New Braunfel's Drive-Thru Safari

I was going through some pictures tonight--that still need to be scrapbooked--and I got a good laugh out of these memories.
In 2000, while we still lived in Texas, we took our vacation out to the New Bruanfels area. We visited a drive-thru safari which was a lot of fun and a little scary at times!
There were signs all over the place to stay in your car. Don't have to tell me twice. Roaming wild animals?? I'm staying in the car!! We bought a bag of wildlife food pellets (whatever that is), and hit the wildlife road.
We were supposed to toss pellets out of the car, and maybe an animal would come close and we could take their picture.
Only we were approached by the animals. Apparently, these guys knew a handout when they saw it coming! They came right up to our car window. It was pretty interesting, but then they got a little greedy.

Up walks this huge Greater Kudu (an African animal with tall, slightly spiraled horns).

"Hey, dude, can you help a kudu out? Can you spare some of them there wildlife pellets?"


Jeff slipped him a pellet (he was inistent), but then the urge to touch the animal just was too much to pass up. Jeff reached out and touched the kudu's neck. Wrong move! Mr. Tough-Guy Kudu knocked his horns on the top of our Saturn. But he just stood there waiting for another pellet, and Jeff couldn't resist AGAIN...and WHAM! This happened 3 times. You know, if you keep doing the same thing, you should just expect the same results! After the safari, we had 2 big dents in the roof of our car.

"Just keep driving, just keep driving..."



We drove a little further and met a VERY friendly zebra. He walked over to Jeff's window and reached his muzzle in for a pellet. He pulled his lips back and bared his teeth as he took it into his mouth. He decided he'd have another one. He put both of his knees on the windowsill and looked inside. Jeff and the zebra realized the same thing at the same time: the pellet bag was in Jeff's lap! Zebra guy pulled his lips back showing his very LARGE zebra teeth and began to lunge into the window and Jeff's lap.

"My, what big TEETH you have!"

You've never seen a scuffle like this one! Jeff was frantically trying to keep horse teeth from doing lap damage. YIKES! He was shoving his muzzle and trying to push him back out the window just as frantically as the zebra was going for the pellet bag. Jeff took out a handful of pellets and threw them down outside which distracted the zebra and let us continue our drive.
The boys had been drinking copious amounts of drinks during the ride, and now it was time for a pit-stop. Only there are no pit-stops available and you can't get out of your vehicle. We realized we would soon have a disaster on our hands if we didn't do something NOW. Thankfully, we still had some 20 oz. pop bottles in the car......:) I laughed and told Jeff, "Great! Now every wild animal in here is going to run to our car and try to mark it!"


I had an inquisitive ostrich come over to my side of the car for a pellet. I knew they were big, but when they're in your face, they're HUGE! Now, an ostrich moves its head just like a chicken does: with quick, irratic jerks and darts. That's really uncomfortable when he's sticking his beak in your window. He leaned in and stared at me--and my shaking pellet. "He'll hurt me! He's going to peck me!" Jeff just laughed. "Throw him the pellet." By this time, I'm not fully in my seat anymore; I'm leaning so far over to Jeff's side of the car, I'm practically in his lap. POW! The ostrich zoomed in like lightning, snatched the pellet...yes, I screamed...and slowly sauntered away. It took a little while for my heart rate to go back down.


You know, our family may not have a lot of things, but boy, do we have great memories. I don't know how long we'll be alive to enjoy the memories........