Monthly Archives: June 2015

Jun9

Parking

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Blaize Sun

In addition to my job as a camp host, I also work in the parking lot at a very popular trail head. It’s free to walk the trail, but there’s a $5 parking fee for folks who want to leave cars in our lot directly across from the entrance to the trail. Unfortunately, there’s not enough space for all the cars people want to park. A few more parking spaces have been added at the campground just down the road, but still, the parking area is inadequate.

I only got trained to do this job on the (cold, wet) Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. Fortunately, it’s not a difficult job.

A car pulls in. I signal the driver to come all the way down the driveway so other cars can pull in and get off the road. I tell the driver about the $5 parking fee. I collect $5 (making change if necessary) and hand the driver a trail guide and a day pass to hang from the rear view mirror. Then I send the car off to park.

The problem occurs when the lot is full, but the tourists keep coming.

On the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, people started packing in around eleven in the morning. The lot was already nearly full when a group of people in 15 to 20 cars started pulling in. The road in the parking area is a loop, and this group created a logjam while they sat parked in the driving area, waiting (and hoping) for other cars to leave.

About then, my (older, more experienced) coworker said there was no point in even letting more cars into the parking area. I stationed myself at the entrance to the lot and told folks who wanted to park their cars that we could not accommodate them.

Most people wanted to know where they could park. I told them they could try the campground, but I expected its parking areas were full too.

People began parking on the side of the narrow highway, despite danger and “no parking” signs. I told people it was illegal to park there and if a ranger came along, they’d probably get a ticket. Many people decided to take their chances.

I saw an older (fit and seemingly wealthy) couple I’d turned away from the parking lot get out of their car, which they were leaving on the side of the highway. I walked over to the man and explained: illegal–ranger–ticket. He said there was a “no parking” sign over there (pointing), but not where he was parked. I told him I was simply giving him information, he could make his own decisions.

He pulled out his wallet and asked how much he owed me.

I said, Oh, no sir. There’s no charge to park illegally. If I took your money, I’d be sanctioning your decision to park there.

Then I walked off, imagining how–if I took his money and he got a ticket–he’d tell a ranger or a judge he thought it was ok to park there because he’d paid a fee to an employee.

No way. Not this employee.

Jun8

Puppet Slam!

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Blaize Sun

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The Lady of the House treated me to a Puppet Slam at the Great Arizona Puppet Theater. The Puppet Slams are for ages 18 and up. No kids! The Lady had been to four of the slams herself, and she really wanted me to see one too. She’s been talking about the slams for years, and they sounded like fun. (One of the puppet skits she told me about featured Pinocchio, but it wasn’t his nose that grew!)

Here’s what the website of The Great Arizona Puppet Theater (http://www.azpuppets.org/Adultslam.php) has to say about the Puppet Slam: “Arizona’s best, quirkiest, edgiest slammers from across the country come together for some adult fun! Independent performers do short pieces which are funny and are sometimes poignant all geared to an adult audience.” The Lady also used the word “raunchy” to describe some to the pieces she’s seen at the Puppet Slams. I was in! There’s something about puppets in adult situations that cracks me up. (Consider Wonder Showzen. Think of the sex scene in the all-puppet cast Team America.)

The building the Theater is housed in is awesome. It is the former Phoenix LDS 2nd Ward Church, built in 1929. I thought it was funny that we’d see raunchy puppet shows in a former Mormon church

In the lobby, visitors can view puppets from previous shows. In the puppet theater, the ceiling is amazing. It looked like inlaid wood, very decorative.

The theme for the Puppet Slam was Shriveled Heart (in honor of Valentine’s Day, I guess), and was hosted by Daisy the Kitten, a sweet but foul-mouthed black cat in a pink tutu. Perhaps my humor level is that of a twelve year old boy, but I thought it was pretty funny every time Daisy let loose with an F-bomb. Daisy was sometimes joined onstage by Jingles, a large wild-furred and wild-eyed disembodied cat head reported to be forced to live at the back of the theater basement. Jingles seemed to be a little perverse and a little mentally off-kilter.

