Snowleopard's 2015 Road Trip

Well I watched the Joe Exotic video and I am not sure I can ever forgive Snowleopard! Does anyone have a brain cleanser that will erase it from my memory?

 

Exactly! This is why I compared "Joe Exotic" to Trump. Both are arrogant windbags.

 

Hi SL,

I visited G W exotic a couple of years ago.

I am surprised you have not commented on his endeavour to breed a Saber-toothed cat sized tiger. As from what I understood that was the real reason for so many tigers.

I also think you will find most of the staff are actually volunteers who live on site in horrendous conditions in very old caravans.

Enjoying sharing your road trip

 

As SL knows very well I do two or three big road trips in the U.S. every year,almost all of which seem to average around 2500 miles..driving is so much easier in the states,by and large the roads are quiet to very quiet,Ive yet to see a speed camera, and ,interestingly,U.S. traffic cops are ALMOST unable to act upon a UK license for speeding.Ive been told that were the offence serious I could be hauled before a county judge..so now I keep it down to 120 MPH! Just to return briefly to zoos,I recently visited possibly the worst place ive been to in 695 collections.Yes, in Wisconsin Dells take a bow Beaver Creek Aquarium..and Wisconsin Dells Deer Park probably wouldn't be too far behind either!

 

Only joking about the 120MPH..on the other hand most U.S. drivers do seem to observe the snail-like speed limits,I suppose that these are there so that folks can get a better aim on their hand guns or rifles!

 

That is a very astute anthropological observation. Americans are very much into demonstrating mutual respect (trying cutting into line anywhere) towards each other...hence the handguns...the great equalizers...in the course of civil interactions. Not surprising that visitors to America are treated with great respect and understanding. We generally love foreign people and when we find out they have recently arrived think to ourselves..."what took you so long?"

Some folks prone to rude and disrespectful stereotyping might chuckle and imply that Americans are prone to Xenophobia and Jingoism...not true! A significant minority of us are foreign born...and many more only 2nd or 3rd generation Americans. Both my paternal grandparents were born in Sligo, Ireland. Though on my mothers side...my last English ancestor took the big boat trip way back in 1640!

And we all basically consider Canadians and folks from the English speaking islands as Americans anyway. But anyone is welcome...just look in our phone books (if such things are still published).

For all our quibbling about Murica and Freeeedom...we really just desire order, cooperation, and a little peace and quiet...and we LOVE zoos...

Oh and our single largest Ethnic Group is German-Americans. So...I'm glad you enjoy your visits. What took you so long?

Joking!!!

 

Irony apart..you do love zoos! Very rarely do I encounter anything negative zoo-wise in the U.S. whereas here in the UK its quite common to come up against "zoos?... Im not sure about them"(almost always from people who wouldn't know a takin from a tadpole).Ive done the zoos of Alaska incidentally,one heck of a beautiful drive in between Anchorage and Seward I must say(in summer at least).

 

It is that...Winter can be stark...but beautiful in its own way. I really hope you enjoyed your visit to Alaska.

 

Thanks snowleopard for a very interesting blog so far! Very jealous of your yellow-bellied marmot spot! As a zoo professional I know that there are a small percentage of us that are just as big of a zoo geek as you and others on here! I've been to about 150 or so and have a lot more planned

 

DAY 5: Friday, July 17th

Today was actually the longest day of driving yet, which is difficult to believe after the 5 days of intense long distances that I’ve had. I clocked 1,220 km (758 miles) and in the first 5 days I’m at approximately 5,500 km (3,400 miles) and that is the equivalent of driving from Paris to Moscow, checking out the famous zoo, and then driving all the way back again. The heat of Texas has been pounding down on me to such an effect that my left arm is deeply tanned from leaning on the open window as I careen down the highway. The driving will ease up now that I’m in the heart of Texas, but on this day I visited two facilities that were all by themselves. Amarillo Zoo is in the northwest section of Texas, without another zoological establishment for many miles. San Angelo Nature Center is in the southwest section of the state; other than Abilene Zoo (which I’ll visit on my way out of Texas) there aren’t any zoos around and it was tricky figuring out how to place them in my itinerary. In the end it worked out best to just tick them off my lifetime list on the same blistering hot day.

Amarillo Zoo:

Amarillo Zoo is not AZA-accredited but it is very close to accomplishing that goal and has improved immeasurably in the past decade. In 2004 the Amur Tiger and African Lion exhibits were modernized; 2008 saw the opening of the North American Prairie viewing deck; 2009 was the brand-new Herpetarium; and 2013 was the Education Building. The zoo has lions, tigers, bears, lemurs and monkeys, plus the very small but impressively designed Reptile House. It only took me an hour to see everything but I have few complaints and this little place surprised me. Up next there will be a new Children’s Zoo and I suspect AZA-accreditation will be forthcoming in the next couple of years.

