{"id":24017,"date":"2022-09-22T17:00:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T21:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=24017"},"modified":"2022-12-23T15:39:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-23T20:39:17","slug":"damn-that-traffic-jam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=24017","title":{"rendered":"Damn! That Traffic Jam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Linda Lou Burton posting from Serengeti National Park, Tanzania<\/em>\u2013 \u201cLooking in my rear-view mirror I saw myself in the next car back.\u201d My entertainment was observing what everybody else was doing, as I hummed a tune from way back in my James Taylor days. Damn! that traffic jam. This time it wasn\u2019t Ben\u2019s fault that we were running late. In fact, Ben, (at least he claims) is responsible for resolving the middle-of-nowhere traffic jam we found ourselves in at Checkpoint Serengeti. \u201cI called the President\u2019s Office!\u201d he declared, face contorted in anger. \u201cThe President of Tanzania?\u201d we asked, unbelieving. \u201cYou bet!\u201d was his answer. \u201cThis is no way to promote tourism in Tanzania!\u201d Ben paced back and forth between our two 4x4s, ranting a bit as he told his story.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is no fence around the Serengeti, no guarded gate as at many national parks to monitor who goes in and out. But there is a checkpoint on the road, where every vehicle is stopped to pay fees and register. All this information is then fed into a computer. Today, however, the computer was DOWN. So, the \u201cdata collector\u201d PIC (person in charge) simply disallowed entry any further into the Park! Trucks were backed up; buses were backed up; and worst of all (for the tourism industry) SAFARI vehicles were backed up! Ben (remember, he\u2019s working on his Masters in Tourism) suggested, over and over to today\u2019s PIC \u201cJust write the information on PAPER! You can enter it into the computer LATER.\u201d Said PIC was too scared to go against protocol UNTIL \u2013 Ben made his phone call to the President\u2019s Office. Ben declared that the President himself made the phone call back that unplugged our traffic jam.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Following are photos I took from my seat in the 4×4 as I watched what people do in times like this. Some folks, I noted, just say “pole, pole,” an attitude it’s often useful to adopt. <\/em>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Serengeti National Park https:\/\/www.serengeti.com\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Mbuzi Mawe Serena Tented Camp https:\/\/www.serenahotels.com\/mbuzi-mawe<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Next Post: Animals, Yes<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Lou Burton posting from Serengeti National Park, Tanzania\u2013 \u201cLooking in my rear-view mirror I saw myself in the next car back.\u201d My entertainment was observing what everybody else was doing, as I hummed a tune from way back in my James Taylor days. Damn! that traffic jam. This time it wasn\u2019t Ben\u2019s fault that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4318,4319],"tags":[4531,4526,4530],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24017"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24017"}],"version-history":[{"count":70,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24108,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24017\/revisions\/24108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}