Today we decided to drive around. We saw beautiful sites again. The biggest obstacle was the rain! It rained, it didn’t rain, it rained again, it didn’t rain, it rained again , then it didn’t. This was the story for the entire day! The other obstacle we had were the bugs! I bought 2 cans of bug spray, both were back in Wally keeping him bug free! The good news…Zoom Zoom and I pulled off every chance we had to take photos and there were plenty of chances! The other good news…NO CLOWNS!
At one point we saw some brave/stupid people swimming in a watering hole that has been popular since the mid 1800’s. The thing is, it’s ice cold water flowing through there from the mountain top! Some kids would jump in and scuttle right back out! One man kept trying his best to swim out to the rock in the middle. We gave up watching. He’d make it about 3 strokes and turn around.
We stopped at the Muddy Moose for a late lunch before heading over to Santa’s Village. Santa’s Village isn’t open until the weekend. We were just trying to make sure we knew where we going. Turns out it’s a theme park with nothing but carnival type rides. Zoom Zoom is opposed to riding by himself so we will have to forgo this tomorrow! Good thing we stopped by today!
Wednesday, while eating at the Worthy Kitchen, the owner suggested we stop at Sugarbush Farms to see how they process 15 kinds of cheeses and how the sugaring process woks for making maple syrup. Zoom Zoom and I decided to go ahead and give it a try.
First off, the farm is well off the beaten path. The roads are not set up necessarily for RV’s. We drove there in Jethro and were thankful we hadn’t hooked up yet! The farm is also just outside the Village of Woodstock. Once we pulled up, it was clear this was a very laid back place.
We entered the farmhouse through the back porch entrance to a room where the ladies were preparing the just smoked cheese to be shipped out. It smelled so good. It was being polished and dipped in wax. A very sweet young lady asked if we had ever been there before. She started going through all the cheeses they had. All samples were free and we could have as many as we wanted. We are simple folk – we know what we like. They give you a sheet to keep track on, just in case you forget. After trying the cheeses we tried the syrups. There are 4 grades of those! Who knew? We liked the 2nd one, turns out it is the most popular.
Miss Betsy, one of the owners, suggested we visit the rest of the farm before the gift shop so we didn’t have to lug our purchases around. She’s a smart cookie! We purchased some items already and are going to upon our return,going to order more. This link will allow you to also purchases cheeses and syrup, too. https://sugarbushfarm.com/welcome-to-sugarbush-farm/
We learned they tap the trees in early spring. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. When the sap comes from the tree, it is clear. I always thought it was amber.
I don’t’ know how Zoom Zoom finds these places, but this one was BEAUTIFUL! The campground won all sorts of awards from the KOA and it deserved them. So well manicured and picturesque. Lots to do for families or just stuff for folks like us. They had a pool (too cold for me), little motorized John Deere tractors for kids to ride, a cute playground, hiking trails, a catch and release pond, several washers and dryers, and a very well-equipped camp store. It was at the camp store where I purchased my first bag of maple popcorn. This popcorn is as addictive as any other kind of sweet popcorn.
The village of Quechee (rhymes with “peachy”) Gorge looked like a movie set. Zoom Zoom and I headed to the Visitors Center for The Gorge. We wanted to hike it. It was supposed to be the “Grand Canyon” of the east. The little old lady there couldn’t have been more friendly. All we had to do is continue down the stairs, go outside and begin our journey. She told us the entire trail takes about 45 minutes to walk. WRONG! She doesn’t walk with the Holbrooks. I stop to smell the roses, look at the bugs, tree stumps, rock formations, clouds, people, and anything else that SQUIRREL! Yep, just a tad ADD! Got to LOVE Zoom Zoom for putting up with me for these 38 years!
