Month: June 2019

From the moment we parked in the solar panel covered garage we knew this zoo was going to be spectacularly different!  After parking, we took an escalator up and over the road to the zoo entrance to purchase our tickets. This zoo participates in a program with other zoos across the US. If you hold a zoo membership to another zoo and have those with you, you can receive a discount.  This zoo offers a 50% discount!  Our total entry fee ended up being $27.00 including the $10.00 for parking. 

Now our day really begins!  We were watching the weather. The night before we had a pretty big storm.  Weather bug predicted there would be NO more rain during the day.  It was to rain around 7:00.  The funny thing is, my WTF (What The Forecast app) said, “This weather is a bag of suck!”  It was just overcast all day! 😊 All this being written down because we felt like we had the zoo to ourselves most of the day!  At several of the exhibits we could watch by ourselves for as long as we wanted.  At one point we were lucky enough (because we are shy people), to stumble across a volunteer named “Vince”.  He had an “All Access” volunteer badge on.  He has been volunteering at the zoo for 13 years. I felt like we were speaking to the director of the facility.  His knowledge of the entire place was amazing.  He knew all the animals’ names. He explained how the zoo used the reclaimed water system on the property.  They have a 450,000-gallon reservoir under the property they use for certain animals like the hippos.  The solar panel power is for the offices on the property. Vince told us specifically to go back to the “Zookeeper Talk” at 2:45 for Fiona and Bibi, the hippos.  As he said this he winked. We made sure we were there.  Luck was with us again- there was a private tour going on and they were feeding the hippos!  Zoom Zoom took some great photos of the two of them eating!  Thank you, Vince!

The zoo is known for Fiona. She was the first Nile hippo to be born at the zoo in 75 years. She is the only preemie hippo to ever survive.  She had a few things go against her at birth, Vince told us.  Firstly, she was born 6 weeks early.  A vet that works at the zoo was notified; he lives about a block from the zoo.  When he arrived, Fiona was laying on the cement.  Usually hippos are born in the water.  Hippos dehydrate easily if they are not submerged in the water.  The baby is pushed to the top of the water to breathe and then they are nursed in the water for about 2 weeks all the while they are bonding with their mother.  So, when the vet got there, he was not so sure he wanted to go in and get Fiona!  Hippos are aggressive.  He knew that Fiona had zero chance of living if he didn’t try and save her.  In he went and Bibi just let him take Fiona.  She weighed 29 pounds while most hippos weigh about 60 pounds at birth.  She was bottle fed using her mom’s milk and infant milk.  Teething at about one month old caused her to stop eating. Fiona refused all foods and liquids-she became dehydrated.  A team of doctors from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital aided the vet team and Fiona flourished.  They put a catheter in her for feedings.  If it hadn’t been for the collaboration between the hospital and the zoo, Fiona probably would have joined the statics of all the other preemies born.  It looks like Fiona will live a long happy life now!

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Of course, we hightailed it to the giraffes.  It was feeding time! 4 tiny pieces of lettuce = priceless (in real life $6.00). The giraffe I fed was pregnant!  They have two pregnant giraffes.  They belong to a breeding program with other zoos, so they can’t just let things happen naturally.  Giraffes are such interesting animals!  They have an 18” long prehensile tongue – meaning it can wrap around leaves to strip them from the trees!  Their hearts weigh 25 pounds.  Yep, they do have BIG hearts-literally!  They have 4 stomachs!!  I can’t even deal with the one I have; I can’t imagine having four to keep up with!  Their eyelashes are something most of us women truly envy.  As long and luscious as they are, they serve a purpose – they keep splinters and other tree debris out of their eyes as they eat their meals.   Their nasty ratty looking tails are fly swatters!  And their patterns on their coat are for camouflage while out on the savannahs.  I promise as soon as they create a teacup giraffe, I’m going to be first in line for one (or 4!)

