Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, Glen Rose, Texas

Sunday 5/5/2013

This is Joe, no not the duck, I mean not this bird, I mean Me Joe, Diane's husband. She asked me to write this blog. Once and a while she asks me to write a blog. She picks out the pictures and lets me have at it. So here we go, I will try to entertain and inform. This is an Egyptian goose. There are a male and female living as snowbirds (get it) here in Texas. They go away in the summer and return next winter. They are mates for life.

The male has very colorful feathers that are hidden underneath his outer brown/copper feathers. You get a glimpse in this picture.

Pink webbed feet. See the black and white coming out. We saw him one afternoon on our walk, and he had his wings stretched out, almost like he was sunny himself. He had one thick white stripes on both wings. We didn't have a camera that day.

A touch of dark green, here comes the Mrs. They both look like they have black eyes. A work camper told us their names were Annabelle and Chester.

We went to church this morning at the same church we attended last Sunday in Grandbury. After church we came home for lunch, then drove out to visit the Creation Evidence Museum. Note that it is closed on Sunday. So much for that idea. Now for plan 2, take the scenic drive that the lady at the visitor's center in town told me about.

We will return to the Museum on Thursday before we leave. This sign tells about the "Life of Christ" performance that can be seen at the Texas Amphitheatre, during the month of September and October. The couple we met that invited us to Lakeside Baptist Church, said it was a real good show. Wish they held it year round, so we could see it.

We leave town on Hwy 67 going south a few miles to a rest/overlook spot.

It was built back in the 70's.

The view of the valley below.

Another angle.

Check out this house. They must have a great view of the valley.

Per instructions, we turn onto Hwy 203.

A slew of turkey vultures comes into view.

Below is the reason for their gathering. This one wasn't scared off to the fence by our passing.

Diane saying goats turn here, so we stopped, backed up and turned off our route. We drove for about 4 miles, no more signs of goats. We turned around and headed back to our original route, only to be greeted by this great view of Glen Rose where we are staying. Both of us agree that if we had to live in Texas, this area would be one we would consider.

Shortly after getting back on our scenic route we came around a bend to see these two interesting goats .Knowing Diane, I knew we had to stop.

They had long beards and long horns. I don't know if the chair was a lawn ornament or is that a salt block?

Shortly down the road we came to a sign saying something about an animal park so I turned in. We came to a small parking lot and saw some animal enclosures and people wandering around so we parked and took a look around.

This place turned out to be Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. Check out the giant turtle.

Check out the not so giant turtles. These two are only about 5 inches and eight inches in size. The larger one seemed to be attacking the small one. It kept moving around and around attempting to bite the head of the smaller one. This went on for many minutes. Diane felt sorry for the smaller turtle and actually tried to squeeze her hand through the fence to push the bigger turtle away, but the fence holes were too small.

Next thing we knew, the bigger turtle climbed on top of the smaller turtle and guess what happened next?

Time to give the turtles some privacy. On to the children's part of the center. A warning?

Newborn Emu chicks.

Older Emu Chicks inside an outdoor pen. Playing with a set of car keys, go figure.

OMG, they have goats.

You can walk right up and touch them. I remembered the sign out front (remember) and kept my distance. Not Diane, she went right up to pet them.

You tell me what is this goat thinking. (dumb tourists?)

Look at me I am walking on top of a wall two feet off the ground, I'm as sure footed as a mountain goat. ( Diane will probably edit this.)

This is the snack shop and viewing porch.

This is the view from the porch of the park below. We found out that you pay between 18.00 and 25.00 per person to drive through this park and view animals in the wild. They have many kinds of African goats, antelopes, zebras, rhino's wolves, bison and many more animals. We decided to pass.