Old tree
Sunbathing fish
Fish
Cat-tails
New growth
Robin
Pentagon Hole
Boulder with the Pentagon Hole
When we got to the bottom of the gorge it was pretty. Zoom Zoom climbed out as far as he dared into the rapids to take it all in. Then he did his best ballet moves to keep from falling in as he came back to shore! Of course, I was worried about his face, glasses, and phone-in that order. Then I thought, who would drive the rest of the trip if he really did break something (he really does like to drive.) That little dance didn’t keep him from going back out again. He came back for the “good” camera! I relinquished it. Now, I had something to really worry about – all the new photos we had taken would be ruined if he fell! I cautioned him to be extra careful – he was! He returned extra slow – like a turtle on a glacier slow, thank goodness! We continued hiking to the other end of the gorge all along saying, “Hey bear!” Jeff thought they didn’t have bears here – wrong! Black bears live here and little-known fact is their favorite food is tourists saying, “Hey bear!” One thing we kept finding amazing is how tall things get here. Zoom Zoom took the picture of me in front of the ferns. I did not know that these could also reach 4’ 16” like me! I think they get so tall to hide the Black Bears!
Where Zoom Zoom danced
Tall ferns!
Somewhere along our hike we started discussing snakes. Probably because we were hiking along a pond and there were frogs and fish. Snakes like to eat frogs and fish. I pulled up the kinds of of snakes found in Vermont. Zoom Zoom thought they had cottonmouths – nope – too cold for them! That’s good news, so we thought! The bad news – Puff adders! No Bueno! Everywhere we walk is covered in dead leaves, dried pinecones, and pine tree needles, all prime places for these nasty snakes to hide! Zoom Zoom says they won’t be where we are hiking because people hike here all the time. Nope! Back home we had a baby rattlesnake right outside our front door once AND we had a king snake in our backyard before. We live in the house – those snakes didn’t care. Now we walk – eyes WIDE open!
After the hike we walked across the Gorge bridge. There was a 9’ curved, like a candy cane, green chain-linked fence added last summer along the outside edge of the bridge. I speculated to discourage bungee jumping. Sadly, no. The fence is to prevent suicides. Last year, before the fence was added there had been 4 suicides. Located at both ends of the bridge there is a call box to the suicide hotline and signs that say, “You Matter.” The town is having a more permanent solution built to go below the bridge and it won’t obstruct the view, this won’t be ready for 4 years.
Hiking over for the day, it was time to find the four covered bridges nearby. We found all four quickly and some other fun stuff along the way. There were some “kids being kids” swinging from a rope and dropping in the river. They allowed me to hang out with them for a bit take their pictures and ask questions. One asked me if I owned a horse. I think that is funny – it’s true – people around the country think we all have horses in Texas. Another one thought I was a professional photographer. These boys had just graduated high school last Friday! Schools around here don’t get out until the 17th of June. Driving on we found a Farmers Market. We purchased some homemade breads.
Bridge 1
Bridge 2
Bridge 3-all wood, even the pegs
Last bridge, someone was too tall!
Then it was pushing 4:30. I was starving. Zoom Zoom was starving. My Google-foo was NOT working! This small village didn’t have your typical restaurants to choose from. Each time I’d think I’d found one to eat at, it was either too expensive or it closed at 3:00. Zoom Zoom seemed as if he had the magical foo! He found a restaurant called the Worthy Kitchen. It was a 10/10. The staff was super friendly. The owner visited with us and gave us places we still needed to visit before we left the next day. One, we were able to squeeze in! My dinner, buffalo wings, was too much, and Zoom Zoom had steak and fries. Their soda was from a Maine root. We ordered 2 diet ones-yum!
So, far we have had nothing but fun days, long days, great food, friendly people, nice campsites and we haven’t killed each other – I think we are doing ok.
We were both looking forward to seeing the countryside of
the Finger Lakes Region of New York.
Watkins Glenn and the State Park are located at the South West end of
Lake Seneca. The most westward of the
Finger Lakes.
View from the South end of the Gorge Trail toward the town of Watkins Glen
The State Park is very rustic with tall trees and nice
campsites, close to 300 sites in all.
The main attraction of this park is the Gorge Trail with its many
waterfalls and challenging trails, and it did not disappoint. The Gorge Trail itself has 862 stair steps. These steps and other infrastructure were
originally built by the CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps, in the 1930s. Tourism first came to the area as early as
1863 when the Gorge was privately owned.
The state purchased the area in 1906.
We started or hike at 10:00 and finished up around 12:30. We
chose to hike from the South end at Couch’s Staircase to the North end at
Jacob’s Ladder. We then returned via the
North or Indian Trail, roughly 3 miles round trip. The weather was overcast, and we experienced
drizzle and rain for most of the hike, but it was a blast none the less.
