Part 59: We spent all the next day at the Woodland Zoo.

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At first it looked like there might be trouble.

A young toddler had come running out of the exit and might have run into traffic if Maverick hadn’t swooped down in front of him causing the kid to stop dead in his tracks.

Then bubba did the “let me rub against you kid” thing, but was oddly gentle and didn’t knock him to the ground like he almost did with me.

The zoo security had arrived about then and were acting a bit tense when the kid stood on tiptoes, reached up with both hands, grabbed bubba by the ears, and gave him a big slobber kiss right on the mouth. Bubba looked mortified but he stood his ground like a man.

The mother arrived at a run about then. When she saw Bubba and her kid, she relaxed. Odd that. I would have expected her to panic.

“I’m so sorry “ she said “Simba, our HouseLion recently passed away. He was the guardian of my children. I’m afraid Jason picked up some very bad habits.“

“That’s ok” I said “Bubba likes kids”

“Preferably grilled and with tabasco sauce.” Gretchen said to me over the bone-phone...lucky the lady couldn’t hear that.

About that time the women became aware of the way the Security Guys were acting.

“Is there some problem officer?” she asked the one in charge.

“Um…” he stammered, removing his hand from his holstered sidearm.

“I expect you to let my new best friends have the run of the place for as long as they wish. Extend to them every courtesy. “ she stated imperiously.

“Yes ma’am. As you wish Ma’am” they all but bowed before her.

“Very well then. Come along Jason. Have a good day Sir.” With that she stepped into a limo that had just pulled up. After it had gone I turned to the guards.

“Who the hell was that? She acts like she owns the place.” I said.

“She does” they said in chorus..

The next day we hooked up the long train behind the trailer with The Bloody Mary on it. Behind that went the Singleton at the very end of the train. This was a seriously decent string. We were good to go. It’d be a struggle for most Lightning Tractors to get it onto and off the bridge. Of course once on the bridge it was a different matter

Gretchen could do it no sweat. She was a nuke.

It didn’t take long to get onto the BurningBridge and we were humming right along at about half as fast as an airliner.

NORTH...to Alaska.

The bridge porpoised from island to island along the inside passage. At one time there was more water freight than lately. We’d used underwater tunnels a lot. I had been considering taking the Aleutian route and going to Japan and up but the singleton changed that. Just as well. Shorter going under the Bering strait.

That came and went..

Siberia was pretty. Just miles and miles of miles and miles. I liked it.

We all talked about various things along the way. Gretchen and I taught the kids as best we could. Eventually we got to where the singleton was going. We parked the train on a secure siding and carried the lone car to it’s final destination. No idea why they didn’t have a short hauler do that. Perhaps they had an excess of money. Gretchen doesn’t do any thing for free, or cheap.

To Be Continued
***The Next Episode i ***
Par 60: RUINED HIS WHOLE DAY . .
The Previous episode was
Part 58: Seattle…
the first episode was
Part 1 : Winter Storm

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@everittdmickey
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I write
SPECULATIVE FICTION
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