Today's chillin' plans were put on ice to check out the bears

The entrance to Bearizona

OK, so we didn’t chill as much as I thought we would today. Sometimes it is hard not to want to get up and do when you are in such a beautiful place. Part of it is that we have traveled so far to get here and you feel like you don’t want to waste a minute.

The longer you are here, the more you realize that there is to do. We did take it easy in the morning. Joan slept in a little and I went for a 3-mile walk that took me from the RV park into the City of Williams, Arizona and then back by a different route (the old Route 66).

While in town I stopped at the Grand Canyon Railroad ticket office to see what the train to the Grand Canyon costs and learned the cheapest seat is $70 a person for the all-day trip. In the past 12 years, I’ve learned a little from Joan’s mother and I asked for any discounts and was told there were only group discounts.

So when I got back to the trailer, I went online and found a coupon code through Visit Phoenix.com that offered a 20 percent discount for the trip. So I booked online for a total savings of $28. In addition, I learned that we would have to pay $8 each for the National Park Service admission and so I went to the local Visitor’s Center and Forest Service office and paid $10 to receive my senior, lifetime parks pass.

White bison

The train company said they would refund the $16 they tacked onto my tickets so I saved another $6. Am I starting to sound like a bonafide senior citizen or what? We are also planning a return visit to the Grand Canyon on our own and tomorrow we will be visiting three other National Monuments and the pass can be used for that instead of paying a fee.

Tonight I told Joan I would take her for dessert at a local diner and by golly, I’m going to ask for the senior discount there. I’ve cut out a number of coupons for discounts to other attractions we will be visiting in the next few weeks as well.

Here are three words you should never hear at the Visitor’s/Information Center when you ask a question as simple as whether there is an old fashioned diner in town: “I don’t know.” It turned out there is a diner about two blocks from the visitor’s center. I found it on my walk back to the RV park. Sheeesh.

When I returned home Joan and I devoured our Cookie Diet breakfast and we set to work on the laundry. Working together we finished the laundry by 1 p.m., had lunch and then headed back to Williams so I could see how far I walked this morning. (3.2 miles)

Big Horn Sheep

Although we planned to do nothing today but the laundry and a few chores, Joan suggested we check out “Bearizona” a drive-through nature center about 1-mile from our RV park. The woman who checked us into the RV park mentioned her husband worked there and that it was a very nice stop with interesting animal exhibits.

She was right.

Less than two years old, Bearizona, has as its main concept the idea that the animals are free (to a point) and the people view them from the safety of their cars as they drive through the habitat.

We hit the gate about 2 p.m. and, since I was on a roll, I asked if there was a senior discount and saved us another $2. