Dateline August 14, 2020, The Columbus Zoo
After the Golfweek retreat at Notre Dame and the Indiana courses, we had driven on to Dublin, Ohio, and we woke early on Friday to head over to the Columbus Zoo. Janice had wanted to stop here for years. We had a nine o'clock reservation to enter, and it was still cool enough in the morning that the masks were no great burden. The zoo's policy let you take a mask off while you were walking away from people and put it back on when you were viewing alongside others. One thing about that COVID summer was that there were far fewer folks about, so we could see a good deal with very little wait.
Our first stop was the polar bears, a mother and her baby. The little one played at jumping off the rocks into the water, keeping close to Mom the whole time. As more people gathered we moved along so others could have their turn.
Around the corner were the lions, the buffalo, the tigers, and children taking camel rides. There was a spot where you could feed the giraffes, and Janice jumped right in line to take her turn.
The monkey house was a hoot. We saw a good many more animals, but then the heat of the day came on, and with the masks it grew uncomfortable, so we decided to call it. This would be a finer visit in the spring or the fall.
The drive to Raleigh. We jumped in the car to start the drive to Raleigh and the children and grandchildren. We had thought we left travel troubles behind when we sold the Roadtrek; the joke was on us. The new Toyota RAV4 lost its air conditioning, and it was a hot afternoon for it. We found a Toyota dealer in Beckley, West Virginia, where we meant to stop for the night, and he had a look; he thought the compressor was failing, but there was nothing he could do until Monday. So we found a dealer in Raleigh and made a noon appointment for Saturday, then took off early to get ahead of the heat and rolled into Raleigh just after ten. We said our hellos at James and Mary's, and John headed off to the dealer. We were sure it was a warranty matter and glad to have it seen to, until we learned a rock had struck it in just the wrong spot and the whole unit needed replacing. Road damage, no warranty. We thought of the Roadtrek and the old line we always told about it, that an RV is like a boat, a hole in the middle into which you pour money. Enough of that story.
With the car squared away, we could turn to what we had really come for, the family.