San Angelo Nature Center:

San Angelo Nature Center is located in San Angelo, Texas, right next to a public beach and swimming area. This very small facility acts as a rescue place for abandoned pets but there is also a choice selection of local species that makes the establishment a must-see for zoo enthusiasts. There is a haphazard approach to the quality of the exhibits in the single building, but most of the terrariums are arranged under headings such as “Cocha Valley Venomous Snakes” or “International Exotics”. The building is like a tiny natural history museum and while the facility is barely known outside of its local community many zoo enthusiasts would enjoy puttering around inside and seeing a surprisingly high number of species on display.

Species List: 97 total

Mammals (14): Bobcat, North American Porcupine, Raccoon, Gray Squirrel (albino), Gray Fox, Eastern Cottontail Rabbit, Black-Tailed Prairie Dog, Mexican Ground Squirrel, Spotted Ground Squirrel, Merriam’s Kangaroo Rat, Domestic Ferret, Chinchilla, Syrian Hamster and Western Spotted Skunk.

Birds (3): Goffin’s Cockatoo, Double-Headed Yellow Amazon Parrot and African Grey Parrot.

Reptiles & Amphibians (62): Texas Nightsnake, Texas Coralsnake, Western Cottonmouth, Bullsnake, Broad-Banded Copperhead, Rough Green Snake, Chihuahuan Desert Lyre Snake, Corn Snake, Mexican Milksnake, Long-Nosed Snake, Tamaulipan Ratsnake, Black Ratsnake, Great Plains Ratsnake, Texas Ratsnake, Trans-Pecos Ratsnake, Desert Kingsnake, Western Black Kingsnake, Gray-Banded Kingsnake, Desert Massasauga, Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, Mohave Rattlesnake, Mottled Rock Rattlesnake, Rock Rattlesnake, Timber Rattlesnake, Prairie Rattlesnake, Western Diamond-Backed Rattlesnake, Mexican Coachwhip, Blotched Watersnake, Diamond-Backed Watersnake, Plains Hog-nosed Snake, Marcy’s Checkered Gartersnake, Rosy Boa, Emerald Tree Boa, Colombian Red-Tailed Boa, Burmese Python, Veiled Chameleon, Chinese Water Dragon, Bearded Dragon, Knight Anole, Eastern Collared Lizard, Texas Horned Lizard, Texas Spiny Lizard, Banded Gila Monster, Northern Desert Iguana, Green Iguana, Great Plains Skink, Short-Lined Skink, Texas Banded Gecko, Leopard Gecko, Barred Tiger Salamander, Texas Black-Spotted Newt, Canyon Treefrog, Green Treefrog, White’s Treefrog, Rio Grande Leopard Frog, Gulf Coast Toad, Great Plains Toad, Fire-Bellied Toad, Texas River Cooter, Common Snapping Turtle, Three Toed Box Turtle and Ornate Box Turtle.

Invertebrates (16): Texas Brown Tarantula, Chaco Golden Knee Tarantula, Green Velvet Tarantula, Tiger Rump Tarantula, Antilles Pinktoe Tarantula, Curly-Hair Tarantula, Rose-Hair Tarantula, Wolf Spider, Black Widow, Vinegaroon, Western Hercules Beetle, Arizona Bark Scorpion, Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, Cave Cockroach, Desert Centipede and Texas Striped Millipede.

Fish (2): Rio Grande Cichlid and Largemouth Bass.

 

I've always wanted to go to Amarillo! Beyond the Zoo, which I've heard (and SnowLeopard confirms) is up-and-coming, Amarillo has 2 other interesting sights -- which I'm interested if you saw them, SnowLeopard?

1. Palo Duro Canyon - close to Amarillo, it's supposed to be the USA's second-largest canyon after the Grand Canyon. Since it's not a national park, it must not be nearly as scenic, but the pictures I've seen still make it seem quite pretty.

2. The Big Texan Steak Ranch - this steak restaurant, right on the main highway, is ultra-famous and is advertised for miles around. (I'm sure you saw signs, SL!) It's most famous for their offer that IF you can eat their 2-pound steak dinner (complete with baked potato and salad) in an hour, then this meal is free, and you get your name up on the wall. But if you fail, you've blown a bit over $40 and you'll probably have a stomachache for the rest of the day, not to mention a few additional pounds on your belly.

