Touch-a-Truck and Pumper 55

Last Sunday, Father's Day, Mothercraft put on an event called "Touch-a-truck". Quinn is very into trucks (and daddy is too!), so we decided to take him to it. He liked it I think, but he was completely overwhelmed. There were firetrucks and army trucks and streetsweepers and graders and front end loaders and all manner of things. I'm guessing there were 50 displays in total, many of which you could sit in. And many of which you could blow the horn, unfortunately. Imagine 50 7-year olds blowing airhorns simultaneously. The particularly loud horn on the BFI garbage truck put him over the brow and he began to cry, so we left after about 40 minutes. I think he had fun though - we sat in the cab of an enormous army flatbed trailer that can carry tanks, and he sat in the cab of a grader and played with the steering wheel.

After we got home, mommy assigned us to go to the park and get Quinn some exercise. We were on our way when I noticed the flashing lights of some emergency vehicles down the street. Being raised a firetruck-chaser by my own dad, we set out to investigate. It turns out there was a fire in the middle of the night and there were still some firemen there mopping up hotspots, as well as police cars and a Hydro cherry picker truck there. I was talking to Quinn about the firetruck and how it hooked up to the hydrant etc when Kevin The Fireman, driver of Pumper 55 invited Quinn to sit in the cab (and Quinn's dad too!). We climbed up into the cab and Quinn was fascinated, pretending to turn the big steering wheel and trying to blow the horn - Kevin explained that his captain wouldn't be too pleased if the horn started blowing so we were very careful.

While Touch-a-Truck was fun, somehow the Pumper 55 experience was more gratifying, and Quinn seemed to enjoy it more too. It was a quieter setting, and a serendipitous encounter. Seeing trucks at the Truck Zoo is nice, but seing them "in the wild" is way better.