The first skit of the evening, “The Super Bowl Commercials You Didn’t See” (by Stacey Gordon and Mack Duncan of Die Puppet Die) was funny and mildly risque. It consisted of ten 15 to 30 second spots that would never make it on TV during the Super Bowl. The risque bits included two beer bottles getting it on, two puppets making out while a cutout of the Michelin Man was superimposed over them (yes, I thought it was kind of a stretch too), one puppet enthusiastically eating the other’s (held at crotch level) Snickers bar, and the Snickers bar eater offering to let her friend eat her Eskimo Pie. The piece ended with a little puppet with wings telling the audience all the things s/he would never get to do because s/he died of measles because his/her parents were “too fucking stupid” to have him/her vaccinated. (If too much time has passed since the Super Bowl by the time you read this post, I’ll tell you that this skit was a joke on both the insurance ad about the kid who never grew up because he died in an accident https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKUy-tfrIHY and the outbreak of measles that was rocking Phoenix in the same time period.)

The second skit, “Love My Way” (by Dain Gore of The Catechumen) was neither funny nor risque. In this one, a Jesus puppet rambled about agápe, éros, philía, and storgē, the ancient Greek ideas about love. The whole piece needed more work.

The final act of the first half of the show, “All I Do Is Dream of You” (by Gwen Bonar of Rude Rabbit Productions), was lovely, but technically no puppets were involved. The action was a sweet sort of hand dance. The “puppeteer” acted out a love affair, using only her two hands, a scarf, and ring. Wikipedia says “a puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by a puppeteer,” so I guess if we can agree that Gwen’s hands were “representational figures” that she animated, we can make the case that this act did belong in a puppet show.

Intermission afforded me the opportunity to go outside, through a sort of courtyard, and into another part of the building to visit the cramped but clean restroom. Intermission afforded others in the crowd the opportunity to buy beer and wine, as well as water and soda, at the concession stand. (By the way, as many folks in the audience were laughing at some not very funny jokes, I think plenty of them were drunk. Or maybe my sense of humor is just different.)

The highlight of the second half of the show was Dan Dan the Puppet Man (Dan Dold). The Lady of the House was so happy when she saw his name on the program that she clapped her hands and bounced in her seat. He certainly deserved this enthusiasm. He made marionettes of Alice (of Wonderland fame) and Tina Turner (of Tina Turner fame) dance, sing, strut, and shimmy. Oh, it was fantastic! Mere words cannot adequately describe this performance. Music was playing, and Dan Dan the Puppet Man made his marionettes lip sync the lyrics. It looked like the puppets were singing! And they were certainly dancing! It was amazing! (And the funny part was that sweet little Alice was singing a dirty ditty about showing her snatch to the animals.)

The final act of the show was a very creepy (and perfectly executed) “Rumpelstiltskin Revisited” by visiting artist Drew Allison of Grey Seal Puppets. Rumpelstiltskin told his side of the story from the Maricopa County jail. It was a somber end to the night.

What came between Dan Dan the Puppet Man and Rumpelstiltskin was the lowlight of the show. Scott Gesser performed his “Songs of Wuv.” THERE WAS NO PUPPET!!!! Scott Gesser is a real live guy. He is not a puppet. He is also not a puppeteer. He’s not a ventriloquist. He didn’t even put a sock on his hand and pretend it was a puppet. I will repeat: Scott Gesser got on stage and there was no puppet present. Scott Gesser performed sans puppet. How can a performer without a puppet be allowed to perform during a puppet slam? It makes no sense!

Scott Gesser’s songs were fairly humorous. He might have been ok performing at a comedy club or even at an open mic. At a puppet slam, considering that THERE IS NO PUPPET in his act, he is a complete and dismal failure. The Lady of the House and I were both extremely disappointed by this guy and wondered who he’d had to fuck to get this gig. (The Lady has seen him perform without a puppet at the Puppet Slam twice before.) This act really tainted the whole show for me. I wish the show had been shorter and this guy left out.

Puppet Slams don’t happen on a regularly scheduled basis, so if you hope to see one someday, go to the Theater’s website to sign up for the slam mailing list. The slam I attended lasted about an hour and half–including intermission–and cost $12 at the door, $10 in advance.

