A-CAR Heads South to Eat Like Hogs! Part Two

This is part two of “A-CAR Heads South to Eat Like Hogs.” Make sure you read part one below before reading this entry.

The Sarah P. Duke Gardens website (http://www.hr.duke.edu/dukegardens/) states:

Sarah P. Duke Gardens provides a place where people of all backgrounds and ages come for beauty, education, horticulture, solitude, discovery, study, renewal and inspiration. Often spoken of as ‘the crown jewel of Duke University,’ Duke Gardens occupies 55 acres in the heart of west campus, adjacent to Duke University Medical Center. It is recognized as one of the premier public gardens in the United States, renowned both for landscape design and the quality of horticulture, each year attracting more than 300,000 visitors from all over the world.

AFAT-ers, now five cars strong since Mr. YM drove his SUV to meet the gang at Allen & Sons, arrive at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens parking lot. “What, we have to pay for parking,” we exclaim! “This is the south! Land is a-plentiful!” But this reaction fails to compare with the dejection felt by Mr. L, who said “Two dollars per hour! I feel like I have been cheated.” Sadness.

AFAT-ers arrive at the machine for purchasing the parking permits. Mr. L arrives first, insistent that we only need one hour. Man, I thought Mr. L was Mr. One Percent! One of us then proudly whips out his new American Express Platinum Card, hoping the gang would ooh and ahh over it. Sadly no such reaction, other than a very loud response from Ms. LB calling this member our on his actions. (For the record, maybe this member was simply trying to use his new card, not to show-off.) Most embarrassingly a Duke graduate student was waiting for these loud Asians to finish purchasing five parking permits. He must have thought we were crazy, since we were arguing about the correct way to pronounce “Amex” and might have asked for his thoughts.

Onward! AFAT-ers fall in line and follow our Duke Alum members to the garden. Surprisingly, we are well behaved. No umbrella or flag needed for us to follow the Duke Alums to the garden. I believe we were all impressed with the gardens. “These gardens were built for the daughter of Mr. Duke,” a Duke Alum stated. The women AFAT-ers each responded (or thought): “I want my daddy to build me a garden.” Impressive! We continued our walk through the gardens, trying to admire them in quiet contemplation, but failing miserably.

We then spot a lone duck on the shore of the lake. Uh oh…there goes Mr. L! “What’s he doing,” some ask. Mr. L quietly approaches the duck. He initially walks-up behind the duck until a smart AFAT member (we are smart people) reminds Mr. L that he should approach the duck from the front. Mr. L then moves his hand towards the duck as a gesture of friendship. We can tell that Mr. L is trying to connect with the duck. He is, after all, the "duck whisperer."

At this time opinions differ amongst the AFAT-ers. One of us encourages Mr. L to step closer to the duck. Another says, “The duck is going to s*#t.” A third encourages Mr. L to give him his electronics in case Mr. L falls into the lake. Mr. L continues to calmly move closer to the duck but not touching the duck. The duck needs to come towards him first. This is just like a guy and a girl on a date. The guy knows that he must make the first move, that in going to the kiss, he must move almost all of the way towards kissing a woman but she has to close the last, very very slight gap. Sadly for Mr. L, the duck just s*#ts and paddles away.

After pictures, AFAT-ers then end-up at the gift shop for the gardens. “I hate Mr. DA,” the AFAT-ers hear. “Wait,” the AFAT-ers say to themselves. “This guy isn’t even an AFAT-er. Only we can say we hate Mr. DA, but this guy???” Mr. DA (aka me) then hears his name. Mr. DA didn’t recognize the guy at first so was wondering if the AFAT-ers put him up to this. Then it clicked: Mr. DA works with this guy. Not only does Mr. DA work for this guy but this guy is in the senior executive service. “Oops, hope I was behaving myself,” Mr. DA thinks. Mr. DA and the guy exchange pleasantries and fortunately Mr. DA escapes the gift shop without further incident. Whew! Small world!

AFAT-ers then proceed to the Duke campus and Mr. MW takes the lead in giving us a tour. We see the chapel and the buildings – gothic style, much like Yale University. All of us were much impressed with the campus – very spacious and clearly reflective of Duke’s wealth.

We especially liked the various group benches in the quad. See http://www.studentaffairs.duke.edu/sites/default/files/abbeyrd@duke.edu/bench_1a_pdf__12118.pdf if you are unfamiliar with what these look like.

AFAT-ers like to make their mark! Literally! Ms. LB found a pen/marker and wrote on the bench, “A-CAR was here!” Don’t worry, I believe that it is customary and expected for graffiti to appear in these benches. Oh, I should mention that A-CAR stands for “Asian Caravan Approaching Raleigh.” Yes, we needed to name ourselves!

AFAT-ers continued to walk through the campus, seeing the encampment where Duke students camp to be in line to purchase basketball tickets for the Duke-North Carolina game. Here, AFAT-ers were most intrigued by a toilet and a couch placed on the lawn. Of course, AFAT-ers could not walk by without one of our members (me, Mr. DA) approaching the toilet, pretending to sit down, but really posing for a picture. Unfortunately, we did not have a newspaper for this member to “read” while sitting on the toilet!

AFAT-er then arrives at Wallace Wade Stadium. We sit down but someone decides that those of us who are going to hike the Inca Trail should run around the track. Mr. L, Mr. DL and Mr. YM walk down first. Ms. ER and Mr. DA didn’t think they would actually run. But they do! The three guys begin running but Ms. ER and Mr. DA are still making their way down the bleachers. “S*!t,” Mr. DA thinks. Mr. DA then picks-up the pace to reach the track but the Mr. L, Mr. DL and Mr. YM are about an eighth to a quarter of the way around the track. "F$%k,” Mr. DA thinks. “What the hell! Okay, run Mr. DA, run!” Mr. DA then starts taking off and begins closing the gap. Ms. LB, Ms. EJ and Ms. RJ are impressed. Ms. EJ continues to film the amazing progress of Mr. DA. How could they be so surprised? But, Mr. DA doesn’t care. Nothing better than exceeding expectations! Mr. DA then catches-up with the others and decides to keep pace until he then motions for the others to pick-up the pace but none do. Mr. DA then decides to stay just slightly ahead – hey, Mr. DA likes to win but not waste too much energy if not needed! Mr. DA is happy!

Next-up: Dinner and a movie! To be continued in the last and final segment: Part Three!