Dairy Queen

They just opened a gas station near my house. To advertise that they're now open (it's been closed since Hurricane Katrina) they put a giant cow at the corner. It's huge - you can't miss it. My two-year-old is fascinated by it and my eight-year-old is grossed out because they were very realistic with the veins on the udders. I don't get what a giant cow has to do with the opening of a gas station, but whatev.

Looking at that giant cow, then having dinner last night with some friends visiting from Uganda, made me think about my trip there in 2005. One of the places we went was to this rock formation that had old "cave drawings" all over it. Here's a picture of one of the drawings:

And here's a picture of me signing the guest book:

These rocks were out in the middle of nowhere, and yes, they had a little old man who stayed there every day with a guest book (there were drawings on the ceiling above where I was sitting).

Now, these drawings were on a huge pile of rocks (we had to climb to see them) surrounded by nothing. No village, the road to get there was a dirt road that took us hours to get there. BUT, there were some cows grazing nearby. I've never seen a real cow up close before. I wanted to touch it:

See, in this photo I'm a good 5 feet away from that cow. But here's how it went down in my head at the time:

Oh crap, this cow is HUGE!!! I hope it doesn't decide to trample me or bite me or whatever else it is that cows can do...I'm less than 6 inches away from this cow!!! I want to pet it (my arm goes out a a few inches towards the cow and I yank it back) nope, not gonna happen. I can see the headlines now: "American tourist mauled by cow while vacationing in Uganda". They don't have real medicine here! They'd stitch me up without anything for pain! How are they going to get my body home? Bad idea, bad, bad idea! Walk away NOW.

Meanwhile, the cow just stands there, unmoving, through the whole 2-minute episode.

*See that little building in the background - it's a Ugandan Rest Stop (okay, I made that up, but it seemed that way to me). Three walls, no door - just a hole in the ground.... Maybe next time I'll tell you the story about the guard with the bow and arrow....