It’s National Otter Day Today!

My one grandpa told me yesterday on the phone that today is National Otter Day.  I didn’t know that and that’s probably why he told me because he probably knew I didn’t know that.  So I asked my grandpa if he knew anything about otters besides that May 27 is National Otter Day and he said he knew a few things.  So I asked him, “Like what else?”

Know what he told me?  He said that otters are really friendly and they like adventures and they don’t start fights but if they get into a fight, they sure will finish it!  That’s because they have really sharp claws and really sharp teeth so remember that in case you accidentally start a fight with a otter.  You’re for sure going to lose.

Every time I get to go to a zoo (pretty much any zoo), if they have otters, I like to go watch them swim because they’re really good swimmers.  When baby otters get born, they don’t know how to swim and that’s like people babies because when we get born we don’t know how to walk.  Baby otters don’t learn how to swim until they’re three months old.  That’s what my grandpa said.  That’s probably like a people baby being a whole year old.  I don’t know for sure, but I think it probably is.

Anyway, the mommy otters put the baby otters in the water, and the baby otters are really scared of getting made to learn how to swim at first.  My grandpa says that in one or two or three days, the baby otters figure out how to swim and then the mommy otters have trouble getting the baby otters back out of the water.  I’m guessing that the mommy otters want the baby otters to eat supper with the whole family, and not spend all the time swimming.

And guess what else?  When otters go to sleep, they go to sleep holding hands.  That way nobody is going to drift away and get lost or stolen by a bad animal.

Mommy otters are a lot like people.  They take really good care of their babies.  They teach them lots of things and plus they also do grooming which is basically like when my mom brushes my hair and takes the tangles out of it and makes my hair look pretty.

My grandpa said that when otters grow up, they don’t have any babies until they’re five or six years old, and that makes sense to me.  If three months to a otter is like one year to a people, then one year to a otter is like four years to a people.  Then just multiply that by five or six and that’s like being twenty or older for getting married and that’s when people should get married and have babies … when they’re twenty or older.

If You Love BBQ and Fun …

So last week, I told you guys that I was going to the Bloomin’ BBQ and Bluegrass Festival in Sevierville with my family.  Then on Saturday, I posted on my blog that my forever friend, Missy Bear, got her picture taken with Mary McDonough because she was there signing her books and we got to meet her!  Now I’m going to share lots of other things about what happened!

First of all, like you already know, I took my forever friend, Missy Bear, with me and she’s in some of the pictures I took.  That’s so you know that I took those pictures and I didn’t just get them from somebody else that got to go to the festival.  I was there with Missy Bear, and I took those pictures.

So you know, my grandma has a walker she sometimes uses for when she does lots of walking so she can sit down and rest and not get all tired out too much.  Sometimes she let me stand on the part she’s supposed to be sitting on so I could be taller and take really good pictures.  But most of the time, I didn’t bug my grandma to let me use her walker.  I just sometimes did.

The first picture I’m going to share is one you guys already saw on Saturday, but I want to share it again because it’s a really awesome picture.  This is Missy Bear and Mary McDonough together.

I also got to meet Jeff from WDVX 89.9 FM.  He told me lots of stuff about bluegrass music, and he said that some good bluegrass bands to listen to are Flatt Lonesome, Sierra Hull, and the Lonesome River Band.  I got to hear them play on the big stage!  This is a picture I took of the Lonesome River Band.

And here’s a picture of Missy Bear and Jeff, so if you go to Bloomin’ BBQ and Bluegrass Festival next year, you’ll know who to talk to so you can get tips on good bands to hear!  He’s pointing at his t-shirt because I asked him to show everybody what radio station he’s with.

There were lots of police officers at the festival, and they were really nice and friendly.  I know because when I asked of them if I could take their picture to put up on my blog, they said yes and the police officers at the festival let me take their picture!

So far, you can see that it was exciting for me to be in Sevierville, right?  But that’s not all the pictures I got.  I got a picture of Missy Bear hanging out with good old Uncle Sam.

It wouldn’t be a BBQ and bluegrass festival if I didn’t show you guys that there was BBQers there.  There was a big BBQ contest and I was hoping to find the guy that certifies the judges for judging the BBQ contest, but nobody knew what I was talking about when I asked if they knew who Casey Beyus was.  But that’s okay because I got to meet Jeff and Cindy Thompson from River Road Grillbillies.  They came in #5 in the Pork category.  Here’s a picture of them with Missy Bear!

I took lots and lots of pictures, but I can’t put them all on my blog.  If I did, you guys would be here for hours looking at great pictures of people having lots of fun.  So I’m going to share one more picture and this one is the Bloomin’ BBQ and Bluegrass Mascot.  I saw him all over the place on Friday and Saturday, and everybody wanted to take pictures of him.  Missy Bear isn’t in the picture with him but that’s because she was zipped up in a knapsack and that knapsack went away with my brothers, Aaron and Josh, when they disappeared somewhere (I don’t exactly know where but it was somewhere I wasn’t).

This summer, when my mom takes me to other places, I’m going to do blog entries just like this one.  Maybe you’re going to be at the same places I’m going to be.  You’ll know me when you see me because Missy Bear is going to be with me.  Look for Missy Bear or a family with a knapsack with Missy Bear peeking out of it.  When you see Missy Bear, you’ll know that the kid with the camera taking all the pictures is me, Missy Barrett!