So, after getting some rest, I became restless. Bruce saw an ad for a buffet restaurant that looked awesome, but it was all the way up by Tupelo, MS. Given, that's not really bad when you're on the Mississippi coast, but who wants to drive five hours each way and get a hotel room just to eat supper? I mean, we've done three hours each way for lunch, but who's counting!? So, I checked to see what else there was. Turns out, there's a drive-through petting zoo. Because Big Red is in the shop (from being T-boned in a parking lot), and we have a rental car, it seemed like an ideal time to do a drive through where bufallo and other wild-ish animals come to the window and brush up against the car! (We're still using touch-up paint from driving through the Olympic Game Park drive-through petting zoo in Sequim, Washington!) So, off we went! It was a great idea!
We set out on Saturday morning before the parades started getting started for the final week of Mardi Gras. Bruce set navigation on interstates instead of back roads, and after a couple of hours, I realized we were going through Meridian. I had seen a little blurb about there being a nice waterfall just outside of Meridian, and lo and behold, there was a sign for that waterfall just as we were leaving that town. We decided to maybe stop by on the way home.
This trip was very loosely planned (other than booking a hotel room the night before we left), but we still pulled into Tupelo early enough to see the wildlife park. It being rather cool, we figured we didn't have to worry about the animals being so hot they weren't moving around. So we pulled up into the Tupelo Buffalo Park and Zoo in the early afternoon, plenty of time to do both the drive-through and walk-through portions. The lady said they were discounting tickets that day because it was too cold for some of the animals to be out. The kangaroos, primates, and some others that can't deal with the cold were inside where they could have heating. (Good reason to come back!) We bought three buckets of pellet feed (two for the drive-through and one for the walk-through) and set out. There are signs when entering to not pet the animls and to keep sunroofs closed. They also tell you in the store and on the sign that if you lose your bucket, do not get out to get it. Just leave it on the ground. I'll follow most of those rules! The first animals in the drive-through are the zebras.
Surprisingly, these guys were very nice and took turns. There was no pushing and shoving. Not knowing how many different animals and how long the drive-through was, I probably short-changed these guys on their kibble. And when I started to roll the window up, they just stepped back. Quite pleasant!
After crossing the cattle gate from the zebra enclosure, we found ourselves in the buffalo area. These guys were excited to see us! It was a little intimidating to begin with!
Pardon the glare through the windshield! After the stampede (lol) got to us and they surrounded the car, they were quite settled and just looking in the windows expectantly. Once they spread out a little bit, I rolled the window down and started feeding. Their facial fur is much softer than it appears!
These guys didn't even try to put their heads in the window, but when feeding the taller ones, I rested the bucket on the door, so they were closer to being in my lap. This guy was little more than a baby, though. When closing the window, they pulled their heads back a little bit, but they stayed close enough that they wiped their noses on the windows! The picture's a little distorted from the window glare and buffalo boogars and snot!
There were some other large animals in this area, but they were behind fences and difficult to get pictures of. Just FYI, these animals all looked well cared for and well fed. Being winter with most grasses dormant, there was plenty of hay in the fields, and one of the owners was putting out more hay while we were there.
Passing over the next cattle gate, we encountered the tall group. The giraffes were inside in the warmth, but the camels looked in through the sun roof!
Again with nice, soft and shiny coats, these guys looked and felt to be well cared for. What was that? There's no petting the animals in the drive-through? Who said?
This emu didn't want to take his turn, and he and the camel both lost out when the emu bit Bruce's finger while he was feeding the camel! Bruce cursed and brought the food back into the car! It didn't draw any blood - we checked - but Bruce said it hurt like hell!
After getting bitten, we drove on to the next section, which was miniature horses - too short to reach the windows, so I just scattered some for them. Llamas and alpacas were in this section, too. The yaks were in a close enclosure, and this guy raised his head for a nice shot.
