Zoo Experience!

Today we loaded up with Jill, Jerry, Jerry's son Jacob, and his 3 kids, to go to the zoo. We found out about this small zoo over past Nevada, so we thought we would go over and check it out. And Jerry's mom, Grandma Evelyn, lives in Nevada, so we could see her after the zoo...

Well, we were about 20 minutes late getting out to Jill's house, then on the way to Nevada Riahna spilled juice all over her outfit, so we had to go to Wal-mart and get her a new outfit, and everyone was tired! We finally pull up to the "zoo", and it looks like a junkyard. Everyone just started laughing... Jill, Summer, Lucas, and the little girls in one car, Jerry, Jacob, and the little boys in the other car. Both car loads were laughing as we pulled up!!!

We decided to eat our sandwiches before we went into the park, while we somewhat had the kids corralled! After we were done eating, we walked down a ways to get to the actual zoo... And were VERY pleasantly surprised! For 5 adults and 5 children, it cost us $40, but 2 of those children were also free... But still, that's 5.25 for an adult and 4.25 for a child, which we were pretty happy with!

The zoo was pretty nice... It wasn't fancy at all, more like a home-owned and ran operation, but very clean and interesting. The set-up was nice, though... A few animals in a grouping of cages here, a few more animals in cages over there, and everything had a double fence to keep the kids back. And a few animals even roamed around free. There were all kinds of animals - elk, deer, raccoons, coatmundis, warthogs, cows, ducks, alligators, caimans, lion, tigers, wolves, emus, miniature deer, miniature ponies, goats, bears, monkey, birds, turkeys, peacocks, etc...

The best thing about the zoo was the PVC piping... That sounds weird, but stay with me... In a few different cages, like the monkey, raccoon, coatmundi, and bears, there was a long PVC pipe that started high on the people side of the fence, and ran across to the animal side at a steep angle. For a quarter, you can buy "treats" and roll them down the tube! The kids loved it, but I think the animals liked it even better! The monkeys and bears ate Fruit Loops and the raccoons and coatmundis ate dog food. It was pretty funny with the raccoons, though, because one of them had both of his little arms shoved up the pipe with his hands doing the "give me, give me" squeezes that Riahna does, and he was just waiting to catch his food.

For another quarter, though, you can go do something even better! You can walk over to the pop machine, buy an orange pop, pop the top off, and walk it over to the bears... Then, you pour it down the chute while the bear on the other end laps it up like a dog! One of the bears was putting the whole pipe in his mouth like a giant straw, and it was a big enough pipe you could probably roll a baseball down it. And not a drop of it really touched the ground! If any did spill out, the bears licked it up when the pop was done coming down the pipe. And someone thought that maybe they would trick the bear by sending a drink of water down the pipe, but the bear just ignored it.... He turned away and let it just spill out on the ground!

When you're done doing those things, you can buy an ice cream cone, 3 for $1. The cones come with cracked corn and food pellets that you dump out into your hand and feed to the free-roaming deer or the caged goats... But you couldn't get to the goats, because as soon as you stepped up to the window to buy the cones, the "herd" of deer started walking towards you! When the food is all gone, you crack the cone open and feed pieces of that to the deer. This part was really cool, too, because I've never been close to a deer, unless it was standing next to a carcass on the highway, waiting for the police to come do their report. It was really neat to be able to feed one. I even had a buck licking all over my hands. His antlers were still in velvet, and it felt so neat. I got to pet him and even touch his antlers with the velvet. It felt so cool!!!

So, today was hot and muggy and sticky and didn't go the way anyone planned, but the kids loved it! And to tell the truth, I think all of the adults had a pretty good time, too!


These are some of the 10 or so fawns that just run wild with their mamas around the park!

This is Bobby, a 5 year old buck... He was very friendly, even when you didn't have food!
More pics of Bobby and everyone - Memaw, Raven, and Johnny in the back.
Bobby really liked me... He stayed right with me for a long time, even after the food was gone.
Bobby and Raven... Behind Bobby, you can see another buck in the pic off to the right. That's Scooter, and he's a 2 year old buck. His rack was much smaller than Bobby's, although with more points. That's the first thing that Scott, Jerry, and Jacob noticed... They were thinking in terms of hunting, not petting zoo with the children!

This is Riahna cheesing. This face is pretty typical of her if you whip out a camera... The squinty eyes, the scrunchy nose, the devious look like she knows something you don't!

This is Raven and Daddy getting ready to feed Arthur, a black bear. You can see him, ready and waiting at the end of the tube!

This is Fuzzy, a 29 year old grizzly bear who's lived at the zoo his whole life. He's also ready for the orange Kool-Aid that's getting ready to pour down the tube! He used the tube like a giant straw, putting his whole mouth around the tube and letting the drink just pour down his throat.

This is a white white-tail deer. Her name is Kayla, and she's VERY friendly! She loved the kids!
She even loved Riahna. Kayla wanted to give Riahna kisses, but Riahna wasn't crazy about that.

This is an albino Burmese python. I forgot his name, but all of these animals have names. All of the kids got to pet the snake. Raven thought that was pretty cool!
This is a reticulated snake who also has a name. Raven was ready to pet this one, after petting the last one!
And Riahna has to do everything that Sissy does, no matter how scary or weird she thinks it is!
This is a Munt Jac, a miniature type of deer. As we walked by, they ran over to the fence to look at us, and wanted to lick our fingers. Raven just reached her hand in and started petting this one, so it turned the back of its head to her to scratch. As Raven walked away, this poor little deer walked along the fence with Raven, trying to get her to come back. Too cute!
This is a hybrid wolf... He's totally ferocious... As we walked by, he got up and panted at us, then barked at us like "lets play!" It was pretty funny, cause he looks like a regular dog, not a wolf!

And there's Bobby again! This was when we first came to the zoo, before we knew how friendly he was! Raven thought it was cool we got so close... She had no idea what was in store for her!
This is more Kayla, trying to get treats or pets from the kids. She pretty much followed us around the front area of the zoo, just waiting for some attention!

Ok, she got more attention from us... It's just hard, when she looks at you with those big doe eyes! For real! You know she just wants some loving! So we gave in and gave it to her!
These are the raccoons. The raccoon at the base of the tube had his arms shoved up into the tube with his hands doing the "give me, give me" that Riahna does. It was so cute!

The daddies got stuck pushing the strollers through the rocks and sticks, working up a sweat.