Arbuckles

One of the items on my fantasy list of things I want to do before I die includes going on an African Safari. I don't know if I will ever do this, but Arbuckles Wilderness has brought me pretty darn close. If you think you have gone to the zoo and had a great time, you should consider asking Kevin to go to the zoo with you first, and then head to Arbuckles. On your drive out there, he will stop at a grocery store on the way. You might think you are purchasing enough fresh food to feed three families, but you will find that this food can be devoured by wild beasts, in only a matter of minutes. You will probably wonder at about half way there, what the stench is, that is coming from the grocery bag next to you. You might even throw up when you realize there is a pig nose, YES, a real pig nose packaged up with a price label and all, that Kevin purchased at the store, while you were off getting the carrots. Your next stop will be Turner Falls, where you will take the scenic turn out and view a pretty waterfall, emptying into a lake surrounded by natural watersides. After posing for some pictures, you may be getting impatient to finally get to the drive-thru animal park. When you arrive at the little store, where you purchase tickets, you may be wondering if this three hour drive, with stops, will be worth it. Quickly your doubts will fade as you approach the chain link fence, that is only ten feet high, with tigers behind it. When Kevin gets out of the car and begins to lure the tigers and hyenas to the fence with meat, you will definitely be looking around for the security truck, that you saw when you paid at the store. As the tigers begin to pace the fence, and you are all out of meat, you probably will be eager to move on. Especially as you see ten foot ostriches approaching the car, and Kevin still has the car door propped open.

When the ten feet tall ostriches approach, you will get really excited to roll your car window down and start feeding them the food they prefer, which comes from the park, ( you will notice they don't like the cereal that Kevin bought ) You will be admiring their long eyelashes, as they stick their long necks into the car, to eat the food.  The excitement will soon turn into shrills as Kevin dumps the entire cup of food onto your lap, and you have four ostrich heads in your car, picking food up off your lap. You probably wont know whether to laugh or cry out of fear, as you get attacked by ostrich beaks. You will be relieved when you realize these animals are trained to pull their heads out of the car, when the window begins to roll up. Kevin will probably almost shut one of the ostrich necks in the window when trying to test how fast their " pull out of window " reflex is. You will probably scold Kevin for doing that.

You will be relieved to see the next batch of animals you are pulling up to are just donkeys and horses. But don't be surprised at how feisty these regular barn animals can get, as they chase your car and say " Heehaw" very loudly, after all you did feed them carrots, which they probably hardly ever get. Kevin will probably test how fast they can catch up to the car, and tease them a bit with a stop for a carrot and quick increase in speed.

You will be disgusted at how nappy a camel can get as a herd of them approach the car next. You will probably wish you could take a bath after having four camel heads in your car, chowing down on all kinds of veggies. As the Lamas try and start squeezing into the window, Kevin will probably start revving the engine to get some of the camels to move on.

You might think it is fun to feed a Texas long horn, and enjoy taking it's picture. It is when it turns it's head quickly and bangs it's horn on your car, at that point, you will probably wish you had skipped the long horns all together.

Besides hand feeding a baby deer, watching antelope gracefully prance in a field, and counting how many babies that the momma pig, has nestled in hay, there will be two experience that you wont forget. The first will be, having eight zebras going wild for carrots at your car. They will be bucking each other, swinging their heads back and forth with excitement. And then watching Kevin open the car door to get out and take a picture with them. You will be wishing you could forget the part he gets out the car, because you will be scared he is going to get kicked. And lastly, the best part of and Arbuckes experience will be the giraffes. You will notice how gentle they are. You will be surprised at how long their purple tongue is and how it can wrap around a whole apple. You will be shocked and worried when Kevin is counting how many apples that one giraffe will eat. When he gets to number thirteen and the giraffe starts spitting up apple, and it drips on your car, you will be ready to get out of there and get your car washed. But before you go you will pet the giraffe one more time, and you will think to yourself, you know you couldn't do this on an African Safari, and then you might want to plan your next trip to Disney World instead.

Arbuckles is a family traddition for us. Once we drug Kevin's brother Jeff and his family to Arbuckles with us. It was so much fun. The first time that Brooke hysterically laughed, we were at Arbuckles and she saw an ostrich for the first time. As a joke Uncle Jeff and Aunt Tricia gave Brooke a stuffed ostrich for Christmas. We took Will to Arbuckles for the first time on our way to KC. He loved it, admittidly not as much as Brooke did, but we still got lots of laughs from him. After one of our trips to Arbuckles when Brooke was a baby, we realized it probably wasn't very safe, how close we were letting these wild animals get to Brooke. They could just take a finger off in a second, as she reached out to them. We were more cautious of the danger these animals could be in such close proximity, on our first trip with Will.