A long, long time ago…
I can still remember …
Just kidding. This is no Don McLean song.
But, it was several years ago. And yes, I can still remember it. I was fresh and green to a new area. Nope, not as a missionary. But, by looking at my outfit, it would have been hard to figure I wasn’t. I knew nobody – except the family I was living with. And it was a Sunday. My choices? To me, I only had one. Go with the family I was living with to their family ward. I wouldn’t have to step outside my little bubble and make new friends. But, the mother of this family had no intentions of letting me do this. I was 23. She knew there was a second (and better) choice – attend the singles ward. Knowing this, and prior to this day, this same mother had called up who she thought would be the best girl to pick me up and take me to church.
Enter – Lindsay.
Nervous as all get out (social anxiety was rearing its lovely head), I waited (paced) for Lindsay to show up. And she did. Late. But she did. The ride to church was only 10 minutes or so. About 2 minutes into it, Lindsay’s phone rang. And she answered it. And for the next 5 minutes I listened to the one side of the conversation I could hear which consisted of belly-hurting laughter, lots of really loud talking, and an amazing amount of hand motions. When she was done, she hung up the phone and said, “Sorry about that …” and we finished our drive (and much more boring conversation) to the chapel.
And, believe it or not, that’s all it took.
Her outgoing and friendly behavior scared me off and I never talked to her ever again.
Just kidding! We became instant friends. She was the perfect remedy for my introverted self.
For the next couple of years, Lindsay and I created memories that would embarrass just about anybody – just in the sharing of the memories alone. We were loud. We were obnoxious. We laughed. A lot. We stayed up really late – often – just talking. We were sassy. But we were single – can you blame us?? Oh – and we can’t fail to mention – we consumed more Pizookies in 2 1/2 years than what is healthy for any human body. But the conversations had over a Pizookie dinner were priceless and completely worth it.
Then I got married and ran far, far away.
However, even though this has put a damper on our ability to conduct Chinese Fire Drills, she is still one of my very best friends.
So, when I got the message from her that she and some friends were going to be coming to a place in Arizona only 1 1/2 hours away from me this weekend, I just about jumped out of my skin!
We had so much fun!
And we made lots of new friends …
I think Zebras are fascinating in the simplest way.
They certainly weren’t afraid of a little bus full of lots of people.
So – what’s your guess – white with black stripes? Or black with write stripes?
I forget what these guys were called.
However, the guide said that they speculate these are where unicorn myths may have derived from. If he was to turn his head to look straight forward, the horns are such that they would look like one.
Ms. Chile Pepper the Ostrich. She’s pretty spicy, but she loved the attention we gave her.
Mr. Camel has gotten in too much trouble when they’ve let him hang out outside the fenced area.
So, they’ve had to keep him behind the fence – but were nice enough to cut holes so we could still feed this bottomless pit!
The Giraffe.
They had two of them in the park. And neither one of the of them wanted anything to do with us.
But, for some reason, I really liked this guy. Don’t know why.
Here he is again. In his own little Giraffe world.
I think he liked me too – he looked right at me so I could take his picture! – Twice!
These guys were so cool.
I couldn’t tell if this one was wanting to eat me – or if he was just hoping my arm would reach long enough to scratch his ears.
We’ll never know.
I thought this was the cutest thing. This is one of the female bengal tigers.
To get into the pool, she would back herself in, put her front paws up and just relax.
This is Mr. Zion.
The show off.
He’s just like any other cat. He just can’t help but fly after an object strung to the end of a stick.
Okay, so Hyenas must be some of the ugliest animals out there. But, have you ever heard them laugh?
It’s hilarious! They only laugh when they’re getting fed.
And it’s contagious.
I will never question again why this guy is the King Of The Jungle.
When it was feeding time, he slyly came out of his jungle, growled under his breath, picked up his meal, and sauntered off.
And I was intimidated.
And then there was Mr. Boom Boom.
A ginormous, filthy, rhino.
Definitely one of the coolest animals in the park.
This is the sweet ride we drove around in.
I’m kind of wishing we were able to ride around in these – man, they looked cool!
If you live in Arizona and are within driving distance of Camp Verde – you need to go to Out Of Africa.
I have to admit, it was pretty dang cool.
My Quirky Life 