Last month, we bears had a very special adventure. As you will know if you have been following my blog, we have lots of adventures with our human guardians, Polar and Grizzly, but this one was extra special, because it was organised by a bear called Tour Guide Ted, in honour of another bear, called Toddy Furrington. We met both of them on Twitter and, like hundreds of bears and other anipals, we had been heart-broken when Toddy and his human 'valet', Dr Kevin, had - as we say on anipal Twitter - passed Over the Rainbow Bridge during the summer.
So when Ted suggested a 'TweetUp' at the Black Country Living Museum in their honour, on Toddy's birthday 27th October, we really, really wanted to go - and Polar and Grizzly agreed we could. They bought tickets for our train to Wolverhampton and on to Tipton, and we set off that morning from our favourite station at Kidsgrove.
We had been worried we might not get there, because there had been lots of rain the day before and there were floods all around Stafford, but we arrived safely.
Polar carried us from the station to the Museum. From our bag, we saw a canal, with a tour boat on it, and a steam engine. That was two of our favourite things, before we even got inside the museum!
In the cafe, we started looking out for other bears and anipals. We thought we might have been the first to arrive until we saw our pal Chomper and a small bear friend, helping their human guardian to eat a scone. Soon, lots of our friends and their humans had arrived.
Tour Guide Ted had a special job to do, introducing some small bears who had been part of Toddy's 'hug' to the bears who were adopting them. There were lots of small bear tears of mixed sadness and joy as the bears met their new friends and guardians. I wondered if I ought to have asked Polar and Grizzly to adopt another bear, but I do not think there would have been enough room in our bear basket or bear bag for any more small bears.
When all the introductions had been made, Tour Guide Ted suggested we went to visit the mine before the queues got too long. Of course we bears are quite happy exploring dark caves, so we did not find it scary, except when there was a simulated blasting of the coal with gunpowder, but it must have been horrible for the humans, human cubs and ponies who worked there. Polar found it very difficult to move about, because the ceilings were very low.
It was nice to be back in the fresh air. We found some small waggons to climb on and soon some of our friends, including Chomper, Milly the Mammoth, Blueberry and a very big bear called Fred. We met so many new bears that I'm very sorry to say I don't remember the name of the small bear in the green jumper, for which I am very sorry, as I don't mean to be rude.
Then we made our way to the town by the canal at the heart of the museum, where we enjoyed the best fish and chips we bears had ever eaten.
Being boat bears, we were excited to see the canal running through the town and even happier when Ted told us we were all going on a boat trip.
While we waited in our bear bag, some of our friends joined us in the bear bag. First in was Mr T Bear, then Fuzzy jumped in too!
Then more of our friends came to see us but could not all fit into the bag. We suggested Polar bring a bigger one next time, so more of our friends could share it with us.
Then we were on the boat and off on our journey along the canals. Look how many bears and other anipals there are here! What a great tribute to our friend Toddy Furrington. Lots of them are wearing Panda Jumpers made by Reddy's human guardian. We ought to have worn ours too but we had our duffle coats on instead.
We went back to our bear bag for some of the journey as Polar said we either had to stay in the bag or put our life-jackets on, which would have meant taking off our coats, and it was too cold for that.
We decided we liked the look of the Birmingham canals, as there are green spaces as well as interesting industrial scenes. We would love to visit on Uppie. Grizzly says we might do that next year, when Uppie has been repainted.
We would also like to visit the Black Country Museum again as there was lots more to see and do than we had time for on this visit.
By the time we got back from our boat trip, it was almost time to go home, but there was just time for a ride on the trolley bus and tea and cake back at the cafe.
Milly and Blueberry's humans gave us a lift back to Wolverhampton Station and we told them they were welcome to visit us and see some of our favourite bear haunts around Trentham Gardens or Biddulph Grange, so maybe they will - or maybe we'll have a big tweet-up for lots of our pals?
It was dark on the way home, so we snuggled together and talked about what kind things we could do to remember Toddy and be a gentlebear like he had been, then we napped in our bear bag until we arrived home, for biscuits and hot chocolate before bedtime.
'Sleep tight, little bears' said Polar as she tucked us in. 'You've got another adventure tomorrow!'
And she was right.
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