Final day in Dallas area

On Monday November 4th we drove 1 1/2 hrs southwest from our campground to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center.    This is an endangered species research and conservation center near Glen Rose, Texas. The facility has over 1,000 animals from 50 species.

You drive for 9 1/2 miles along a scenic trail through the park viewing the animals roaming at large on 1,800 acres of land.  A visitor can purchase a bag of pellets to feed the animals along the drive through the park.  Some animals will come up to your car window looking for the food, but many wait for you to toss it on the ground for them to eat.  It was amazing to see many species of antelope, deer, ostrich, emu, zebra, giraffe....

We were given a leaflet to help identify the wildlife we saw.

Bison were one of the animals you were not allowed to feed

female Blackbuck

male Blackbuck

Ostrich

Blesbok

baby Wildebeest feeding

Wildebeest

Emu

Emu coming to our car window for food

Bev's photo of Emu as taken above

Dama Gazelle

Fallow Deer

Zebra coming to feed

Big teeth but so gentle taking pellet.

a young zebra among the herd

Giraffes getting handouts

giraffe coming to Vic's window looking for pellets

Licking the post...check out that loooong black tongue!

Arabian Oryx

Scimitar-horned Oryx

Aoudad

This one left a sprinkling of mud on the window sill.

European Red Deer

Waterbuck

We were able to view 5 Cheetah in the special compound for the Cheetah propagation program.

There was also a special compound for Black Rhinos. We were about 5 minutes too late as these were being rounded up and put in a corral for the night.

The drive took us 4 hours but we found it delightful to see these exotic creatures up close.

Link to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center

A week in Dallas

We left Cave City, KY on Mon Oct 28th in light rain -- a good traveling day!  That night we stayed at a Walmart Supercenter in Little Rock, AR.  We were parked next to a couple from Quebec who were on their way in their motorhome to spend the winter in Mission, TX.

Tues, Oct 29th we arrived at Traders Village RV Park in Grand Prairie, TX (a suburb in the Dallas/Fort Worth area).  We booked a site for a week.  The first 3 days we were here, we wore shorts and t-shirts but now the weather has cooled a bit so we're back to jeans and a sweater or light jacket.  Luckily we did not have any of the wind and flooding that went through Austin TX that caused so much damage.

We have been busy shopping and touring around the DFW area.  Our visit to the American Airline Museum was a disappointment.  Luckily we paid only $4 each entrance fee as seniors.

Saturday Nov 2nd we spent 5 hours walking through the Traders Village weekend Flea Market.  3,500 vendors.  Lots of them selling tools, cowboy boots, saddles, clothing, shoes, purses, fruits (4 qts of strawberries for $5), veggies, furniture, flooring,.....We bought two avocados for a buck and a twirly lawn ornament for three bucks. Big spenders huh?

Traders Village, Grand Prairie

Sunday Nov 3rd we spent at the Texas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race. It was a real bummer when our favorite driver 24 Jeff Gordon blew a tire and hit the wall. That ended his chance to win the race and ultimately a chance at the season championship. Real bummer. Looks like Jimmy Johnson will win it as his car is always better than any other lately.


A side note - the gas prices have been lower as we travel through the states of Arkansas and Texas.  Thanks to our Pilot/Flying J card we get a 4 cent discount per gallon.  We've been able to purchase gas at $2.95 and $2.91 per gallon.

Cave Tours in Kentucky

October 26, 2013

This morning we headed over to Mammoth Caves National Park to take one of their cave tours.  Before we reached the Visitor Centre, we spotted a deer feeding on the lawn.

Doe munching on the frosty grass.

We don't have a photo but the grass was all white. Not sure how they do that here at Mammoth National Park but I suspect it may have been the sub-freezing temperature.

We arrive at about 9:00 AM for a 9:30 tour only to find that we are now in the Central Time Zone. That sure does answer to why there is so few cars in the parking lot. The place isn't open yet. Oops... we have some time to kill.

The "New Entrance" is really a door into the hill!

We used our Golden Years discount which gives us 50% off at all National Parks.  We took the New Entrance tour which was 2 hours long.  This cave tour visited only 3/4 of a mile of the 400 mile cave system but involved going up and down 500 stairs. We descended  250 ft. The cave area we visited was not as spectacular as other caves we have visited over the years but the rock formations were still interesting plus we learned more details about the cave systems and sink holes in Kentucky. This whole area of the country is rife with caves but Mammoth is the grandaddy of the whole world. We saw only a small snippet of the cave system here and it is still being explored so the 400 mile tally will increase for sure. It is interesting that all the exploration is done by volunteers who do all the work on weekends. Even the warden who work in the park and do exploration must do it on their own time as volunteers!

We did not have to traverse the entire cave system to find what it was like. During one of the talk sessions in a large chamber, the warden turned off all the lights for a total lack of light experience. She then said that this is what it is like in all the rest of the cave system. No need to go any further!

Bev's version of spelunking...the easy way with stairs and railings.

In the afternoon we visited the private Diamond Caverns near Park City.  This cave system was small at only 1/2 mile long with 350 stairs but during the one hour tour we saw some very unusual rock formations plus many stalactites, stalagmites, flows, etc.

Stalagmite in Diamond Caverns.

Bev poses with a "Column" in Background. Stalactite meets stalagmite.

Lots of formations here millions of years old.

A stalactite cut through and polished to show the interior.

Interesting contrasts in this chamber ceiling.

They call this formation "bacon".

Tomorrow will be a day of rest and fixing little things like a dripping water filter. We hit the road again on Monday, cross the Mighty Mississippi River and should end up west of Memphis or maybe even Little Rock. Warmer weather is waiting there for us.

Our 5th winter of retirement

We are on the road south once again.  Our 5th winter trip to Lo de Marcos, Mexico.  We are not in a hurry this year as we are not scheduled to meet up with our friends in Tucson until the 15th or 16th of November.  No rush to enter Mexico as there has been more rain than usual so the weather is still quite humid and uncomfortable..

We left one week earlier this year in the hopes of escaping the freezing weather.  No luck!  The winds were strong on the drive through Ontario and Ohio yesterday. Last night we stayed near Lima, Ohio with temperatures dipping to -3C (26F).  We boondocked at a Flying J Truck Stop parking lot.  Luckily we had an inverter which ran our electric blanket and we had the furnace on low at 10C (50F) to prevent the water pipes from freezing without draining the motorhome batteries..

Today's drive through the hills of Kentucky with ever changing scenery was beautiful compared to previous years' drive through Indiana which wasflat and endless farmland.

We are currently parked at Singing Hills RV Park just outside the Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky.  We plan to spend the weekend exploring the area and taking tours of the caves.

Here is a link to info about this area: Cave City, Kentucky

Home again

April 16, 2013

We arrived home from a wonderful winter in Mexico.  We traveled a total of 7,327 miles with our motorhome.  Now if only it were warmer weather in Ontario!!!  Maybe we will stay away a little longer next year.