Random Ranger Adventures

Wow--what a week it has been at the Lincoln Home! Something kind of exciting happened this afternoon in downtown Springfield: a big rig blew up. It was a few blocks away from us, so we didn't have to close the park or anything, but there was a big plume of smoke that came through. I didn't even know it had happened--I was in the house at the time--but then there was this weird smell in the air. I just thought that someone on my tour had really bad gas, but then I noticed that the smell got worse when I went outside, and I later found out what had happened. Luckily no one was hurt. Then the other day I got to ride in the Ranger patrol car!! It is such a sweet ride. Even though our park only encompasses four blocks, Ranger David, one of our Law Enforcement guys, loves to drive the patrol car around the park. I needed to go pick up a key from him the other day, so I was walking down to his office but saw that he had the Ranger patrol car out in the street. A gentleman had fallen on one of the boardwalks, so David was tending to the man's first-aid needs. After the man was taken care of, David asked me if I wanted to ride back to the office in the patrol car! Even though I was only in there for about 10 seconds while we drove around the corner, it was still pretty cool. I definitely wouldn't want to be in the back of that car though--behind the bars! Then the other day I had to give a tour to a group of crazy Chinese businessmen. They were seriously out-of-control. They had to have an interpreter because they didn't speak any English, and that made the other people on the tour mad because they thought everything was taking too long. I don't know what the interpreter was telling the Chinese guys, but they were SO loud and unruly. I couldn't keep them contained in the rooms we were going through, and they kept wanting to wander off and touch everything. Finally I got some help from some other rangers, but it was a pretty messed up tour. Also, I am so tired of 8th graders!!!! Speaking of China and 8th graders, 8th graders need to be shipped off to China--then they can come back when they are adults. All of the other school group ages have good and bad kids--but 99.9999% of the 8th graders are either: a) bored--they really don't want to be there b) waaaay too cool to be there c) smart alecs who think they are really funny--but they are not d) oblivious to everything going on around them. I have found that as it gets toward the end of my week, I get a little cranky around the kids, but I'll try to be nice for one more day :-)