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This zoo also had manatees!  The only other place we have seen manatees is…is at the Dallas Aquarium. These guys are just big blobs of fat shaped like squishy walruses minus the tusks and the tails aren’t shaped the same.  Manatee tails are more round with a tiny notch in the center. They move so slow in the water, I can see how they get hurt by boats, they just aren’t Olympic swimmers. Just like most exhibits we were alone in this one for quite a bit of time!  It was so relaxing to sit on the bench and watch them lumber along. At some point the keepers dropped lettuce in the water.  A few of them were hungry and “took off” for a treat!  The zoo obtained all 4 of their manatees through rescues in one way or another.  One was found abandoned after its mother was struck by a boat and didn’t survive, one was rescued from a boat strike, and two of them were rescued after 2 separate hurricanes.  The zoo built an amazing facility for them to live out their days.

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The zoo has some of the usual animals we see in almost every zoo… birds, lions, tigers, monkeys, apes, fish, turtles, and elephants.  Siegfried and Roy donated their white tigers to the zoo when they retired.  The enclosure is so pretty.  We happened upon them when they were napping.  The zoo is also a botanical garden so everywhere we walked the pathways were lined with blooming flowers.  I don’t mean “damn” flowers, Suzie😊, I mean they have opened up to their fullest potential for the birds and the bees to do “their thing.”

 Being the “forever five” year old that I am, I wanted to ride the train.  A mere $8.00 later and we secured our spots on the train!  Remember it is nearly empty today 😊 no fighting for seats today.  The $8.00 got us a round trip ride through the zoo!  We knew we weren’t going to see everything today, so this became great way of seeing some of the parts we would miss.  The wolf was one of those parts!  Just enjoy those pictures and remember I’m really like a 5-year-old.

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Our last place to visit was the gorilla enclosure. This was a perfect way to end our zoo visit.  I don’t know what it is about these creatures, but they are fun to watch and creepy all at the same time.  The silverback obviously rules the roost!  He knows to sit close to the windows with his back to us.  That’s the creepy part, they are so intelligent.  Then there was momma bear sized ones.  One gave me the “side-eye” and would just sit and stare at me – again…creepy!  But, the cutest ones, the kids, or the baby bear sized ones!  What is it about little things that are so fascinating AND when do they reach the magical age when we decide they aren’t so cute anymore? We do that with humans too. We gush over babies, we ooh and aah over little kids and then puberty hits and we aren’t doing that so much anymore. No one except Zoo Zoom gushes over me! I think I’m gush-able just like our granddaughter Little Bit, oh well I guess that’s a different story! These two little guys were rough housing so much.  It was as if they watch WWE and try some of the moves on each other (ooo…I wonder if it is the other way around, the WWE guys watch these gorilla babies to get new moves!) I know I’m on to something!  Well, no matter what it was a great way to end our visit at this zoo.  We felt as if we were the only ones there most of the day.  If you find yourself in Cincinnati, go to the zoo, wear good shoes it is hilly, find Vince and you will have a great time!

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How about a travel day encompassing three states and the National Corvette Museum?  Three states in one day isn’t typical for us Texans.  We went through Kentucky from South West to North East in 235 miles.  That’s just a tick more than San Antonio to San Angelo.  Coming down the hill into Cincinnati and crossing the Ohio River was interesting at rush hour.  We took a couple of hours to take in the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green.  No time this trip to check out the NCM race track across IH65 from the museum but I included an overhead picture of the facility in the gallery below.

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The Corvette Museum was as top notch as expected.  The highlight for Zoom Zoom was seeing the 8 Corvettes that had fallen into the sink hole on February 12, 2014.  Three of the eight have been restored.  The others are on display in the condition they were in when retrieved from the sink hole.  There are informative displays explaining how the sink hole happened and the extent of the work required to correct the damage and prevent future issues.  They have the border of the sink hole outlined on the floor and the border of the underlying cave outlined as well.

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They had an additional display of NASA Astronaut Corvettes. GM really worked their marketing back in the day and had Astronauts in Corvettes. There was also additional NASA memorabilia on display with the Corvettes.

