Rainy Day

It's been raining all day long.  All. Day. Long!  Rainy days in FL are great, as long as you get to stay home curled up in a nice warm blanket with a good book and some hot chocolate.

Unfortunately, I didn't get that luxury and instead made my way to the bus stop bright and early (actually it wasn't bright... I woke up before the sun did) at 7am in the drizzling rain which was there to ensure that everything near Orlando maintained sogginess all day long.  All. Day. Long!

It was also cold today.  Freezing, actually.  So cold that we had to turn on the heaters on the trucks.  And after several months of no use... well let's just say they were smart to announce in the morning that there would be burning smells coming from the trucks and that that would be normal because we would have had lots of worried call ins from people thinking their trucks were on fire.

But it was still a fun day.  The animals were really active this morning.  I actually heard a giraffe today!  I heard it make noise!  And after coming home and trying to look up the noise again online, I'm finding that actually, it's super duper insanely rare to ever hear one.  But I did!  I was driving around and I heard this kind of quiet moaning noise that sounds closest to something a sheep would say (which makes perfect sense because in The Lion King show they tell you that they sound just like sheep... it didn't sound exactly like a sheep, but that is the closest animal noise I'd relate it to).  So cool!  I heard it and did a double take, wondering where that noise came from.  I was on an empty round and I turned my head and looked at the giraffe to my left and there she was and she even made the noise again.  I have no idea why, I'm sure she wasn't upset and she wasn't really even close to my truck.  Absolutely the coolest thing ever!

I also heard the hippos today.  They're much, much louder.  I actually had guests too, and I'm always a little sad at the lack of excitement I get from people when rare things like that happen.  We even saw a hippo out on land today since it was raining all day.  I told them it's very rare to see them out on land during the day, but I think I was more excited than they were!

No sign of the cheetahs all day.  Kind of a bummer.  Although usually they're pretty far away anyway, and they're kind of hard to spot.  The lions were mostly hiding most of the day as well, however there was a short time this morning when they were both out and licking each other.

The elephants were playing with each other.  They kids kept pushing each other around with their trunks.  So cute!

I never saw the addax and only saw the oryx once.  Mandrills, though, were out and visible all day long which is really rare, actually!  Crazy!

Anyway, I won't go through all the animals out there, but it was an interesting day.  Just when I think I'm getting to know the animals, or decide they're predictable, they change things on me!