The Wilds...........and Wild it was!!!!

We slept great and woke up and started rolling, we didn't want to make Paul and Naomi late. I went down and got us a few things for breakfast and brought them back to the room....we had our devotion, some breakfast and packed up. Paul had told me they were hoping to hold church at a park then have a picnic, but the weather didn't allow this...so the backup plan was a school. They have a small church and it was already set up for VBS that was starting that night...so they couldn't hold sevice there.
So we followed them to the school at Honey Run. Their daughter had taught here before she moved. It's a wonderful place.....

Simple buildings, but well built. 

Great playground......

We were meeting in the gym....everyone brought their own chairs.

I loved this very clever height adjustable podium....these folks and the Amish are such great craftsmen.

This Sunday we had a guests minister....this is him and his family...they sang a song before he spoke, it was lovely

I'd guess about 75-100 came....we knew many of the songs they sang and the servcie was much like ours.As you can se all the women wore prayer bonnets and long dresses. More simple, but not as strict as Amish....they all came in cars, no horse and buggys and the man that lead the singing used his IPAD....so, they believe in some modern things,  but not all. We really enjoyed the service, but left quickly afterwards to head to Zanesville, it was about a 2hr drive.

We arrived to a wonderfully cooked fish lunch...and a quick tour of their lovely home. They are in a community of small aircraft pilots. Though Floyd does not fly...they get to enjoy watching them come and go on the grass runway and then out the other side of their house is a beautiful river. Wow...it was lovely.

After lunch they had planned to take us to a place called The Wilds.....a preserve for extinct animals. It was amazing....they had reserved a safari tour on an open truck. The back of the pick-up had benches down the sides. There were 9 of us.....we were close on time so we got in the truck quickly and headed out.

This place was HUGE....they added a zipline a few yrs back to make some money. They are a non-profit and need all they can get.

We headed through the first on many gates....

Our first animals...

These are Bactrian Deer, they come from Asia and parts of th Middle East

These are Persian Onager, from Iran......all the animals are tagged, but these guys won't keep the tags on, so they get the old-fashioned branding....

Meet Tuffy...he's from Africa....on our tour we pulled off the road to get as close to any animals the driver felt was safe, and that was most of them.......

Yes, we got to feed Tuffy....it was SSSOOOOOOO cool!!!

Love this picture, it's like they are having a chat.... 

Give me that lettuce...........

Marilyn loved it as much as I did...

There were other giraffes but the guide told us, as much as they wanted to come over and get some yummy lettuce, they were too afraid....their loss.

 This is a Sichuan Takin...he's from Western China...they have a small herd now and hope to shipping some back to China soon.

Never seen anything like him.........he was cool

This is a Przewalski Wild Horse....from Europe and Asia

Next...Bactrian Camels........they were very friendly.....

They were shedding their winter coat...kinda ugly....

Next we went to an area where the animals needed a bit more cage around them

...these are African Painted Dogs..from Africa..rather vicious.

 These are Cheetah from Africa and Northern Iran

These are Grevy's Zebra....notice their floppy ears.....

On to the Ostrich....the only thing here just for  fun...they are not extinct.

They are aggressive and will bite...

 Look at those toes.....they're weird.....

These are Scimitar-Horned Oryx....from North Africa....there was a baby...so they are doing their job!!!

Now we headed to the Southern White Rhino.....from Africa

This is the Rhino Barn....

Wow what a skull..........

Those are some serious bars to hold them back when they are in the barn..

Floyd was checking out the baby....

 He's the only 5th generation Rhino in existance....pretty cool

Marilyn liked him a lot...

Denny got to meet him...

Momma and baby....they were both very friendly........but felt like leather...

Bye-Bye Rhino barn....we'll come back one day...thanks for letting us visit.

Leaving through the last gate....what an amazing  2.5hrs.....thanks Floyd and Marilyn we had a wonderful time. 

This was the truck we were in........

And this was the ride back to the parking lot.......

We finished our evening with Japanese take-out....was yummy and nice to stay home. We'd gotten lucky all day on the weather, but on the way home the skies opened up and it rained. We had a wonderful short visit....we'll be back guys!!!!

We headed home the next morning....it had been a wonderful vacation, but was time to get back to our palm trees........this had been a wonderful June vacation...I was a bit late posting.

July will be family time....have lots coming to visit.....next posts.....Family Time!!