A Visit To Busch Gardens

It was decided that Katrina & I should spend the day together at Busch Gardens before I go on yet another company road trip. Can you guess what I did? If you were thinking that maybe I checked for geocaches at Busch Gardens before I left, you were right!

Since it would be hard to place a container inside of Busch Gardens and keep it maintained, there were two possibilities to explore for cache-seekers. One was a Navicache exporation, where you look for certain landmarks and do some serious math to find the next location. We tried, but when we started having difficulty, we called the owners of the cache and it looks like the recent facelift at Busch Gardens pretty much made this cache invalid now. So, we went looking for the other one, which is a virtual cache. With a virtual cache, there is no container to find, you typically have to locate something specific to the area and then send an email to the cache owner in order to be able to claim the find. The goal for this one was to locate a large marble plaque commemorating past presidents of Anhueser Busch and send the text in. Looks like we found it...

To be honest though, since we saw that there was a geocoin in a cache right by the entrance to Busch Gardens, we decided to stop by Mel's Hot Dogs before going into Busch Gardens to get the serial number off of his "Weinermobile" so we could calculate the coordinates to the nearby cache location.

And here is our prize, the little black coin to the right. We decided to drop off one of our geocoins in exchange (on the left). Well, time to head into Busch Gardens now...

When we finally made it inside, we came across this peacock on the back side of the big 'A' sign (Anhueser), just begging for a handout. All I could do was take his picture.

As we walked along, we came across these Flamingos, with a 'Flock of Seagulls' in the air behind them.

Katrina wanted to ride on the train, so we hopped on one in Nairobi, heading over to the other side of the park. We wanted to take a ride in the cable-car gondolas, but they weren't running today.

Here we are, about to go under a bridge. Steady as she goes...

Along the way, we saw the old Scorpion rollercoaster. It looks like the Python rollercoaster was taken down to make way for the newer, Sheikra coaster.

As we moseyed along on the train, we saw these pachyderms, doing what pachyderms do, which amounts to "Not Much". And it's a good thing too!

We were still tootling along on the train when we saw the Rhino Safari (or some such thing) and Katrina said she wanted to try it out. So, once we're off the train, we are on our way.

Have you ever wondered how a ride at a theme park knows exactly how long it takes to get from the entrance of the ride to the actual ride itself? Well, here is your answer! As we walked up to the Rhino Safari entrance, a Busch Gardens employee at the head of the line handed this marker to Katrina, since we just arrived at 3:30 (as it shows on the card). When we got to the ride, we handed over the marker to the worker there and now they know exactly how long it took for us to get from front to back. Pretty neat, huh?

Here we are, finally on the ride (the kid in front was 'volunteered' to be the ride navigator). We're about to approach a bridge that looks a bit slippery. Thank goodness for the alignment frames to keep us centered on the bridge. I'll bet that comes in handy in other points on this ride!

So here we are, checking out the critters. Close enough, but not too close...

Next, we passed some gazelles and zebras. I seem to vaguely remember the driver saying something about how the zebras have tan-colored butts. Okay... I guess that would be important news, if I were a zebra...

Time to ford a river... Which should be quite a feat, considering we're in a Range Rover and not in a Ford... Since a Ford is not used to do the job, would you call what we're about to do, 'Range' a river? Or perhaps, 'Rover' a river? I'm so confused!?!

At one point, the pontoon bridge we were on broke away, and the next thing you know, we're drifting down the rapids sideways. This is about as realistic as that commercial where an old VW beetle was driving around on the ocean, refusing to sink...

Our driver was begining to sound fairly helpless and began calling plaintively on the 2-way radio for a rescue boat to be sent out for us. From the condition of the boat used during the last rescue attempt, corporate isn't going to send out another one for us, those things cost too much. Besides, they already got our money at the front gate. Looks like we're on our own...

Ah, here is just what we needed, a broken down bridge to catch us. Looks like the periodic maintenance schedule for the facility is not up to par. So now what do we do (as we 'float' along in this unsinkable Range Rover)?

Well, somehow, we wended our way through the wreckage of the bridge (bet those tracks in the water had something to do with it) and made our way to this sloping path that rises from the water. How convenient! I told you we would have to save ourselves...

As we made our way up the forboding paths, we came across this transfer station, where they extricated us from the magical, floating Range Rover in order to jam some other unsuspecting victims inside... All I can say for the next riders to occupy our seats is, Cheers, & Bon Voyage!

After the Rhino-ride, we decided to stroll towards Egypt (Man! We get around, don't we?) looking for photo opportunities. So, here is your obligatory, touristy, pond with Flamingos in it.

As for my personal taste, I happen to like the wild, invading Ibis, that we normally see wandering around our neighborhood. How can I tell he's wild? No band around either of his legs to show he, "Belonga-Busch". Funny thing is, I didn't realize their eyes are such a neat color of blue.

Located smack in the middle of Egypt is the Montu rollercoaster (bet you didn't know that, I guess the Sphynx isn't so cool to see over there anymore). It's kind of fun to watch this ride, because every so often, you get to watch sombody's shoes go, 'FLING!' They get some pretty good loft from up there.

Ok, sshh! Don't tell anybody, but we discovered King Tutankhamun's sarcophagus! Right here in little 'ole Tampa! As we wandered around amongst the bric-a-brac, there it was. It looks like we stopped some grave robbers in the middle of their work. It's a good thing too, because this golden stuff is priceless, let alone its historical value. So now who do we call for help? Mummy-Busters?

Look at all the shiny stuff in this room! I guess he wanted to have all of these goodies around to play with when he made it over to the other side. Boy, is he gonna be pissed when he makes it over, looks around, and he finds out his stuff isn't anywhere near Cairo anymore...

After our visit to the 'Area Formerly Known As Egypt', we stopped by to see the Anheuser Busch Beer-Cart Clydesdales. Ho-Hum... As for Sprint here, he's a TV Star! Nothing like a donkey dreaming he could pull that beer-cart like a clydesdale. Sprint is my hero!!!

As the sun was going down, we left the foreign country called Busch Gardens, and decided to look for one more geocache nearby. This one was special because it pointed out something we had never realized, which is that the Hillsborough River has a dam in the middle of it.

And here it is! Well, this was fun folks, but it's time to get ready for my trip...