Jun7

New Collage (The Wheel)

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Blaize Sun

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I took this photo of The Wheel, my latest collage creation. It’s a piece of interactive art, maybe a divination tool…

This is my latest collage. I created it in April 2015.

I wanted to create this to include in the January 2015 Truth or Consequences art show I participated in, but I didn’t have the right spinner. I found the right spinner at my favorite mega super thrift store. (It was from a How the Grinch Stole Christmas board game.) I found the Wheel of Fortune tarot card at the hospital thrift store in T or C. I removed the spinner from the card it came on, collaged the card, glued on the tarot card, then reattached the spinner. Then I glued on all the words I’d cut out of magazines and catalogs.

I call it The Wheel. (The tarot card is the Wheel of Fortune, and The Wheel is a Grateful Dead song, lyrics by Robert Hunter and music by Jerry Garcia and Bill Kreutzmann, which is related to that tarot card. For more about the song and the tarot connection, see http://artsites.ucsc.edu/GDead/agdl/wheel.html.)

To see what your future holds, just spin the wheel…

Jun6

Machine Gun Rentals

Posted on June 6, 2015 by Blaize Sun

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As we were driving up to the entrance of Out of Africa, we saw a building to our right with a sign on it. This is what the sign looked like:

We did not investigate the building, but with a quick Google search, I found it is the Copper Star Indoor Shooting Range.

Here’s a map of the area:

On the map you can see the Copper Star Indoor Shooting Range, Out of Africa Wildlife Park, and the Yavapai County Jail, all snuggled together in the same area. While I’m pretty sure the rented machine guns are only to be used within the shooting range, it’s disturbing to think of someone renting a machine gun and taking it into the wildlife park to shoot up some animals or using it in a jailbreak from the county jail.

But you know how it is in Arizona (or if you don’t know how it is in Arizona, I’ll tell you now): People gotta have their guns!

The Guns & Ammo Network website voted Arizona the #1 best state for gun owners in 2014. Here’s what the Guns & Ammo Network had to say about this honor:

It was a tight race for the top spot, but it came down to the intangibles. The Grand Canyon State takes the top spot again this year, and for good reason. It has the most well-established competitive shooting scene in the nation and a culture that embraces shooters and the shooting sports. Arizona is the home of Gunsite, the nation’s oldest and best known private shooting school; the 1,650-acre Ben Avery shooting facilty [sic]; as well as numerous firearm manufacturers including Ruger. Concealed and open carry are legal without a permit, and the state also issues permits to residents who travel outside the state. CCW permits from all other states are recognized. Arizona does not restrict legally possessed NFA items, magazines or MSRs.

To read the article about the best states for gun owners in 2014, go here:

http://www.gunsandammo.com/network-topics/culture-politics-network/best-states-for-gun-owners-2014/#ixzz3TKsPp7Hp

To learn more about the Copper Star Indoor Shooting Range, go here: http://copperstarisr.com/.

Jun5

Pie!

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Blaize Sun

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Before we even got to Out of Africa, Nolagirl was talking about getting pie on the way home. She said there was a restaurant between Camp Verde and Phoenix that has really amazing pie. She said she isn’t too enthusiastic about the food at the restaurant, but she really likes the pie.

When we got off I-17 at exit 242, we saw this sign:

I think this was the first time I ever saw a picture of a slice of pie on a highway department sign.

This is the sign outside the Rock Springs Cafe.

(Side note: While i was shooting the photo to the left, I heard a loud metal crunch. A mega big truck was pulling out of a parking space and didn’t turn wide enough. The truck crunched into the car next to it, and as it kept turning, got hooked on the car. The driver of the truck had to back up to unhook from the car. OUCH!)

Here’s what the front of the cafe looks like. Yippie for pie murals!

We went inside, and there was some confusion about where to sit. There’s a tiny (two or three tables) sitting area behind the pie cases, but since there were four of us, we were told we should see the hostess about sitting in the dining room. The hostess said there would be a ten minute wait for a table, so we spent our waiting time looking at pie.