 

There is a ZooChatter - Lightninghorse - who lives in Amarillo. She is a photographer friend who worked with me in Tucson for years. She probably would have enjoyed meeting Snowleopard - too bad I didn't think of it sooner. And she photographs Palo Duro quite a bit.

 

Odds n' Ends:

There were signs everywhere near Amarillo for the 72 oz free steak...as long as you can eat it within an hour. Hilarious! I did not go to Palo Duro Canyon as after Amarillo Zoo I had a 5 hour drive south to San Angelo Nature Center and not a moment to spare. I'd choose a zoo over a canyon every day of the week, although having said that Kings Canyon in central Australia and the Grand Canyon in Arizona are both magnificent.

And now for something completely different. What is the deal with cigarettes in the United States? In Canada cigarettes cannot be seen in any store, meaning that the convenience shops that stock the products have to have the cigarette packages inside cabinets, behind a curtain, behind shutters, etc. Also, each pack in Canada has to have a minimum of 75% of the cover with a warning. For example, 25% of the pack will say "Du Maurier Classics" while the other 75% will have a photo of a baby in a crib, a face falling apart, a dying person on a bed, etc. Many of the Canadian packages have truly horrific images that are designed to make people stop smoking. In the U.S. cigarette packages seem to not have any kind of warning imagery, plus they are not covered up but instead are in the open for all to see.

 

There were plans to do this in the U.S., but the tobacco lobby managed to fight it off.
FDA changes course on graphic warning labels for cigarettes - CNN.com

 

snowleopard, are you keeping track of what the most common species you see on this roadtrip are?

So far I'm guessing it will be raccoons, llamas, and ring-tailed lemurs.

 

I have never smoked, nor do I have any interest in doing so. That being said, it IS possible to overdo these political warning things! For example, here in the USA, all drug commercials on TV are required to include a long, long narrative of all of the possible side-effects of that drug. So as you're seeing a 60-second commercial for some high blood pressure medicine, about 35 seconds of that commercial is a long listing of almost everything that could possibly go wrong! It's goofy! Being in the pharmaceutical business, I happen to know that usually those side effects will affect less than 0.0001% of patients taking the drug -- but no matter, they HAVE TO be included in the commercial! This is an example of a BIG government overreaching.

 

@SL- Did you see the World's Largest Cross? There are actually two of them, both I have seen on a 2013 California road trip. One is in Groom, Texas, on 40 between Amarillo and the Texas-Oklahoma state line. The other is on 70 East in Effingham, Illinois (where 70 and 57 intersect). Your route from Amarillo to San Angelo (on Google Maps) was 27 South? Google Maps shows the quickest way to get to San Angelo from Amarillo, which is 27 South to US87 South.

 

I'm sure you investigated this thoroughly, and that the answer must therefore be "no", but given the cost of fuel, the pounding your car is taking, and the time spent on the road, would it not have made more sense - economic and practical - to fly from Canada to Texas, and to then rent a car for three weeks?

I'm not sure I would regard the limitations placed on cigarettes as "political"; rather, they are part of a strategy which, over the past few decades, has taken smoking well away from the mainstream. At school, in the 1970s, I was taught by people who would smoke while trying to inculcate a knowledge of irregular French verbs into their classes. Such a situation is unthinkable now, and I am very glad that this is the case.

This is one of the most extraordinary videos I have ever seen! On one level it is appalling, horrible, dreadful, with Mr Exotic living up to every prejudice that people have of Americans (I be he wouldn't support warnings on cigarette packets!).

But the whole thing has to be a sort of a joke, doesn't it? My favourite line was, "Until my last dying breath, we're going to take care of animals. And blow **** up!". And I enjoyed his observation that there is "nobody in the world who can operate a zoo better than [him]".

 

I found those drug ads fascinating - we have nothing like them in the UK, where the only vaguely medical ads are for over-the-counter remedies for hayfever, sore throats, and the like. Nothing for anything that would need to be doctor-prescribed - basically, if you need them, your doctor will tell you. If you're a private patient, they'll talk to you about the costs - most of the time it will be NHS so drugs will already have been rated for cost-effectiveness. Absolutely bizarre to see some of the drugs being advertised to 'ask your doctor about'.

The other one that caught my eye was adverts for lawyers - we get them for some big, national firms - usually for specific types of claim ('Have you had an accident at work that wasn't your fault?' and all that) - but not for individual lawyers! Huge billboards at the side of public highways with giant, smiling laywers on them hawking their services was a new one on me.