Sunday, November 22, 2009

Nature Walk with Rudy Mancke

Today we participated in the annual Harry Hampton Memorial Walk in Congaree National Park. The walk was led by naturalist, Rudy Mancke, of NatureScene fame. I remember watching NatureScene on ETV with my grandparents and being amazed at how Rudy seemed to be able to find incredible natural tresures with every step. Not only that, but he was a expert on every posible one, knowing it's full scientific name any everything. We, of course, assumed this was highly edited, but hoped it wasn't. Today I realized that he actually IS that smart. Our 2 hour walk was filled with amazing scientific details and fun-filled stories at every step. Nobody could stump Mr. Mancke and even the rain couldn't dampen his enthusiasm. If you get a chance to do this walk next year, or a similar one with Mr. Mancke, you won't regret it.

2 comments:

Tim O'Keefe said...

I love this guy. Ever listen to "Nature Notes" on National Public Radio? It's the one minute version of Nature Scene. He led a walk/talk with my second graders years ago. He started out in my classroom by identifying all the stuff in our science area. When we got outside it was just as you said. He'd stoop down and pick up something and tell a cool story of it's origin or classification. I had this little guy with Tourettes syndrome. He blurted out everything that came into his head. Loudly. After Rudy picked up what he said was fox scat and started digging through it (I kid you not) my little guy says (think Owen Meany) "WELL, NOW LOOK WHO'S MR. KNOW-IT-ALL ABOUT POOP!"

Alan said...

I don't know what's more interesting. Your Rudy story, or Tim's Tourettes story.
Oh well. rudy, rudy, ruDY, RUDY, RUDY!