There was apple pie and peach pie. There was lemon meringue pie and Tennessee lemon pie. There was pecan bourbon pie. There was coconut cream pie and chocolate cream pie and banana cream pie. There were other pies, too numerous for me to remember. (See a full list of Rock Springs Cafe’s pies here: http://www.rockspringscafe.com/pies.html.)

The hostess finally sat us in the bar. I don’t know why we had to wait ten minutes. The place was not crowded, and there were several empty tables in the dining area.

Our waiter was a young guy who looked just like a young guy working in a roadhouse should look. He had on dark jeans, a black t-shirt, and slicked back hair. I should have asked to take a photo of him, but I didn’t want him to think I was some flirting old lady. He took our pie orders, then brought water out to all of us.

Nolagirl ordered the Jack Daniels Pecan. That’s her favorite. Little Phoenix ordered banana cream. The slice was huge, and she ate it all down. Izzy and I both ordered slices of chocolate cream pie. Oh. My. Goodness. It was so good. The cream part was thick and fluffy. The chocolate part was thick and silky. I ate every bite slowly and savored each mouthful.

Here’s a photo of my slice of pie:

It tasted even better than it looks.

Jun3

Out of Africa, Part 2

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Blaize Sun

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To read the first part of the story of my Out of Africa experience, so go here: http://www.rubbertrampartist.com/2015/06/02/out-of-africa/

After our tour, we walked around the wildlife preserve. There are shuttles that drop off and pick up people at designated stops throughout the wildlife preserve, but it was a nice day–not too hot–so we walked.

The first animal we saw in the wildlife preserve was a rhinoceros.

It was just lying about. I don’t know if it was a male or a female. It didn’t move much while we were watching it.

Next we saw a female tiger. I don’t remember her name. What I do remember is that she is the offspring of a white tiger and an orange tiger, so she is both orange and white! Her enclosure was such that I was not able to get any photos of her without also getting a lot of chain-link fence in the photos too.

I wish it weren’t life threatening to cuddle with a tiger. They always look so soft and snuggly to me.

After the orange and white tiger, we saw a couple of wolves. Members of a VIP tour were stopped at the wolf enclosure. Dean and Prayeri Harrison, the founders of Out of Africa, were leading the tour. They were in the wolf enclosure, petting the wolves and talking to the people about how they pay attention to the cues the animals give them and don’t push their human agenda onto the animals. At one point, one of the wolves dropped to the ground, rolled onto its back and let Prayeri rub its belly. Actually, it was less like the wolf “let” Prayeri rub its belly, and more like the wolf demanded it! The wolves were very beautiful, but there were at least two dozen people standing outside the enclosure, and I didn’t try to push my way to the front to get photos.

The next big enclosure where I stopped housed a lioness (whose name I can’t remember) and Chalet, a female white tiger. The lioness and tiger grew up together and are best friends!

The lioness who is best friends with the white tiger.

The lioness who is best friends with a white tiger.

The white tiger who is best friends with a lioness.

The lioness likes to take their toys and hide them. She is not good at sharing!

Chalet and the lioness live in an enclosure surrounded by chain-link fencing. There is a large wooden platform in the enclosure and an observation deck for humans on the outside of the enclosure. I was on the observation deck, as close as possible to the big cats. The VIP tour came along, and Dean Harrison asked Chalet if she wanted to get up on the platform. It seemed like this is a game they play so the tourists can get good photos. When Chalet jumped up on the platform, she was above the level of the fencing, and folks were able to get unobstructed photos of her. When she climbs on the platform, she knows that Dean will toss chunks of meat to her. The lioness stayed on the ground, where she ate the chunks of meat that Dean tossed specifically to her, as well as the chunks that ended up on the ground because Chalet didn’t catch them in the air.

Chalet, the white tiger.

While feeding Chalet and the lioness, Dean Harrison explained that Chalet and the lioness are not trained, they are well-educated. The animals at Out of Africa are not coerced into doing anything. If Chalet didn’t feel like jumping up on the platform and posing for photos, she wouldn’t do it.

Dean Harrison and Chipa, the female hyena.

