Mother's Day Outing

One of the conditions of accepting my current show was that I could be home for Mother's Day, to which they happily obliged. Now that has passed and I'm back on the road in Upstate New York. Since this was Courtney's first Mother's Day, we decided to try to make a tradition of sorts; do something new she hasn't done before.  So this year, after declining my invitations of skydiving and bungee jumping, she picked out Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, TX. It's basically a drive-thru zoo of "wild" African animals.  Apparently, Courtney went to one when she was about 3 but didn't remember, so we deemed this a legitimate first.

We loaded up, minus our guard dog Lucy, and made the two hour trek to Glen Rose. Max was able to get his beauty rest on the way down, so he had fresh eyes for all the new things he was about to see.  As much as Courtney and I try to do things for each other, Max seems to be at the center of it all. Deservedly so, I think. Especially on Mother's Day.  Anywho, we pulled in and woke up the little man. I got us an oversized brown lunch bag of pellets, each seemingly about the size of a shotgun shell and off we went.

The entire path of this place is about 9 miles of Louisiana asphalt (you know, that dilapidated 100 year old kind) and our first stop was about 500 feet past the first cattle guard.  It was a herd of wildebeest and Max was excited as I've ever seen him; more so than Lucy doing tricks while he's in his jumper. Granted, these are semi-wild animals that are about as domesticated as Lucy, but they're still the exact same animal you'd see in Africa...just without the expense and malaria.  And they're smart. They know that cars equal food, so they come right up to you.  It was a really fun adventure for all of us.  There were lots of different types of deer, antelope, gazelle, cheetahs, rhinos, and I think all of our favorite...the giraffes. It's clear we miss Lucy when we compare every animal's actions to her. "Aww look, the Addax is wagging its tail and wants a treat like Lucy!" or "The goat lays in a little ball just like Lucy!" We had fun with all the animals and probably most especially Max's reactions. He enjoyed it, without a doubt.  We all did.  I've added a few other photos below as well.