Have you ever been licked by a giraffe?  Mr. Right has.

Have you ever been nose-to-nose with a huge bull? BusyBoy has (when he was 2 years old).

Have you ever ridden in a car for about an hour sitting on a console with your head and shoulders tilted over just to fit?  I have.

Three years ago, Mr. Right and I decided it would be fun to take the twins on a trip to Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, Ga. 

Mr. Right had the right attitude and was supportive of his loving wife’s idea. 

Wild Animal Safari is one of those places where you can drive your car through the park to see wild animals.  You can also rent a beat up, zebra painted, minivan with no windows.  Renting the old minivan is by far the better option.  Unfortunately, we did not know that at the time.
   

Upon arriving, we purchased our tickets and food to feed to the animals, got in the car, and started our safari adventure.  The first animal was a giraffe, the tallest land animal in the world.  I decided it would be a fun idea to have our moon roof open to experience the full affect of the giraffe’s height.  Not such a good idea.  Again, something we did not know at the time.  The giraffe put his head into our car through the moon roof.  I was astonished when this happened and literally rendered speechless.  All I could say was “Ahh!  Uhmm!”  My fear must have been palpable because GigglyGirl started crying. 

Mr. Right put some food out his window to encourage the giraffe to move his head.  He held the food in the very tips of his fingers.  Mr. Right recalls, he was just holding food out for it and yet it wrapped its tongue around his arm twice all the way down to his elbow.  A giraffe tongue is 18 to 24 inches long, bluish-black, and, according to Mr. Right, covered with some kind of snot-like slime.  When the giraffe licked Mr. Right’s arm, all Mr. Right could do was scream “Eww!  Get me some wet wipes.  NOW!  And some antibacterial gel.  NOW!!”

So, 5 minutes into the safari, I am a bit freaked out and a little speechless.  GigglyGirl is screaming her head off.  Mr. Right is demanding (and rightly so) wipes and antibacterial gel.  BusyBoy is the calmest of the four of us, just sort of taking it all in.  Or, he was freaked out and rendered speechless too.  It is hard to tell the difference with a 2 year old.

There is no going back either.  There is a line of cars behind us and nowhere to go but forward. So, we forge ahead.

I have to climb into the backseat of the SUV and I sit on the console of it the rest of the trip trying to keep GigglyGirl calm.

A bit later into the trip, we notice that BusyBoy is calmly repeating the word no.  “No.  No.  No.  No.  No.”  Mr. Right looks back at BusyBoy and I look over at him and notice there is a huge bull sticking his head into BusyBoy’s window.  The bull’s nose is literally 2 inches away from BusyBoy’s nose. 

The way to get out of this situation is to gently and slowly pull the car forward, which we did and continued to have to do throughout most of the rest of the trip.  This is where the beat up, zebra striped minivan rental would have come in handy.  While Mr. Right and I are not overly materialistic when it comes to our cars and their upkeep, we do not really want deep gouges in the paint and metal caused by bulls’ horns (our any other horns for that matter).  We were nervous about our paint getting scratched every time we pulled away from an animal.  Luckily, no car damage occurred.

All of these crazy antics aside, we did have a good time.  We simply learned a few important lessons along the way.  If you go on a wild animal safari, rent the safari’s vehicle.  Keep the moon roof closed.  Keep your two year olds away from the windows.  Feed the animals at your own risk.  Carry LOTS of antibacterial gel and baby wipes (or a beach towel).  Giraffe licking did not work for us.  And my guess is, unless you’re really weird, giraffe licking probably will not work for you either.

Have you ever been licked by a giraffe or some other safari animal?  Have you been to a safari theme park?  What were your experiences?  

This week instead of checking out what works for me and others, you can check out what does not work for us.  Be sure to go to Shannon’s blog to see what others had to say this week.   This post is also submitted to the Carnival of Georgia Bloggers.  Check it out to see what is happening with Peach State bloggers.

If you really want to see some things that do work for me, you might like Twitter for Dummies, From Wishes to Dreams Dreams to Goals, and Save More than 50% on Your Groceries for Free.  Be sure to check back next week for Twitter for Dummies Part 2.

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