Mastering the art of under-the-radar has long been one of my goals. Blending in seems to be one of the easiest ways to observe life in its natural state. Stand out in some way tends to be disruptive to normal life-flow in whatever setting. Example: Stand in line at the box-office in geo-location specific styles results in nary a glance. Show up in the same line with a hair style, voice inflection or outfit choice not normally seen (or heard) results in unconscious freeze-ups by your fellow line-mates. Lost the chance to observe since they’re now doing the observing.
With fall approaching I’ve been squeezing in a few more outdoors friendly trips before the snow (likely ice) sidelines my bike-time. I recently made the ride over to the National Zoo to burn a few hours one day. I’ve been blessed (ok, spoiled) by growing up near(ish) great zoos and living near others over the years. I’ve made countless trips to some of them–which may seem odd unless you realize several of them host events–big, sometimes huge events! Henry Doorly, Lincoln Park, JungleJack’s, St. Louis, St. Augustine Alligators, Desert Museum and The Wilds to name several of my favorites. I’ve generally had favorable experiences in each of them–which is surprising to me since I’m not a fan of animal captivity—although I’m inclined to give benefit of the doubt to many of them since it seems the professionals that run them at least want to do the right thing.
Rock Creek is, by now, quite familiar. Run(ish), ride, walk, hike, picnic, nap, drive. Done it all covering much of the park so no time was spent mapping or scanning details such as bike access or parking. After all, everyone has bike racks everywhere and where they don’t exist we simply grab the nearest sign and lock-up. On top of that the trail cuts right through the grounds—sure I’d fit right in, be normal even.
I veered off the main trail onto what looked to be the southern most connecting trail to an entrance. Popping out of the all-too-familiar dense foliage cover I was almost immediately on the patio of an entrance. Almost as immediately I heard a voice off to my left so I swung over to look and by then heard in a solid, strong, almost-but-not-quite loud voice, “No bikes. No bikes allowed in the park.”
I knew that–it’s a zoo after all. Of course I knew that plus a sign off to my right indicated as much (along with a couple other standard -NO- items).
“I know, I realize that. I’m just looking for the bike racks so I can park.”
“No bikes allowed, no racks here. No bikes”
“Yeah, I get that; just looking for your parking racks”
“Racks over at the Connecticut entrance up on the hill.”
“So…..there’s no-place to store my bike here so I can go into this entrance right off the path?”
“No”
“What a #$^#@##^^#&*$#”
“Well you need to get the bike out of here and go to a rack up the hill on Connecticut.”
“You know, you DC people are all $&&*#$##%!. Every one of you. This entrance is on the bike path, yet no racks for bikes. Only in DC would you $@#(^*@$%%$$”
Avoiding small children and the damn baby panda were high on my list. Pretty much everything else was still on the table. That was my thought planning as I locked my bike to the sign at the second entrance. That was necessary since no bike racks were anywhere in sight at my second entrance of choice either.
Aside from the Orangutan sections (which were great!) the place was rather underwhelming. I felt sorry for some of the critters in their sometimes cramped quarters while others looked quite well maintained. Huge spaces for some~~one display even showed the average life span of the species in the wild vs. in captivity. Quite reassuring~~a nice drop in blood pressure when I read that.
Yup, underwhelming is the most appropriate way to summarize. So much potential as well–the topography is perfect for a world class destination. Carved into the tree covered hills and split by an always flowing cold stream. Missed opportunity.
Fortunately it appears the place gets lots of use by young moms and grandparents pushing around toddlers–we all need to move more and it’s good for kids to be in a place such as this as opposed to staring at a gaming device all day. We’ll let that be the most redeeming quality.