Wild Animal Ranch

We finally made it to Asheboro and Karen's house.  Because she and Rob still had to work during the week, and Megan still had school, we had to continue to entertain ourselves.  Karen was great at giving us ideas.  She sent us to a wild animal ranch one day.  I wasn't sure to expect, but what we got was a whole new experience with animals!

Here is the concept of the ranch:  all kinds of animals, exotic and common, ranging together around the park.  When you drive in you buy buckets of feed for a few dollars.  Whenever you get the urge, you hold your bucket out the window, and the very well trained "wild" animals come eat out of your bucket.

Simple enough concept, great in theory.  But we forgot to consider how tenacious critters can be!  The antelope knew hot to grab a bucket with their teeth and fling it over their heads thus stealing all your food at once.  This happened to Joshua the first 10 feet in the gate.

Others simply put their whole heads in the car and bullied your food away from you.

This one I called "Michael's Girlfriend"  She was getting fresh!  She also had horns that got stuck in the window.  We eventually had to drive off to get her unstuck.

Ever fed a Giraffe?  How cool is that?!!

The ranch also had lovely gardens to walk around.

Ostrich.  Need I say more?

Sweet and slimy buffalo.  He also got a little pushy, and in the end stole my bucket.  I was covered with slobber.

By the time we drove out of there, we had feed all over inside the rental van, slobber running down the windows and doors, and scratches all over the paint from aggressive goat hooves.  It took a good while to clean it and get it presentable before we could return it.  It was totally worth it though!  We all thought this was one of the very best parts of the trip.  Such fun to experience wild things!