The LaFasto's: Life with Legos, Lattes & Lightsabers: Fossil Rim Day

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Fossil Rim Day - part I

Last Saturday, we visited Fossil Rim Wildlife Preserve in Glen Rose, TX. And then the week completely slipped away from me, and I didn't get a chance to blog about it until now! It was so much fun. Dresden was totally in awe of all those animals getting so close to our car. He kept saying "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" over and over. He loved feeding them out of the window, too. I was a little worried that a few of them would take him out of the car with the cattle feed he was offering them; those goats and zebras and deer were NOT shy or afraid of people in the least bit. I think I said my fair share of "Oh my gosh"es, too! I thought, hey it's just big goats and striped horses, no big deal, right? But the goats and orynx and deer have these gigantic antlers and horns that they are pretty careless with, and the slightest move of their heads could sent those horns right inside our window. That freaked me out! But, I digress. Without further ado, because there are SO many pictures...Here are the pictures!

Well hello there, Mr. Wildebeest!

I think you always think zebras are cool, but you never really realize

just HOW beautiful their stripes are until you see them right at your car window. Magnificent.

Trying to stay cool; who could blame 'em?

An orynx? Last week I knew what all these animals were.

But I've slept since then (however minimally), and now the names escape me.

Fallow deer

Before we began the climb...

Okay, I think this one was an oryx. He had Three Stooges/monk hair.

And he was WAY up in our faces!

An almost-mirror image

Our safari guide!

Camoflauge!

CATTLE CHOW! DELICIOUS!!!

An Aoudad - again, WAY too close for comfort with those GIGANTIC, heavy horns!

You can see just how hungry he was for the food he saw in our car...

An older gentleman who kept a safe, serene distance

I just thought this deer was so regal looking.

And CUE the CRAZY ZEBRA GANG!!!! I seriously thought they might start re-enacting that scene from The Ring 2 where the deer go crazy on Naomi Watts' car. FA-REAKED me OUT!

"Gimme all ya' cattle chow and nobody gets hurt!"

A (rare) calm moment from one of the other zebras. Zebras are not the fearful, docile creatures that Discovery Channel would have you believe. Or did I miss the "When Zebras Attack" documentary? We coulda made one ourselves. I have zebra-teeth marks on the shoulder of the driver's seat of my car to prove it. Another one also attempted to take out my passenger-side mirror. Chill out zebras! Or do they not feed you enough?!

More zebra antics!

The well-behaved giraffes could have taught them a thing or two!

Me and my littlest park ranger

This was how close we were to Mr. Ostrich! GinORmous!

And then...the WEIRDEST thing happened! A wormhole appeared out of nowhere and when we stepped through, we were transported back in time - to the TIME OF THE DINOSAURS!!!