Adventure in the Piney Woods

Over the weekend, we decided to take a day trip to one of the drive-through wildlife ranches that the kids love so much. Brad looked online and found a new (to us anyway) place we had never been before called Cherokee Trace Drive-Through Safari, so we were gung ho to try out a new and different place. And it looked nice and real pretty. So Saturday morning early we set off for the Piney Woods of East Texas. It was supposed to be only a couple hour drive, but ended up taking longer since we got lost, almost ran out of gas in the middle of a forest (not exaggerating here...look it up - Crockett National Forest), then got lost again. Our navigation system didn't pick up the address or location. That wasn't a big shock...it sometimes acts wonky. So we printed out a trusty Google map and off we went. Well, Google map as well, got us nice and lost. I'm telling you, this place was in the middle of NOWHERE! Most of our drive looked like this....

So it was really pretty. But in the middle of BFE. Literally. Its a little scary some of the people we saw on the side of the road selling trash in overalls. (again, not an exaggeration) Well finally, we got there. It didn't look like what we were expecting. It was a lot, .....um...more..."homier"?? than we thought. But we were there so we were determined to make the most of it.

It doesn't take much to impress the girls, especially after a 3 hour long car ride. So Brooke was super excited to see the animals...

And Brenna was equally stoked.

The drive through the park was much much prettier than any of the other places we've been. Very wooded, serene, peaceful. As opposed to the normal open plains you see at other places. However, there didn't seem to be enough animals to fill up the super large area.

They did have the normal animals...the friendly and super tame varieties of deer... (check out the woody background of this picture - it was really pretty there!)

And the pesky annoying emus that try to get in your car...

A few zebra as well...but literally, just a few, as opposed to the normal herds of zebra we're used to seeing. And this zebra weren't near as tame. Or maybe I should say as 'assertive' as most zebras we've been around at places like this.

And actually, the llamas were the only animals that would actually eat out of your hand there. I loved the llamas. So much so that I let the kids get a llama stuffed animal from the gift shop. I'm a sucker. :P

Then there was the most humongous camel I have ever seen in my life! Not that I've seen a lot of camels, but if I had, I'm sure this would've been the biggest. Supposedly, he's real friendly and tries to eat out of your hand/car/bag, but when we happened upon him, he must've been full or tired, because he was just laying there. But he was pretty cool nonetheless.

However, by far, the most coolest, awesomest thing there and what made it worth the trip were kangaroos!!! I mean, honestly, I don't think I've ever seen a kangaroo in person before? Not in zoos around here. Not up close and personal anyway. It was so incredibly cool! I loved seeing them hop on over to the car to get some food. Sooo cool! (and yea, I let the girls get a stuffed kangaroo too)

I realized things about kangaroos that I didn't know before. For instance, when they are just 'sitting' they look so awkward. I always pictured kangaroos in the standing position or hopping, but they have to 'sit' to eat off the ground. And they looked so....awkward. For lack of a better word. It's like their top arms aren't long enough so it appeared they were sitting on their elbows? I don't know...hard to explain. But it was weird looking.

Also, when they first were coming up, I thought, 'how cool!' Then when they got closer, they looked a little mean. Just their demeanor or something. Of course they wanted the food, so they were accepting of us. But sure enough, another animal came up (like a deer of some sort) and the kangaroos actually glared at him and made this weird hissing/growling sound, as if to say...'back off buddy.' Who knew? But anyway, it was really cool to see kangaroos so close! And that was the great excitement of the trip for sure!

After we drove through, we let the girls get out and check out the pet turkey. Brooke's first reaction when we saw the turkey was...(and I'm sorry to all the PETA members out there)...."We should've brought a gun to shoot it so we could eat it!"

And they had a teepee set up with some picnicking areas near the front that, again, was really pretty and peaceful and serene. It was a beautiful setting for sure! So we let the girls play around the teepee/picnic area before we loaded up in the car to head home.

Sooo, I'm glad we went (the kangaroos were worth it and it was a pretty drive!), but next time we'll be sticking to our favorite wildlife place in Glen Rose - Fossil Rim Wildlife Ranch . The girls had a blast, though, and that's what matters. Brooke was kinda enthralled by the "real" forest that we drove through so we were going to stop and walk around but couldn't find a place? And there's a whole 'nother funny story there. About how the forest was actually on fire in several spots and Brad and I spent 25 minutes of the drive arguing about whether or not I should call it in. He insisted it was a control burn. I tried to tell him that there was no one around 'controlling' it and that there would be no harm in just calling...just in case. But he won out. I didn't call. After we saw the fire truck on the complete other side of the forest anyway. :)