As a continuation of the Canterbury Tails series, I thought I’d tell you about Chris, the A/C guy. It seems as if all the contractors, delivery and installment personnel, electricians, cable guys, and plumbers in lower Delaware like to hang out and chat with customers after they’ve completed their job. Or it may just be the view of the ocean that makes people pause. In any case, after Chris got done with his task he and my Mom and I started talking about vacations. I want to share Chris’s story with you in case you were thinking about visiting any animal parks this summer.
So Chris tells us that he took his wife and two young sons to the Shenandoah Valley. His description of their tour through the Virginia Safari Park had us in tears. I can’t do justice to his telling of the story but if you’re thinking about this sort of adventure, here’s what Chris said. “When the wife told me to move the car along faster, that was my cue to slam on the brakes and let the animals come over to the car.” First mistake Chris.
Now the next part involves feeding the animals. I need to take a moment here to say that whoever came up with this idea is either the laziest guy in the world or the cleverest (or both). If you would have told me that we could actually get people to pay for a bucket of feed and then feed the animals themselves, I would have called you an idiot. It seems that we are the idiots because we have all fallen for it. The owner of the park now gets the food paid for by the customers and the guy who has to feed the animals gets someone else to do his dirty work. Genius.
Now back to the story. Chris said, “All the animals in the park knew what the white buckets were.” Yeah, I would think they would. He continued, “There was this big yak sticking his head deep into the car. When I started to move the car forward he just kept on walking with us with his head in the car. So finally I threw the bucket out the window and made a break for it.” Nice. And now he’s left with yak slobber all over his steering wheel and the smell of camel breath in the car that will take weeks to get out.
So what are your plans for this summer? Any safari takers out there?
By the way, this is a true story and this video is not of Chris and his family. So it would seem that this happens quite often to unsuspecting tourists. Now you know. Good luck.
From the Observation Deck 
