6-24-11

Another big day on the road. On the way into our site last night we saw a sign for a place called "The Wilds". We asked the camp host and he said it was a real neat place. So this morning we took a detour and headed into "The Wilds". After driving what seemed like hours on back roads, we pulled into the parking lot only to find out that we could not park on the grounds and leave Lola in the trailer as planned. At least there was an option given, so I dropped of the family and drove back about a mile and left the trailer and truck in a pull out that was off of the property. I decided to ride my bike back to the parking lot where Jordan and the kids were waiting. Unfortunately, when I pulled my bike down, the tires were flat. After a quick fix, I rode back. We took the shuttle up up the hill and discovered what the Wilds were about. Apparently this whole area was a old strip mine that was donated to the Colombus Zoo in the 80's ( Jack Hannahs zoo) The zoo restored about 10,000 acres of the land, but because of the lost soil they could only grow grass. This created a perfect environment to build the countries biggest wild animal conservation park.


The tour we took lasted about 2.5 hours and we saw all kinds if endangered animals. We even had the luck to see some baby cheetahs, and a rhino came right up to the open air bus.




















After some lunch, I went back got Mimi and picked up Jordan and the kids right as another big storm was coming through. We decided to make a big push to St. Louis. This time we drove about 7 hours and pulled into camp about midnight. I think all the time in the car is getting to us. We are all tired and cranky. Some rest here in St. Louis will hopefully help.

Location:Oh-St. Louis