the ostrich, the zebra, and my monkey toes.

One of the many things Travis and I share in common is a love for animals. Whether the thing is wild or domestic, in our minds, each one loves his life and is a "good boy." So when we heard about the drive-through Wildlife Safari in New Braunfels, it was a no-brainer: we had to go.

We spent three hours at this place! It had an actual miniature zoo that you could walk around to see monkeys, lemurs, and exotic birds, and a petting zoo (which was just a field with goats, but still fun nonetheless).

 That's a smart boy right there.

The real entertainment came with the driving portion, of course. At the gate, they give you a bag of food with little bits of kibble that you can throw on the ground for the animals. You ride through the course with your windows down, and these wild animals come right up to your car to eat the food. Pretty amazing concept.

About 75% of the animals consisted of every breed of antelope you never knew existed. I gave up trying to identify any of them, but they sure were pretty.

 ?

 ???

 Longhorns! Finally, something I recognize.

 Ummm...

????????

The landscape was awe-inspiring, too. We didn't know Texas would be so green!

Now, there were two main rules at this place, and they posted them frequently throughout so you wouldn't forget: DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS WITH YOUR HANDS, and DO NOT GET OUT OF YOUR CAR FOR ANY REASON. We broke both of these, but it wasn't our fault--it was this guy's!

I don't have the pictures to show what went down here...it all went happened so fast.

First, ostriches are terrifying. Imagine this face...

...about six inches away from you.

He knew the drill with the car windows. To him, they were clearly magical portals from which he could expect treats. Before I knew it, his head was inside our car, looking for the grub. I was too scared at first to let him eat from my hand, so I held the bag out to him, thinking that he would just take what he wanted and move along. Instead, he picked up the bag with his massive beak, pulled it out of the car, and dropped it on the ground.

Travis got a little frustrated at this point, understandably because it was all the food we had. Now I had to figure out how to fix this problem. The ostrich had lost interest in the food, which I supposed was spoiled in his mind now that it was on the ground, and he was looking in the other direction. Slowly I opened our car door, and...

Let me pause so I can tell you about my toes. I have exceptionally long, narrow, dexterous toes that can pick up all sorts of things--used dryer sheets, laundry, keys--anything that's been dropped and I don't feel like bending over to grab. I've wondered what the point of having such monkey-like toes might be, and on this day, my monkey toes found their purpose.

...I ever so carefully stuck my foot out of the car door, grabbed the edge of the paper bag with them, and pulled my foot, and the food, back into the car.

Good thing I did it quickly, because that ostrich had his head back in the car in a matter of seconds. I let him eat out of my hand and we got out of there.

Finally, the zebras.

The zebras are the main event, y'all. I obviously have no idea what the wild ones are really like, but these guys have personalities that are similar to horses: mischievous, funny, friendly, always hungry. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

See what I mean? Mischievous. And awesome.

Here's a video of Travis, the Zebra-whisperer, communicating with wild animal. And afterward, the chaos when multiple zebras wanted our attention at the same time.

Then we journeyed back home to our own wild kingdom...

Mr. Bingley's not a fan of the gecko.

Just for giggles, check out this clip from one of our favorite comedians, Jim Breuer, as he describes a similar (but crazier) drive-through safari in New Jersey:


Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!