The Wilds

Saturday 7/5/2014

Mineral Wells WV

The Wilds in Cumberland Ohio was our destination today and what a wonderful place.  Don and I visited The Wilds several years ago with the United Tour Riders and I was excited to show the kids all the animals while riding in an open air safari bus.  I had reserved tickets for the 12 noon bus but we arrived at 10:17 and they had room on the 11 am bus so we took it.  Bumpy roads with dust flying and animals all around some near the roads; some in the water and some off in the distance.  The kids got to see giraffes, rhinos, camel, antelope, oryx, sheep, African painted dogs, several breeds of donkeys, several breeds of deer, bison and a lot of other animals.  At one stop we got to enter a huge cage filled with birds and we could hold a stick with bird seeds on it and the birds would land on your hand or arm and eat.  Zoey spooked when she felt the little claws of the bird on her hand but she was fine standing in the cage while I let them sit on my hand.  Of course we had to go to the gift shop after the 3 hour tour and then back in the car to ride 50 miles to Mineral Wells to our hotel.  The kids had fallen asleep just 3 or 4 miles down the road.  Arriving at the Microtel in Mineral Wells they have a Cracker Barrel right across the parking lot so guess where we ate and of course we gave them more money for toys.  I don’t think we can walk through Cracker Barrel without buying something other than food.