Africa, It Ain't...

Pine Mountain, Georgia... it is.

That's where we spent last Friday with my brother, sis-in-law, and nephew. We loaded everyone into the car that morning and headed on over to the Wild Animal Safari.

I don't know if you've heard of it.
I don't know if you've been.
I do know most of you would run in the opposite direction.

This is technically our second visit (hang head in mock shame). We went when the boy was only 4, and Aunt April couldn't make it then. So we knew...
Well. We HAD to go again.

When you arrive and pay for the tickets, you can choose to drive your own vehicle through the safari or rent one of their vehicles.

Driving your own involves signing a 12 page waiver that uses words like "gore" and "irreparable damage."

Renting and driving their vehicle means burying any dignity you have and spending the next hour in this sweet ride...



Our side door didn't work, so we all had to climb in through the front. Nice.
Read just a bit further, and you will see why this tail light is broken out. (It wasn't my brother's driving... that's another whole post.)



The basic concept of the "Wild Animal Safari" is to ride through their park and see the animals in a "natural" setting. Nice concept.

In truth, you ride through their park and get accosted, molested, roughed-up, and harassed by some pretty big creatures who want the tasty(?) food you purchased at the ticket counter.

NOT buying a bag of food isn't a wise choice. Heck... we had food, and the giraffe tried to eat part of our cool minivan.

Good times.

Since most of the van's windows are broken, the animals poke their heads (horns and all) INTO the window. INTO your face.
And just so you know, most of these guys are BIG . And smelly. And covered in mud. And DRIPPING with slobber. Dripping. Did I mention the slobber? Cause the fancy word, saliva, just doesn't cut it here, folks. It's slobber.




Told ya they got close.




That's the boy's head in the pictures... he was in the front seat with his uncle. Screaming and laughing and having the best time.




I don't know where he is in this picture... perhaps the floor?




Or it's possible they ate him.



It's not all giant beastly things. There are about a million cute little deer, turtles, donkeys, zebras, and even pigs. We got to pet a giraffe. Who was much more interested in chewing up our van.



Little Noah wasn't quite as scared as his big cousin was 6 years ago (the first time he went through the park). He just kept changing the lap he was sitting in... depending on whose window had the biggest nastiest head in it at the moment.



Good times.

If you have a few more minutes, go over to Rogersland.

(Scroll down a bit past my cute nephew hunting Easter eggs...)

There's video. I think I laughed harder at the video then I did when I was actually there. Maybe I was dodging a big slobbery bison at the time.