver them food, more precisely lots of bamboo
because that's all pandas eat. And while in the enclosure, a zookeeper
just lifted the little baby panda like one lifts a toddler and took him
to his playing bucket in plain view of the crowd. Pandamonium ensued with everybody screaming how cute the little critter is!
Well, he is cute. Not that
mom and dad panda are not cuddly, but the little guy is just out of this
word. The undisputed center of attention in the entire zoo, he just
knows how to effortlessly charm the crowd.
And girl, did he charm us!
One minute he's trying to get out of his bucket and clumsily falls on
the ground, the next minute he's trying to climb a tree with surprising
agility but not much success. Then he's rolling on his back and
everybody's snapping pictures like crazy. Compared to mom panda who's
calmly chewing on bamboo or sleeping, you can just see how full of
energy he is. Pandas are such calm creatures.
And while we were admiring
the little panda's antics, Joanne found us - a Babe on our list that's
never been on a ride with us. It was nice to meet her. She too was
visiting the zoo. That was coincidence #2, but we were not yet through
with coincidences.
We could have stayed all
day watching the baby panda but after a while we got cold. So we went to
the souvenir store to warm up.
Then we decided to take a
stroll through the zoo. We didn't go very far, but we did spend time in
the small mammal house. The southeastern Asian squirrel was particularly
pretty and colorful. Joan wondered if they run in front of bicycles like
our squirrels do? It was there that we encountered coincidence #3,
Althea found a friend she hasn't seen in a long time that happened to be
working at the zoo as a volunteer.
After two and a half hours
at the zoo we decided to head home, but not before taking a final look
at the little panda. The wind had picked up a bit, but again it wasn't
too bothersome. And it sure wasn't the 50 mph tempest that incompetent
forecasters were predicting.
When we got off the trail
at P street, I headed home and Joan lead the ride back to Dawson. She
said the wind was strong on Key Bridge but they got across with no
problems.
We will remember the
little panda for a long time. How can't we, he's so adorable! Those of
you than canceled, the moral of the story is simple: don't cancel next
time!
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Wed Jan 25: Althea, Vickie, Joan at entrance to Pandas
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Wed Jan 25: Althea, Vickie, Cathy at entrance to Pandas
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Tai Shan Mother & Baby
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Wed Jan 25: Zookeeper carrying baby panda
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Wed Jan 25: Mother & Baby eating bamboo (Metal band to prevent Tai Shan from climbing trees before he's ready)
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