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When you want the skinny on where the best place to eat in a city you are visiting is who do you ask? Some of us use Google and let TripAdvisor help out which is our usual way. This time we decided to go a different route. Zoom Zoom asked our Uber driver, Saturday after the Opry, where we should go and what we should do while in town. At the top of his list was to go eat “hot chicken” at Hattie B’s. I was thinking there are two ways to eat chicken: hot or cold. I had to have him clarify. He explained that this chicken is fried with a “kick.” He liked his hot.

When we arrived, it was about 4:45 and the line was already out the door! We waited our turn. Both of us ordered the one breast and wing-MILD! Yes, we are wimps! I had mine with crinkle fries and slaw and Zoom Zoom had his with baked beans (I know you feel my pain) and slaw. He also ordered banana pudding.

When our food came, we knew then we should have shared! These chickens must have had some kind of playground – they were huge! Maybe they belonged to Crossfit or Planet Fitness! I don’t know, but they were delicious. Mild was still too spicy for me. I had to peel off all the skin and give it to Zoom Zoom. He was a true Happy Camper! I only ate about 1/2 my food! Zoom Zoom ate all his and most of the dessert. Their portions were just too large. I was able to have a few bites of the dessert since it seemed as if the bananas played in the same playground as the chickens and Zoom Zoom was stuffed!

So, while in Nashville, do as they do! Go to Hattie B’s. Just go early!

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History– The zoo is actually located on a property that was once a 300 acre farm owned by Michael and Elizabeth Dunn. The farm was run (farmed) and built on slave labor. The Dunn’s home built in 1810 is still located on the zoo’s property. Two great-great granddaughters of Michael Dunn, the original owner, were the last of the family to live in the property before the home and the land was donated.

In 1964, the home and the land was deeded to the Children’s Museum of Nashville. There was an agreement that the house and the land would remain as “a nature study center.” The last sister passed in 1985 and the work began on the nature center calling it Grassmere Nature Park.

Unfortunately, in December of 1994 the park closed. This gets a little confusing…the Nashville Zoo actually had another location in a different town. Thoughts were either to turn Grassmere into a wildlife park or the zoo. It was then decided that in 1996 the current location be a wildlife park. The public was confused so the other site (the original zoo) was closed and in 1998 the zoo was relocated to where it is today. As far as zoos go, it’s a baby zoo!

The first thing you come to, of course, is the parking lot. It’s marked with animal sections for you to remember instead of letters or numbers. If you know us, you know what section we parked in!

Once we entered the zoo, it had a “Disney” feel. If you have ever been to Animal Kingdom the architecture, plantings, staff friendliness, and a few surprises in the restrooms lent to the “Disney”feel. Each time we would enter a different section the entryways were structurally relevant to their area. They played piped in music from the regions we were in and took great care to be sure the exhibits/habitats were as realistic as possible. The new tiger exhibit alone must have cost an easy half million to just put together- so impressive! When we we in Andean Bear exhibit, I stopped to talk with one of the upper zoo employees just to confirm my thoughts on the “Disney” feel! He was so pleased I said that. I made his day. He said they had several meetings about the “feel” they were going for. The people they hired to do the design and architecture are on board for the long term. They have, like most big companies, long term goals. They have opened a new exhibit every year for the last four years.

I’ll tell you, to watch the bear play in the waterfall shortly became the highlight of the day. He actually looked like he was laughing (or at least smiling.) The other bear was perched right up front close and personal taking his afternoon nap. He didn’t look super comfortable – but he thought he was!

We did go the the giraffes first! DUH! I let Jeff take the photos. His new camera takes the most amazing photos. They are National Geographic quality! The exhibit here had 2 kinds of Giraffes on exhibit. SOOOOOOOO CUTE!

I think another on of our favorite spots was the Veterinary Center. As we walked up, we noticed in the first window there were some baby Clouded Leopards. I know most of us would want one as a cub. Full grown, not so much! The next window over the vet techs had several babies they were “doing” things to. One Clouded Leopard was being rubbed to make tinkle, one was being fed baby food and there was an animal I can’t remember what it was called was sucking a bottle dry. Baby Lorikeets and Amazon Milk Frogs were found in the next window.

