I searched all over the internets to find good date ideas in the area. I really really wanted to find camel rides through the desert. Apparently, these don't exist. They have them at the zoo, and it appears they used to exist at Rawhide. The best I could find were stellar rides through the desert in United Arab Emirates, impressive but not feasible. I thumbed through other cool ideas- zoo, castles and coasters, laser tag, mini golf. Strike after strike. Too expensive. Overdone. Boring. Tired of it. Out of business. And then I remembered a video I saw of Emily Cain in high school where she got bit by an ostrich on the way to Tucson.
And thus, our adventure was born. I set up Brandon with my good neener-friend Nancy, and I took Alyssa. From Mesa, where the girls live, we drove another hour south to Picacho, Arizona. There we found the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Farm, the best kept secret in Arizona. Not only do they boast ostrich ranching, but an amazing price at that!
Start by purchasing your food- alfalfa pellets for the donkeys, deer, goats, and ostriches, and nectar for the lorikeets. Be careful not to let the ostriches steal all of it.
These tiny donkeys all came running over to use to gobble the pellets from our hands. The tiny baby was the cutest and shiest. There were at least 15 in total. I want at least four to be mine.
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| Alyssa feeding the baby mini-donkey. |
What else do we get to feed? Deer. Little spotted deer with alien faces. They sucked the food right off our hands and swarmed us. Literally. I didn't get the best picture but after we left Brandon there alone about forty were trying to get food from him all at once.
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| NEENER! |
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| Bambi might look adorable, but these guys are aliens. Watch out. |
Oh, just a bunch of living animal mounts. These goats stick their heads out of the box and you feed them treats. It may be one of the more unsettling things I've done recently. Especially when two of them fight to both squeeze their heads out at the same time.
A little sign explains how to participate in a unique feeding experience called the "goat kiss." It's no surprise Alyssa went first. I suppose she'll be needing a "I Kiss Goats" pin now.
Brandon took so long to get close enough to the poor goat. It stretched and stretched until Brandon finally kissed it.
They also had a thing called the goat penthouse. They put the goats up on the crane in a little goat house and you crank little cups of food up to them. Yes, it's about as odd as it sounds, but the goats love it.
Here's what you've all been waiting for! The ostrich feeding! Do they have teeth? No. Do they bite? Do they ever! They snap the food off your hands and sometimes bite more of your hand and miss the food entirely. Their dinosaur necks and eyes might be unnerving enough, but then they swoop in swarms to peck at you.
Oh. They'll steal your cup if they get the chance. They stole Alyssa's half full cup of snacks including the lorikeet nectar. Later they stole empty cups from Nancy and I. Little snatchers.
Then the Lorikeets. I've fed lorikeets at zoos before. At zoos they've always "just" been fed so they don't come that quickly to you. Well, apparently, not these one. As soon as we walked in they were all over us. Seven or eight on each. Brandon freaked out and dropped his nectar after getting a couple steps in.
The last part of our adventure- the monster truck tour! We started things off right by cheering the loudest (and being the only ones cheering). Did you know ostriches can lay up to 80 eggs a year?!? Apparently I'm the only one who things this is amazing because on the tour I gasped and said "Why is no one else reacting to this fact?" Everyone laughed.
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| Ostrich fishing! Put grape fruits on this string and they swallow big chunks hole! You can see the grape fruit going down their long throats just like on the original Fantasia. |
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| Alyssa snuck into the driver's seat while the tour guide took pictures. |
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| We survived the 4-wheelin' red neck adventure through the ostrich ranch. |
