It's wild!

Day 4: Virginia Safari Park. If hiking a mountain in one day wasn't enough, I insisted we also squeeze in a trip to the Virginia Safari Park near Natural Bridge. Now here is a freaky place. The animals run wild and you drive through the park in your car with buckets of food to entice the bravest to come over for a visit. Many animals will eat the food right out of your bucket. We've all been to the petting zoos with the goats. There is no way to compare that to the experience of having a 1,000-pound beast with a 10-foot horn span clunk against your car door. Ostriches craned their long necks into our passenger seat and white reindeer came right up to the kids' windows. You are allowed to feed almost every animal in the zoo except the zebra. There is a very specific note to NOT feed the zebra. That's fine and good, unless the zebra sticks it head into your window and starts eating the food you are holding between your legs. When Scott pushed this particular zebra out of the way it bit him on the arm. It was totally worth it. How many people can say they've been bit by a zebra? About halfway through the ride I was bamboozled by an emu who came up all sweet and innocent, took a few bites out of my bucket of food and then grabbed the rim and jerked it out of my hand, making off with a bucket half full of food. Scott ostracized me endlessly for letting go. Later in the ride, a large camel grabbed Justin's bucket, slammed it against the roof of the car and dumped about half of it into my lap. See? I said. When an animal decides it's going to take off with your bucket there isn't much you can do. "Well," Scott replied, "Justin was overwhelmed by a 5,000-pound camel. You were overpowered by a bird!"