Wild Ride

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It is Day 2 of our Family Road Trip... and today's journey took us on a ride through the jungle! Well, a wildlife reserve at least... sort of the jungle.

We dragged ourselves out of our comfy hotel bed at 5.00a and were out the door with happy children at 6.00a. We broke out the banana bread I brought along for our breakfast. Mmm it was tasty! The kids and I each had one slice and then Kevin and our friend Ragland finished off the rest of the loaf. I guess it was good!

The ride today was supposed to be approximately 7 hours. We were geared up for a shorter ride than yesterday... but were surprised that the ride was only 5 hours! That was a very pleasant surprise and we were happy to arrive a bit earlier than anticipated.

While driving today we went through a local wildlife reserve... signs warned us to keep moving, keep the windows rolled up, do not honk the horn, and definitely don't stop for picnics! We were a little nervous at these stern warnings, but also slightly hopeful that if they were taking the animals this seriously that we might actually see some wildlife. And of course in this part of the world, 'wildlife' means tigers and elephants... something very exciting indeed!

Sadly, however, the wildest beast we encountered were some hungry cows out for their afternoon lunch. We saw several deer and some monkeys, too... as well as three elephants who were in captivity for all the tourists to ride. Clark and Claire had fun seeing the deer -- something we don't see a lot of in our city... and were convinced that dogs were also 'wild' enough to be included in the adventure. Sure, why not.

Our hotel today is also very pleasant -- clean, modern, quiet. The weather here is very comfortable. Kevin went to the groom's house today to say 'hi' and see his family's crops -- coffee, vanilla, oranges, black pepper, pineapple, papaya, banana, coconut, tapioca, rubber... an amazing display of fruits of the field! I would love to sample some of that coffee... and bring some fresh vanilla bean home as well... we'll see what I can muster...

It's to bed by 10pm tonight happily... we got to see the elimination round of American Idol tonight... I am convinced that our South Asian friends in America are keeping Sanjaya voted in... He is very cute in his surprised faces. Shocked definitely a better word.

Wedding and reception tomorrow... Hopefully more blogging to follow.

~lk

Comments

The SC Elwarts said…
We're voting for Chris Sligh. He was a friend of mine from college. Unfortunately, I don't think he'll win, but hey, someone's gotta root for the underdog.
1:20 PM
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