Next we visited the area where the two spotted hyenas live. There is a female spotted hyena named Chipa and a male spotted hyena named Chitabe. Dean Harrison explained that like all female hyenas, Chipa is in charge. (Another staff member on a later tour told that crowd that a newborn female hyena has more status than any male hyena.) At first Chipa and Chitabe were not interested in the humans, and went deep into their enclosure, away from the tour. After a while, Chipa came back to investigate further, and Dean stooped down so she could sniff him. After quite a bit of sniffing, Chipa eventually pushed her side up against the fence so Dean could pet and scratch her. Dean also explained that the laugh that hyenas are so famous for is not a happy sound. He said if a human were to hear a hyena laughing in the wild, the human would probably be in trouble! We also learned that spotted hyenas are faster learners than primates and can teach what they have learned to other spotted hyenas.

I just read a bit more about hyenas on Wikipedia, and they are fascinating. There are kind of like cats and kind of like dogs. There are four species of hyenas in descending order of size are Spotted hyena, brown hyena, striped hyena and aardwolf.

At Out of Africa, we did not learn that female spotted hyenas have a pseudo-penis. However, I will include here what Wikipedia has to say about it.

“Although the genitalia of the male spotted hyena is typical by mammalian standards, that of the female closely resembles that of the male; the clitoris is shaped and positioned like a penis, and is capable of erection. The female also possesses no external vagina (vaginal opening), as the labia are fused to form a pseudo-scrotum. The pseudo-penis is traversed to its tip by a central urogenital canal, through which the female urinates, copulates and gives birth.^[48]^[49] The pseudo-penis can be distinguished from the males’ genitalia by its greater thickness and more rounded glans.^[11]^[50] In both males and females, the base of the glans is covered with penile spines.^[51]^[52]^[53]” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_hyena)

If you want to learn even more about the clitoris of the spotted hyena, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clitoris#Spotted_hyenas.

The hyena enclosure is next to a shuttle stop, restrooms, vending machines, and food service areas. Nolagirl and I sat at some picnic tables for a while why the girls messed around in a sandy area intended for kids to play in. When we reunited, the girls were hungry, so Nolagirl got in line with them to get food, and I walked around the area.

There was an enclosure where lemurs live along with animals I had never seen before. The photo below shows the animal in question.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember what this critter is called. The lemurs were all up in a tree house sort of space. They all had their backs to the one area where I could have gotten a pretty good photo of them, so I don’t have any photos to share.

I would have been excited to see marmosets in the Marmoset Gardens, but they weren’t on exhibit. Maybe they had gone on vacation.

While I was walking around, I saw a second food kiosk with a shorter line. That kiosk sold pizza. I didn’t think I was hungry until I saw other people eating pizza, then I wanted some too. I got one slice for $3.50, which is about what I expect to pay for a slice of pizza in a touristy area. It wasn’t great pizza, but it was tasty and filling.

After we all finished our lunch, we were just in time to head over to the Tiger Splash Arena.

The Tiger Splash show was intense! I didn’t even try to take photos during the show. I was mesmerized and wanted to experience the show without a camera between me and the action. During the show, while Dean Harrison gave commentary, several humans ran around, stimulating the hunting instincts of the two tigers. The tigers would use their claws and teeth on the toys (and pretty much destroyed the toys), but roughhoused with the people without hurting anyone. Harrison stressed that the tigers could have hurt the humans, but they chose not to because the tigers and humans care for each other and treat each other kindly and have fun playing together.

After the Tiger Splash show, we walked around more and looked at more animals. We saw several tigers and saw a lot of snakes and lizards in the Reptile Resort. One of the coolest snakes we saw was a HUGE amelanistic burmese python named Melanie.

We spent a lot of time at the Prairie Dog Digs because prairie dogs are so dang cute. We even bought some food for them from a gumball machine type dispenser, but these little critters are totally well fed and were not even interested in the pellets we tossed to them. That was disappointing because we wanted them to eat the food we gave them.

