We left Williams Arizona on the 22nd of October with the idea of going to Lake Havasu. We heard about a place called "Keepers of the Wild" in Valentine Arizona, so we checked it out. Valentine is on Route 66 so the town is just about done. The "Keepers of the Wild' is a reserve for wild animals that use to be pets, performers or just injured strays. All of the Animals are in heavy duty chain link enclosures so pictures are difficult. The stars of the show were the Bengal and Siberian Tigers. We paid our admission and extra for a guided tour at 3pm. June had read that the 3 o'clock tour was the best so we stayed for it. We walked around the enclosures for about and hour and a half and kind of felt ripped off. Most of the animals were hiding in the shade our just about impossible to photograph through the fences. We went and had lunch in the Rv and then waited for the 3 o'clock tour. The tour turned out to be the saving grace and one of the highlights of the trip! The tour went around the park on the same roads that we had walked but it was feeding time. It was Wednesday while we there and the Tigers are not fed on Tuesdays( to mimic not always being successful in the wild) so they were hungry! How do you feed a hungry Tiger? you ask. Well you throw an 8 pound raw roast over a 15 foot high fence. Not as easy as it sounds as the new trainee found out.
It's coming over the fence and It's Mine
Told you it was mine
Look camera boy back off
See my Teeth
Your lucky there is fence between us!
They also had Llamas,Cougars,Coyotes,Raccoons, White Tigers,Monkeys and a variety of birds of prey. In one of the monkey enclosures there was the fattest grey squirrel we had ever seen, steeling monkey food helps you put on weight I guess. They also had a couple different types of Bobcats and Lynx. These were June's favourites as they look like big friendly cats.
June's favourite.
There was only the two of us for the tour so we sat in a golf cart and followed the feeding staff around. Very relaxed and informative.
By the time we left the park it was getting late so we only made it as far as Kingman Arizona before stopping for the night.
The next day we drove from Kingman to Desert Hot Springs. One of the roads we were on was very much like a kiddies roller-coaster, you couldn't go more than a half mile before there was about a 8 foot dip in the road. These proved to be to much for Whiskers as she was sick twice in about 20 miles. We have driven over 30,000 km and this is the first time she has been motion sick, go figure. We arrived here in the late afternoon and were happy to be here.
We are in a different spot than January, this one our door faces East so the west winds don't blow into the trailer. Our days have started to fall into a routine. We get up and walk the park, 2.2 miles. Then we head down to the gym to work on some arm exercises then it's pool time. The pool is followed up by some hot tub therapy a shower then home for lunch. We like to be done by 1:30 as it starts to get quite hot by then(30+ degrees).
I know it is a tough life but we are more than willing to take on for the team and struggle through. The hike leader is back next week so that will be added to our weekly routine and we have purchased a couple bikes, so we will have enough to do.
Take Care and thank you once again for reading our ramblings. We are looking forward to seeing some of you in the last two weeks on November, till them be good to each other.
Junkel
