Springfield had a totally awesome, drive-thru safari park. It is 9 1/2 miles of driving through wild country filled with all kinds of different animals. The really dangerous animals were in big fenced in areas, but the rest of the animals were roaming free and would come right up to you to be fed. They were all very gentle (with a couple of exceptions that I'll tell you about in a minute).

They say it takes about 1 1/2 - 2 hours to drive through the park. We had so much fun looking at and feeding all the animals, we were there for 3 1/2 hours. The only reason we stopped when we did is because feeding all the animals had made all of us VERY hungry (and besides, it was WAAAAY hot!).

Mom got lots of pictures. Have fun looking at them with me.

(click on any picture to see it full sized)

The first animals we saw were some goats. Some of them just wanted to lay around, but then a couple of them got brave and came right up to us to get some food.  The young goat was cute, but that old one looks kinda' grumpy, doesn't he?

These goats didn't want Daddy to leave. He fed them and talked to them and then they followed the car for a long time. I think they thought Daddy was one of them.

Aunt Martha made friends with the llamas. That one guy didn't want to be bothered though. He was willing to pose for us, but he wouldn't get up for nuttin'!

This guy sure was shaggy!

We saw lots of deer in lots of different places. They are very gentle and would take food right out of the palm of my hand. Their lips tickle.

Some of the deer were really well camouflaged and some of them weren't hidden at all. Then there were some that liked to play hide and seek and you really had to look close to find them.

Some of the deer really liked Aunt Martha. One of them even let her touch his antlers. She said they were fuzzy and oily, but soft to touch.  Aren't they cute?

We saw some baby deer too. One of the mommas was in labor but we couldn't stay long enough to see the baby born.  The little guy in the picture on the right was only an hour or two old. He was barely able to stand on his own and still stumbled a lot when he walked. He was so sweet!

Here's a whole assortment of different animals. We saw zebras and donkeys, geese, elk, water buffalo, and American bison.  Golly, they are sure big!

This was one of the coolest animals we saw. It is a Watusi Bull. We first saw him at the bottom of the hill and stopped to try and take his picture. 

Then Daddy started talking to him and he climbed the hill to see us. (I think Daddy is like Dr. Doolittle.)

He got WAAAAAY close to car. At one point he got so close that he could have touched the car with his horns. He was so close, Mom couldn't take his picture (he was so big he wouldn't fit in the camera frame).

 He was very nice and gentle, though. Daddy fed him some bread and he looked at Daddy like he was saying, "Thank you." As we drove off, he stood and watched us go and then he headed back down the hill.

As far as we know, he didn't climb the hill for anyone else.

Momma had a close encounter (she said it was TOO close) with an emu. She tried to feed the emu and the emu decided that her fingers looked pretty tasty.  He bit her fingers and it HURT!

Aunt Martha had a not so nice encounter with an ostrich. He was REALLY big (about 8 feet tall) and when Aunt Martha tried to feed him, he bit three of her fingers.  His beak is way big and way strong and he hurt her fingers. She even got a shirt in the gift shop that says, "I survived feeding the ostrich at Exotic Animal Paradise." She said that as soon as she saw the shirt, she just HAD to get it.

After the safari park and feeding all the animals, we were all really hungry so we went to Springfield's Incredible Pizza Company for lunch. (Click on the icon to visit their website.)

They have an all-you-can-eat buffet and it was really good. While we ate, we got to watch the Don Knotts' movie, "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken."  That is a really funny movie. Don Knotts is WAAAAY silly! After lunch, Daddy and I went to play games in the arcade. I won a bunch of tickets and got a cross necklace, a "salvation story bracelet" (this place is a Christian business) and a ring that flashes red and blue lights. Mom took pictures of Dad and me next to a really pretty car. Daddy wanted to drive the car home.