We saw a two-toed sloth! I love sloths. They are my spirit animals. I couldn’t get any pictures of the sloth because it was in its sloth house, wedged between the wall of the house and an upright tree branch. It was so slothy that it had figured out how to sit without holding up its own body weight. It was totally adorable and wonderful, and I wish I did have a photo of it to share.

The last animals we saw as we were walking on the Serengeti Road were wildebeests (also known as gnus).

They were milling about together in a group, not doing very much.

The girls wanted to stop at the gift shop, so we did that before leaving. I found the gift shop rather overpriced. I would have bought some postcards, had they been the standard 5 for $1 or a quarter each. I might even have splurged on some 50 cent postcards, but they were $1 each, which just wasn’t in my budget.

This sign to the right was posted throughout the park. I thought it was a great reminder to visitors. I particularly like the part that says, “Like us, they [the animals in the park] are sensitive and have feelings.” May we all remember that in our daily dealings with all creatures.

I had a great time at Out of Africa and would recommend visiting the park, especially during winter when the temperatures are cool.

I took all of the photos in this post.

Jun2

Out of Africa, Part 1

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Blaize Sun

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I was originally going to have only one post about Out of Africa, but when I’d written over 2,000 words and still had more to say, I decided to present the tale in more manageable chunks.

Out of Africa is a wildlife park in Camp Verde, Arizona. You can find out everything you want to know about it here: http://outofafricapark.com/.

I’m not a big fan of zoos, and I don’t think I’ve ever been to a wildlife park. I mainly decided to visit Out of Africa because the park grants visitors free admission during their birthday month. My birthday is in February and so is Nolagirl’s so we decided we should go together when we could both get in for free. Also along on the trip were Nolagirl’s daughter LIttle Phoenix and her friend Izzy.

(Sidenote: Earlier in the week, I’d gone to the Goodwill Clearance Center and found four tutus. I bought them and brought them with me when I met the gals before our trip to Out of Africa. I was so pleased by the excitement the tutus caused. Each of the ladies chose one and wore it for the whole day. We quickly began referring to ourselves as “the Tutu Gang.” We received several compliments on our attire and had a lot of fun dressing up.)

After stopping at the ticket office and paying for the girls and picking up our pink happy birthday bracelets, we headed directly to the African Bush Safari Tour. Visitors filed onto a safari tram with no windows and prepared to meet animals up close and personal. Our guide (and driver of the tram) was Lauren.

We stopped first to feed a giraffe named Pilgrim. Lauren told us giraffes naturally have no top teeth, so it is safe for people to feed them. (We were told that zebras, on the other hand, have very strong top and bottom teeth and should not be fed by hand. We were told that if we held five fingers out to a zebra, we were likely to have fewer fingers when we withdrew our hand.)

Everyone in the tram had been given a slender green leafy plant to offer to Pilgrim. He knew the routine and he was waiting for his treats when the tram approached his living area.

Here’s Pilgrim leaning into the tram to be fed.

Here’s Pilgrim leaning into the tram to take a treat from Lauren’s mouth.

We were told that Pilgrim doesn’t like having his face touched and would get upset if we tried to touch it, so we didn’t get to pet him. Being able to feed him was so cool; it was ok that I didn’t get to pet him too. Now I can tell people that I’ve fed a giraffe!

Pilgrim is not the only giraffe that lives in Out of Africa. There is another male, Kibo, who lives there too. The two giraffes were once good friends, but they started fighting over an “imaginary girlfriend,” and now have to live separately.

After feeding Pilgrim, we continued on our African Bush Safari Tour. The tram went through a gate, and we rode around in an area where visitors are not allowed to walk. Although the animals are in captivity, they are still wild, and they could easily hurt people who don’t know how to act around them.

The critters below in particular could do some damage. That is a sable antelope. According to Wikipedia, sable antelopes “inhabit wooded savannah in East Africa south of Kenya and in Southern Africa.” How about another look at those horns?

Unlike most other types of antelope (and deer, elk, etc.) the sable antelope won’t try to run from a predator. Here’s Wikipedia again: “When sable antelopes are threatened by [a] predator, including lions, they confront it, using their scimitar-shaped horns. Many of these big cats have died during such fights.” That’s what our tour guide told us too. If this creature is not taking any shit from a lion, do you think it’s going to put up with some stupid human with a camera acting a fool in its face? I think not. That’s why the stupid humans with the cameras had to stay in the tram.