I still had half a bucket when we got back to the entrance, picked up the walk-through bucket, and headed for the petting part of the zoo. This was where I made really good friends with llamas at the tail end of the drive-through portion - and where I was a really bad role model for the kids that were visiting. Because I only have two hands, I used the bucket when I wanted to love on the animals, but I mostly hand fed and just carried the bucket around. There was a family walking around with three kids. The little girls didn't have anything to feed the animals and were eyeballing my bucket (but not begging or anything - you could just tell they wished they had one), so I ended up giving them the full one - and encouraging them to feed the animals from their hands (because I'm really a bad role model!). This expectedly caused excited shrieks when they got animal slobbers on their hands! "Ew, gross! Give me more feed so I can do it again!" Made my heart smile!
We exited through the bird barn where there were lots of birds and a sign asking that you not curse in the barn. Don't want the macaws and cockatoos picking up the wrong language! I spent some time trying to get a good picture of the African crowned crane - a favorite bird of mine that I hope to see in its natural habitat this fall! He was really fast, but I think I got a good head shot!
Back inside the gift shop, where the coatis and sloths were hanging out, Mama Sloth decided to show me what she had been holding on her stomach. She leaned over, and Baby Sloth peeked over her neck at me!
All in all, it was a good place. We talked with the owners some, and they really seem to care about the animals. Couldn't believe the Sequim place has people feeding bread to the animals instead of something good for them.
When we left the zoo, we checked into our hotel, cleaned up and rested a bit, and headed out to Butler's Fish and Steak in New Albany (about 15 minutes away), the buffet Bruce wanted to try. We got there about 5:00, and there was already a 40 minute wait! I was too busy eating to take any pictures, but it was a good very good dinner with all kinds of seafood (from frog legs to oysters on the half shell and everything in between), average steaks, and good vegetables. Desert was a little lacking with banana pudding being the only thing I saw. Overall, we'll come back if we're in the area at supper time on the weekend!
After a good night's sleep, we headed back to Biloxi. Since we were going through Meridian anyway, we decided to stop at Dunn's Falls, the largest waterfall in Mississippi. This fall was created in the 1850s by Irish immigrant John Dunn, when he redirected the Chunky River and placed a wheel on the falls to power his mill. The park is on the side of the road, and the falls are just steps from the park entrance. It's a pretty fall, but it obviously doesn't compare to the last waterfall I went to see (Iguazu Falls in Brazil and Argentina). I mean, I could get the whole falls into one picture, and it didn't even have to be a panorama! While I was tired after climbing the steps to the top of the 65 foot falls, it wasn't anything compared to how exhausted I was climbing those steps after doing the power boat under the Iguazu Falls in Argentina!
The grist mill had been rebuilt and was actually a different mill that was moved from Cave Springs, Georgia. There were warning signs based on the lack of stability of the structure -
but a closer look was required!
It was a great weekend, and we did vacuum the pellets out of the car, but those pellets are going to be coming out of that car door every time the window goes up and down for a while!
After we had been home a couple of days, we heard that a boat that had been docked in one of the marinas was leaving soon. I thought they were talking about the replica Pinta (Christopher Columbus's ship), and I wanted to go see it before it left. So, we headed out to the Schooner Pier. The sign said the boat would be there until April and that they were open for self-guided tours on the weekends. This was a Thursday, but I walked down the pier anyway to get pictures of the outside even if I couldn't get on. It is a TINY ship. All sailors lived and slept on the deck. The hold simply held supplies.
The sails were pretty impressive, though, and probably would have been even more impressive if they could have been unfurled.
While talking with one of the two guys that travels with this ship, he mentioned that there was a larger sloop at the Cadet Point Marina that travels with school kids. He said that ship was leaving soon and suggested we go see it before it pulled out.
That schooner didn't allow tours, but it has crew from two different high schools in the northest (Met High School and Proctor Academy), and the kids get semester credit for science, literature, math, history, and seamanship skills as they work alongside the crew in navigating this vessel along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. While we weren't able to board the schooner, we did get to talk to some of the kids who were out and about getting ready for sailing.
Adventures don't have to be far from yor front door!