Let’s discuss food, drinks, and souvenirs…AHHH! Just like any other place they get you in your wallet. I got a bottle of water and Zoom Zoom got a Diet Coke -$9.00. At lunch, Zoom Zoo got a chicken sandwich and I got a yogurt parfait – $16.00. Just before we left we stopped at the last gift shop – one magnet and one soda – $13.00. Just plan ahead if you have things you ALWAYS get!

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AKA – American Pickers. We made a quick trip over to the retail outlet for the Nashville store of Antique Archaeology. Fans of the show will have seen this store on TV and it was full of items that have been “picked” on the show. Many of which were labeled as Not For Sale or Mike Wolfe personal collection. They still had a lot of interesting things for sale along with the usual fan merch like T-Shirts, Caps, Decals, Etc. Unfortunately, no Mike and Frank sightings this trip but I overheard someone saying they drop in 5 or 6 times a month.

If you are on a computer and want to see a larger version of the pictures in the gallery, right click and open in a new tab or new window.

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On the afternoon of Sunday, June 2nd, we visited the eclectic collection at the Lane Motor Museum https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/. I have seen several of their vehicles on different broadcast television shows as well as a couple of the more popular YouTube automobile enthusiast channels. They had approximately 150 vehicles on display but they have over 500 vehicles in the total collection. As is always the case I don’t try to photograph every vehicle, it gets overwhelming very quickly. Instead, I like to share images of some of the vehicles I find interesting for whatever reason.

Of course we had to do our typical collection of images taking advantage of every photo-op and available cut-out.

The Lane Collection includes two of my personal favorite Japanese Kei Cars (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_car), the Mazda Autozam AZ-1 and the Honda Beat.

The micro car collection at the Lane Motor Museum is very complete.

How about the only 1961 Chevrolet Corphibian ever produced. An actual amphibian version of the Corvair Loadside Pickup.

This is a 1919 Leyat Helico. Amazing what people dreamed up before being distracted by television and smart phones.

One of the more prolific makes in the collection is the Tatra. This 1947 Tatra T-87 Saloon was a particularly nice example. Tatra vehicles are manufactured in Czech Republic to this day.

The Lane Motor Museum is a non-profit and is housed in the former Sunbeam bakery. It was an interesting collection and we recommend you visit when in the Nashville area.

We were fortunate to attend the Grand Ole Opry Saturday night. As of today, you can tune in at home on a live mobile app, 650 AM WSM, and on opry.com wsmonline.com. On Friday and Saturday nights it can be found on SiriusXM Satellite Radio.

We arrived about an hour early not knowing what to expect. First off, we were starving! There were two choices of food trucks there. Kind of reminded me of our house choices – take it or leave it! No, not really! One was a traditional BBQ Truck and the other had Burgers/Fried Fish/Grilled Cheese and Hot Dogs. We chose to try the BBQ. It was fantastic! I’m so glad I waited all day to eat!

The show was beyond! (I think that’s what the youth are saying today.) Some of the singers seemed as if they really just belonged in church choirs, they were the ones inducted to the Opry 50 some years ago! One octogenarian looked as if he had a hard time keeping his poor teeth in, he would do this teeth licking thing! On a jumbotron it just doesn’t look sexy at all! Overall, if you ever have a chance to go, you should. Just tick it off your list! There is a new group that is up and coming called King Calaway – they were amazing! They will be winning all the awards in the near future. They did a song with Ricky Skaggs – best song of the evening next to all of the ones Mark Wills sang – (swoon)

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Lastly, if you are lucky enough to go to the Opry, there are NO bad seats!

I know this is a burning question for all of you. Does Honey EVER drive? Does Zoom Zoom do EVERYTHING? The short answer is – YESish. Honey does drive the rig and Zoom Zoom does do just about EVERYTHING! He spoils me. Last night when it was my turn to drive, he took my turn! I stayed awake, I just didn’t want to drive.

Back in the day (1981-1984), Zoom Zoom and I drove school busses as one of our jobs. I drove bus 44 and Zoom Zoom drove the bus that picked the kids up in the rural areas. We also took every opportunity to do the out of town trips with the high school bands because we got paid time and a half. When you are poor college kids every penny helped. So driving Wally and Jethro is really not much different.