Beds Are Burning (or Sunday Drives and the rest of the Zoo)

Last night while watching the final episode of Babylon I started thinking about Sunday drives. Bruce Boxleitner's character John Sheridan was reminiscing about his childhood when on Sundays the family would pile into the car and go out for a drive. Do people do this anymore? Even before the days of $3.00/gallon?

It reminded me of the Sunday drives my family used to take way back when (either late 60s or early 70s). We didn't do it very often actually, but it felt like the FF drove forever and then we'd be in the middle of nowhere and there was this old farmhouse which had been turned into an antique/junk store called Nancy's Antiques. I remember the wide front porch which ran the length of the house and had rocking chairs and stuff on it. I think there was a cat that would lie around on the counter and along with the stuff (which held no interest to a young me) there were the things that did not appeal to me: the big suckers like you found at carnivals and the crème de la crème, big ass dill pickles in a huge ass barrel. Oh yeah, that was exciting. Honestly, it was the highlight of the trip for me. I knew the FF wasn't going to dish out for suckers, but I know the OS and I always got the pickle. A pickle from a barrel is still a treat in my book.

Here are the animals I forgot to mention in my previous entry:

I believe we have two males and two or three females and one of the females was rescued from a drug house. Yup, some drug dealer thought a lion would make an excellent watchdog. Dumbass. I believe he ended up calling the police for help.













Right next to the lions are the macaques aka Japanese snow monkeys. This is another exhibit (like the prairie dogs) which seemed like we were missing a good number of macaques. I've heard that we always have more than we're supposed to (according to the AZA) because the macaques have a tendency to pick the birth control device out of each other (probably when nit picking), so the darn things are always procreating. The Detroit Zoo always has a variety of ages and sizes when it comes to these guys. You can spot the babies, the toddlers, the teenagers, adults and grandparents and it's so cool to watch them play and chase each other. I can watch these guys for a good half hour if they're being active. And in the winter, they really do sit in their hot tub (the building was closed, so we couldn't get in to get a pic of the hot tub which is tucked out of sight, but can been seen from inside.



Unfortunately for us, Sunshine our beautiful silverback was not out on this particular day. The Ohio Boys were, though. At least I think we got them from Ohio. Anyway, a few years back we got three male gorillas from this other Zoo, possibly in Ohio, and one of them last year thought they'd challenge Sunshine for gorilla supremacy. Yeah, they lost big time and since then, if the Boys are out, Sunshine's inside and vice versa. Here are two of the Boys. The last time I was at the Zoo, Sunshine was outside and sitting right next to the glass. OMIGOD, he was utterly fabulous and we stood there watching him for a very long time.





Lastly, here is a turkey vulture.