Day 25 - Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA

Finally we had a moment to enroll the kiddos. Back on the road for a few hours to Florida (drove through Tallahassee this time). I am so glad I checked in with the schools before we got there; as is custom, nobody had called ahead and see what documentation we needed. :) Needless to say, there was a list that we were in no way prepared to achieve that day, so I got the necessary info, bypassed that stop altogether and turned around towards Wild Adventures theme park in Valdosta instead. Ha ha! It was pretty cool.

After a couple kiddie rides, Caleb and I checked out the zoo portion.

Koi pond

Great Horned Owl

Lazy Lemurs

Busy Turtles :D

Not-so-busy turtle

Porcupine

Alligators

Albino Alligators!!

Feral Hogs aka Wild Boars

Kookaburra

"The laughing kookaburra gets its name from the loud, territorial sound it makes, which can be mistaken for the sound of humans laughing. As they make this call, they tilt their heads back, much like a person would while laughing." I'd never seen one before. And yes, I sang the song to myself.

Garden area for shade and relaxation

 On the other side of the park, we found a little train giving tours of animals native to Asia and Africa. Well, technically the staff on the train were giving tours. You know what I mean.

 The only thing separating us from this giant rhino was the steel cord that you see. I think he'd parked on the tracks a couple times so they designated him space. The rest of the Asian animals were free-roaming and could have hopped up in the train with us had they taken the notion.

The baby Fallow Deer were so cute!

Water Buffalo and Llama

Sacred Cows

On to Africa, where the animals were safe behind...fence. 

Ostriches and Zebras

Scimitar Antelope (I think that's what he said)

These are Addax Antelope, an endangered species. They estimate something like 250 still existing in the wild. The zoo started with only two or three and now has nine. What caught my attention is their ability to survive with no water whatsoever; THEIR ENTIRE LIVES. They live in the Sahara and get all necessary fluids from grass and plants!

Asian Elephant - I think her name is Shelly?

There is also Splash Island water park on the waaay other side but we didn't take time to check it out. Angela was bummed after she lost her phone on one of the rides and we were pretty much fun-ned out at this point. Many more opportunities and Valdosta is only 90 minutes from Hawkinsville; we'll go again for sure before we re-locate.

But our day did not end yet.

Heading back up to Hawkinsville, I get a call from Julie, asking where we are. Uh oh. "On I-75 North coming to you. What's up?" Two drivers were transferring to Bainbridge (where we just were this morning, remember?) and ran into a snag. As in, the Georgian driving got pulled over, didn't have insurance and his vehicle was politely removed from his possession. They needed to be in Bainbridge by 11pm to help the midnight shift. You see where this is going. Could we pick them up on our way by? Yep, we can do that. But wait, there isn't a free vehicle that can make the trip down. Except ours. Sorry kids! We're just gonna make a big circle, okay? :) 7 hours later, we made it to our final destination at 1:45am. Yay!!!! And then we slept.