First opportunity to walk behind a fall.
Second opportunity to walk behind a fall.
Cracks, called Joints, were caused by the Continental Collisions that created the Appalachian Mountains.
The Joints run down the wall, through the creek bed, and up the opposite wall.
A field of Cairns found on the North Trail
Cairns is pronounced “Kerns”
Tree Cairns
One of our favorite Cairns found on the North Trail .This bride spanned the Gorge and led us off the North Trail and back to the South End parking area.
After our hike we cruised around town for a bit in Jethro the Giraffe Jeep and eventually made our way to the main gate at Watkins Glenn International Raceway. Watkins Glenn is responsible for the resurgence of sports car racing in the late 40s and early 50s after sports car racing had waned during World War II. There is a commemorative sign on Highway 14 in front of the courthouse designating the Start/Finish of the Watkins Glenn Historic Road Course. The races were run on public roads in the area from 1948 through 1952. I found this information and a cool map of the original course at http://grandprixfestival.com/Laps.html . The course was 6.6 miles long and the same roads can be driven today and are marked with historic signs like the one at the start/finish. Across from the start/finish is a flagpole displaying the traditional Green Flag indicating the start of the race, Green Green Green, along with a second pole with and American Flag and a Checkered Flag. Pretty cool stuff for sure. We also noticed the street signs along Decatur street were topped with a silhouette of a vintage grand prix car.
We headed back to Wally to clean up from our adventure and then
we headed out for the ubiquitous visit to Walmart. After our rainy day we decided a small
waterproof digital camera would be a good addition to our kit and we stocked up
on a few more items for the RV as well as filling up our empty drinking water
jugs at the Primo water machine for a whopping .39cents per gallon.
Our day of adventure ended with some excellent food at the
Village Marina restaurant. We ordered two of their signature burgers and shared
them. The Cardboard Boat Regatta burger
and the Grand Prix burger were excellent and the sweet potato wedges and onion
rings were delicious. Honey enjoyed her
“mermaid water” cocktail. I told her I
thought mermaid water was mermaid pee and she said it was delicious none the
less.
Before we
left, we asked our KOA consultant/vacation planner what we should do. First
mistake! Those people only live there, they do not usually visit the
attractions. Admittedly, she said she hadn’t been there in awhile, that was
apparent as soon as we arrived at the falls. She told us to skip all the pay
parking and head to a certain church and park behind it – for free. There was a
parking gate up. We were afraid to get trapped!
We headed into the fray of all the other tourists all trying to compete
for the best parking spot. We found a place that had parking spots where you
must take a parking ticket. Zoom Zoom took a ticket, for a mere$10.00, and just
like lemmings we followed the cars straight to the EXIT! We were so confused
and felt used! On we went, though, because we couldn’t turn around! As we drove
on, we passed a few more parking lots. We ended up in Parking lot #3 – as far
as you can get from the falls! Zoom Zoom parked on the end under a lamp pole
(another BIG mistake – birds like the lamp poles and Jethro was covered in POOP
when we returned at the end of fun day!) A ticket booth/trolley stop was
straight across from where we parked. We purchased Discovery Passes for $46.00
each. It got you into every attraction in the park. The BIGGEST and WORST thing
that happened is the gal did not tell us to go to the Cave of the Winds right
away and get a “time” to go down. We thought we just went when we were ready.
We got lucky they still had time slots when we were “ready.” She gave us time
slots for 4 hours later! 😊 6:08pm
Cave of the Winds – where we wanted to go and we needed a time!
First things
first…don’t go on a Saturday! That euphoric feeling we had from the zoo in
Cincinnati – gone! Everyone and their cousins, aunts, uncles, MIL, FIL, dogs,
and hamsters were there! The bathrooms were crowded, the snack bars were
crowded, the stairs, sidewalks, viewing areas, and everything in between!
Cultural differences probably didn’t help either. We walk on the right side of
the sidewalk, stairs, going out the doors, and just about anything else.
