Was That A Rat?

Let me introduce all of you to Kevin.  Kevin is the one on the left, not the security guard. 

Yesterday, I shared with you our dining experience at Fogo De Chao, and I mentioned that there was a funny story about our walk back to the hotel.  Well, here it is.

The restaurant was a few blocks from our hotel, and our hotel was right across the street from Freedom Plaza.  Freedom Plaza just so happens to be where they have one of the Occupy D.C. camps.  More on that another day.

There we were, eighteen of us, walking back to the hotel.  Kevin wanted to walk by the Occupy camp, and I told him I would walk with him.  Everyone else stayed on the opposite side of the street.  As we were walking through the crosswalk, he told me that he would be my protector and I replied that I hoped so.  Of course, we were laughing and joking about getting too close to the camp. 

We rounded the corner, and I saw something scurry across the sidewalk, or so I thought I did.  I asked him if he saw that.  He didn't, so I blew it off.  Less than three steps down the sidewalk, I saw something else scurry across the sidewalk so I grabbed Kevin's arm and said I saw rats.  He said he didn't see them, and kind of laughed at me like I might be seeing things.

I turned around to see what was behind us, and there were two rats scurrying across the sidewalk.  But at the same time I was turning around to see the rats running behind us, Kevin saw them running in front of us.  His voice went up two octaves as he half way yelled, "Let's get out of here!" 

Just so you know, I am laughing almost hysterically just thinking about it.

We hightailed it out of there, screaming and laughing the whole way.  Kevin said something about us getting a jay-walking ticket, and I was laughing to hard to respond.  When I saw a rat the size of a small cat coming up out of the sewer, I could've cared less about a jay-walking ticket. 

This could be one of those you just had to be there stories, but it was just too funny for me not to share.  The one thing that keeps me laughing is how Kevin told me he would be my protector right before we saw the rats, and how he sounded like a girl telling me to get out of there. 

Another thing that keeps me laughing is wondering what the people in the Occupy camp thought of us two hillbillies screaming and running from the rats that were running right into their camp.