Next we saw zebras.

I didn’t see any people sticking their hands out of the tram to see how many fingers they would end up with if they offered five to a zebra.

We learned that zebras are black with white stripes. The clue is that the nose of a zebra is black. Apparently, zebras are entirely black under their fur!

One thing that amazed me about Out of Africa is that the human caregivers recognize each animal individually and by name. While visitors just see a group of zebras milling about, members of the Out of Africa staff know each animal’s name and story. Our guide told us about one young zebra who’s having a bit of an identity crisis. She doesn’t want to hang out with the other zebras. Instead, she’s been hanging out with the other animals in the African Bush area. She’s trying out living with other animals so she can decide what kind of critter she wants to be!

The zebra on the right is the mom. The zebra on the left is her “teenage” daughter.

Baby zebra

The photo to the left is of a baby zebra. I believe it was just a few weeks old when I visited. The black stripes on zebras start out brown and get darker as the zebra gets older. Zebras moms are pregnant for 13 months, and baby zebras weigh about 70 pounds when they are born.

The photo on the left shows an addax. It’s got some pretty groovy horns too. But I don’t think it fights lions.

The animal to the right is one of the watusi (ankole cattle). These were the last animals we saw on the African Bush Safari Tour.

We also saw a camel named Humphrey and an ostrich named Chili-Pepper on the African Bush Safari Tour. Both Chili-Pepper and Humphrey live alone in separate enclosures because they don’t get along with any other animals. When we stopped to see Chili-Pepper, Lauren got out of the bus to interact with her. Lauren showed us how ostriches will instinctively jab their heads at anything right in front of them. She warned us that we did not want Chili-Pepper to hit us with her beak, and suggested we just move out of her range if she approached the tour bus. Lauren also told us that if threatened, an ostrich would not defend itself with its beak. If it could not run away (ostriches run extremely fast), it would fight by delivering a powerful kick and use its inner toe to cut open the enemy.

To read about the predators at Out of Africa, go here: http://www.rubbertrampartist.com/2015/06/03/out-of-africa-part-2/.

All of the photos in this post were taken by me.

Jun1

Shack Up

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Blaize Sun

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On the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend, one of the parties with reservations never showed up. When I went to bed on Friday night, no one had arrived to claim the site. When I woke up on Saturday morning, no one was camped on the site.

The reservation was only for one night, so I just thought Oh well. That was one less site I’d have to clean in preparation for new campers. I went about my business, not giving the people with the unclaimed reservations any more thought.

After a couple of hours working at the day use area, I went back to my campground. Campers were arriving, and I got busy checking them in. In addition to people with reservations, I was getting walk-up (actually drive-up) folks I had to turn away because I had no sites to rent. I was also seeing folks who just drove down the road to see what was at the end of it. Whenever anyone pulled up, my first question was “Do you have a reservation?” so I could either direct the driver to the proper campsite or break the news that there was no room at the ~~inn~~ campground.

A guy pulled up in a BMW and jumped out of his car. I smiled and asked him if he had a reservation.

He gave me a puppy dog eye look and said he had a reservations for the night before. I told him I was sorry, but I didn’t have any spaces available to rent on this night.

Then he said, Can I shack up with somebody?

He wanted to pitch his tent on somebody else’s campsite. (I hope he was planning to pitch in some dollars too!)

I told him I didn’t mind if that happened, but there would be a $7 fee if his car were the second on the site. He looked at me expectantly, and I told him I wasn’t playing matchmaker, he was on his own to find someone to let him share a site.

I went back to my work, as he drove to the back part of the campground. When I looked around for him, he was gone. I guess he didn’t find anyone who wanted to shack up.

Rubber Tramp Artist

One woman's stories, rants, and observations

Monthly Archives: June 2015

Parking

Puppet Slam!

New Collage (The Wheel)

Machine Gun Rentals

Pie!

Out of Africa, Part 2

Out of Africa, Part 1

Shack Up