Sometimes I felt as if I were swimming upstream or downstream. Other cultures
do the exact opposite – we were always doing face offs. 😊 I just felt sorry for all of us because we do what we know which causes
log jams.
Always a line for the women!
Crowded
Selling her craft
More arts
So crowded
Observation Deck – tons of people
Huddled around the Free Wifi
They found a quiet place to eat
Canada’s boat into the falls – stacked with people
It won’t
matter the order you do “things” in as long as you go and get your Cave of the
Winds time first! I cannot stress this. We didn’t even see it written anywhere
to go get a time – so many sad faces. So many people didn’t get to experience
this! If you have purchased a Discovery Pass, the park gets away with not
refunding money for parts that never open or parts you didn’t redeem because
your pass is good for 4 months. They just tell you to come back like it’s that
easy!
The trolley
runs constantly until 8:30pm and runs throughout the park, with the pass you have
unlimited rides. If you stay on the trolley it is about a 40-minute roundtrip.
At the
falls, be sure to have a good camera, plenty of space on your camera card and a
few fully charged batteries. Zoom Zoom and I have been sharing his camera – it
takes breathtakingly clear photos! We share because I take very different
photos than he does! Hmm… imagine that!
This water is 3-5 feet deep here.
The water is only 3-5 feet deep before the falls.
Canada.
See the rainbow?
$8.50
If you are
wanting to step into Canada, like we did, all you need is your passport or
passport card. Zoom Zoom and I only
walked the Rainbow Bridge halfway to snap our photos in Canada and turned
around. The customs line into Canada was very long so we chose not to put
ourselves through it. On the return to the US, we entered the customs building
and everyone waits in the entryway until called. The customs officer calls the
next people in, askes what you did in Canada and sends you on your way.
One foot in the US and one in Canada!
When it was finally time for us to go to the Cave of the Winds, we made “friends” with the group in front of us. Surprise! They were so kind to us, included us in their count so we could ride the elevator down with them, asked us to be in their group photo, stayed with us as we went through the different levels at the bottom of the falls (until we got to the “Hurricane Level”) and then one of them kept checking on me to see if I was ok.I’m surprised we didn’t exchange address and phone numbers! Zoom Zoom and I tried all the levels – it was so fun and COLD! The poncho they give you is like covering yourself with a napkin – we were soaked!
Lower Level
Hurricane Level
“Free” shoes everyone gets!
If you
remember earlier the docks were flooded to the Maid of the Mist, we never made
it on the boat. They did finally open it up, though!
Flooded dock
Flooded dock
Flooded dock
Maid of the Mist – US boat
Maid of the Mist – US boat
Canada’s boat
Canada’s boat
Best view of the flooded dock.
We had to make a stop at the aquarium,it is part of your Discovery Pass. The aquarium isn’t very spacious. This is a place where we really felt the crowd! The good news…Zoom Zoom took some excellent photos of the sea life. The bad news…most of it wasn’t labeled, we had no idea what we were looking at! The best news…NO CLOWNS! (except for the Clownfish.)
Truly, you could use a few days here. It is a lot of walking and waiting. If we ever do come back, we will split it into 2 days. We didn’t make it to the Niagara Adventure Theater, the Made of the Mist, Three Sisters Island, or the casino!
All in all,
go, put a bubble around yourself if you don’t like crowds. It is so
breathtaking, special, unique and 7 miles shorter! If you don’t go soon it
might be a whole millimeter shorter!
This was a
lucky happenstance! We needed to stop
for a stretch break and Zoom Zoom found a great spot accidently. This light
house was built waaaaay back in 1828. It began its operation in 1829 then was decommissioned
in 1859. The poor gentleman that ran the light house only made $350.00 a
year. His job was to light the 9 oil
lamps nightly. The lighthouse closed
only 30 years later because of the opening of the canal and the railroad
system. It became much more cost effective to ship product by train.
Now the
lighthouse is just a beautiful memory.
The house that the lighthouse keeper lived in is used by the Chamber of
Commerce. There is a long bolt running
through the living room used to shore up the house when the rock walls start to
lag. It’s just amazing how much history there is around us. A lot of it is
about people we will never hear about or read about in books.
Outside of the wall attached to the bolt to shore up the walls.
