One Lap of America

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Nov 7^th, Day 2: Gonna drive on through, with a brief stop at the prehistoric gardens, and get back on schedule for... what, a petting zoo with a baby tiger? Hell yeah. I'll even wait a half hour until you open.

For such a small personal zoo, they had quite a bit of space and animals. But it was nice to see the staff have personal relationships with all the animals. The lioness and tigress were very playful, playing hide and seek behind rocks and logs. I checked, they were being playful, not hunting me. Not that it couldn't be both. The baby bears were nice and playful, but at one year old they were already way too big to play with humans. The three cats I got to pet, a tiger, a bobcat, and a caracal (lynx relative), were all very social and friendly, although they did seem a bit distracted and riled by the peacocks that walked by. There were a lot of peacocks, according to one of the workers too many. I pointed out the obvious solution, I.e. his availability of predators, and he laughed and said that happens sometimes, especially when they steal food from predators. Sometimes he'll hear a noise, and turn just in time to see a puff of feathers settling to the ground.

The prehistoric gardens were also nice, semi life-sized sculptures of dinosaurs along a path in the Oregon rain forest. And it was Raining. Having gotten caught in a downpour at the petting zoo, when I got inside the dino gift shop I realized I was pretty damn cold, and needed to hang out by the heater for a bit. Then a quick wander along

Driving down the coast on 101 was rather pleasant, even if it was rainy and grey. It had a bit of the mystery that one can get from Scotland. I figure I'll have enough sunshine driving on highway 1 in CA. Also, when I veered off into the redwoods, they look awesome in the fog.

On that note, although I had been planning to push into San Francisco that evening, when I saw the turnoff sign for the “Avenue of the Giants”, I decided too pull over for the night and take an early morning drive among redwoods. I was a bit nervous this time; Instead of being outside a well lit building, I was in the middle of nowhere, and I slept lightly, in case I was set upon by methheads.

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