Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Da Day!

On the last night of our adventure we sat around a beautiful campfire, told stories about our highs and lows of our trip and had more S'mores.  It was an amazing trip with the exception of a few bumps and the dog.  But the highs from Mt. Evans, to horseback riding, to trains and zoos and of course today's zip line tour way outweigh the lows.

Speaking of today, we spent most of it at The Wilds.  The Wilds is a private, non-profit safari park and conservation center.  It is more than 15 square miles and is considered the largest free ranging safari in North America.  Thirty-one rare and endangered species representing more than 350 mammals from around the world, including Sichuan takin, Grevy's zebras, cheetahs, giraffes and southern white rhinoceros, make up the animal population at the Wilds.

One of the activities you can do there is a 2 plus hour zip line safari over top of the wild animals and many lakes.  It was quite an amazing adventure as the pictures below attest and scored a solid 10 by all.  It was made up of a series of 10 zip lines.

After seeing some great wildlife we drove a short distance to a mining memorial park to see the bucket to Big Muskie!  Big Muskie was a giant strip mining digger!  The whole area we are at in Ohio was once a huge stripmine, now reclaimed into parks and The Wilds. Its bucket, all that is left of it, is 220-cubic-yards, for scale, you could put 2 full size buses inside the bucket side by side..  This was the largest single-bucket digging machine ever created and reputed to be the largest machine ever built that moved over land!   We had to find it.  

Following our adventure, we came back to camp where the kids took a dip in the pond using the sliding board, then played in the swimming pool.

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Tomorrow is a long final drive home of almost 400 miles.  Then back to work, regular routines and maybe some time to unwind and relax.

Another bump in the Road!

Literally!   Today we had a bump in the road.  We got up very early so we could be on the road by 6:30am.  On my final walk around inspection before leaving, I thought the tires on the right rear of the camper seemed to be riding a little low.  I pulled out my tire gauge to check it, could not get it to register, assumed, the tire gauge was sticking and drove off.  

Above: Typical day in the RV.

About 2 hous later we all heard a loud BUMP as we were driving down the road.  That bump would be the right rear inside tire coming apart.   But we were lucky.  Most of the tire stayed intact and it did no damage to the camper as it disintegrated.   We limped our way to the next exit.  Missy and I made a few phone calls using AAA and within minutes we had a repair crew being dispatched to our location.   The only thing left to do, was take a nap while we waited.

The repair man arrived about 90 minutes later and about an hour after that we were back on the road with 2 new tires not just one.  The damage to the other tire was fairly significant leading me to believe the first tire may have ruptured on our drive to St. Louis.    Important reminder to self.... If something doesn't look right, it's probably not right, so stop and deal with it right away.

After a long and hot 12 hour day we made it to our campground just 50 miles from West Virginia, had a wonderful dinner and then had our first campfire of the trip!  The fire bans all across the West made fires impossible and illegal.   We even had S'mores.  Yummy!

We also took note of the increased humidity.   

See ya in St. Louis

We really lucked out with the weather in St. Louis.  The really hot air was to our West and the really rainy and humid air was to our east, so a perfect sunny day with temperatures in the mid 80's.  We all voted and decided to have a nice cooked breakfast of pancakes and bacon and sausage to start the day out well.  Then we headed off to the St. Louis Zoo.  The zoo bills itself as a free zoo, but what they don't mention is parking is $15 then any exhibit with a little show or that is special is an added fee.  We opted to skip the fees and just wander. The kids rated it about a 8 on the kids scale.  Nice place.

We relaxed around the campground for the afternoon then headed the very short drive, literally just across the Mississippi River to downtown St. Louis where we had a delicious dinner and then headed over to the gateway arch for a trip up at sunset. Before heading up, Daniel and Alex participated in the Jr. ranger program and each earned their badge. The view was spectacular although Daniel still had some issues with the tight quarters in the elevator ride up.   Overall the Arch got a 10.

Tonight we packed up and said our goodbyes to St. Louis.