Sometimes we stay overnight in parking lots. This is one of those times and Winery at Spring Hill in Whiloby, Ohio is one of those places. They belong to an organization that caters to RVers who also belong to the same organization called Harvest Hosts. All that is asked of from us, the RVer, is we in some way participate in the business we are overnighting in. This is the first time we have overnighted in a winery’s parking lot. We started off with wine tasting, we tasted 12 wines (oh darn), and then we had dinner (oh darn). I thought we would end up purchasing some dessert wines, but it turns out we liked the semi-sweet wines better. We purchased 2 different wines: A Covered Bridge Red and a Covered Bridge Heritage. Our overnight stay was peaceful and the staff at the winery was excellent. We felt welcomed and if we needed to overnight near there again, we’d drive the extra hour to get to their parking lot, taste some wines (oh darn), buy some wines (oh darn), eat dinner (oh darn). It’s hard to be us some days!
We use the Roadside America for all our fun side-trips between stops. If you haven’t gotten this App, we highly recommend it. It has great things for places, even around your hometown. You can sort what you’d like to see by interests, themes, or even sites near you. After visiting the attraction, you can “check” it off on the App, so you don’t have to repeat the visit. You can add comments, tips, hints and even photos. We find the tips and comment sections are the most helpful. So far, we have yet to be disappointed: Oh, I’m lying! We tried to find a folk-art museum in Grand Forks last year, you could feel the marital enhancement going on in the Jeep. I was giving the directions and each time we would end up behind an old Stop-N-Go type store in the “best” neighborhood down a street that looked like where you purchased your local drugs (not the drug store kind either). Zoom Zoom took over the navigating and wah-lah – back at the crack dealing corner. So that’s the only glitch we have had.
Where the Ducks walk on Water got 5 little “lollipops” out of 5! So, we traveled 45 minutes,one direction, out of our way to see this phenomenon. It was well worth the stop! There is a little snack shop and restrooms for you if you need anything. Don’t buy bread in town, they sell a loaf of bread there for $1.00! We saw places on the way selling the bread for $2.00. It makes you anxious and you feel like you must buy bread early. We were just going to use our Chicken in a Biskit crackers.
There is plenty of parking. We parked Wally and Jethro across the street so we were out of everyone’s way. As you get close to the water the kids are what you hear – they are thrilled. Peeking over the railings down into the water all that is seen is a solid wall of carp across the top of the water. It kind of looked like a sidewalk of fish. I had never seen so many fish up close! There were ducks, geese, and a few egrets. We only saw the baby geese walk on the carp. I didn’t matter, it was still incredible! We got so many great photos.
If you do use the App, we find that if the attraction has 2 “lollipops” or more, the attraction is probably pretty good.
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!
Zoom Zoom off to the zoo!
Vince, the volunteer that had ALL the skinny about the zoo!
Bibi, Fiona’s mom
Fiona
Smile
Fiona
Fiona
Peek-a-boo!
Top Model pose
I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!
Vince, our hero, tod us to come back at 2:45. We did and this is what was going on.
Private tour: $250.00 per person
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!)
This one is expecting in early fall.
More please!
I love to feed the giraffes!
How do I measure up? I am 4′ 16″
Peek-a-boo!
It’s hard to play hide-and – seek when you are a giraffe1
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.
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.
Vultures – their wings are clipped so they don’t fly off.
Storks
Cheetah exhibit closed today!
Wolf 🙂
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!
Grown gorilla hand and foot! I ‘m glad Zoom Zoom isn’t a gorilla!
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.
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.
2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette
1993 Corvette ZR-1 Spyder
2009 Corvette – The 1.5 Millionth Corvette
1984 PPG Corvette Pace Car
1993 40th Anniversary Corvette
2009 Corvette ZR1 Blue Devil
1,000,000th Corvette -1992
1962 Corvette
Schwinn Corvette Bicycles
The only Corvette personally owned by Zora Arkus-Duntov – The Fatther of the Corvette
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.
Astronaut David Scott – 1971 Corvette
Astronaut Al Worden – 1971 Corvette
Astronaut Alan Shepard Jr. 1968 Corvette on (L) and Astronaut Alan Bean 1969 Corvette (R)
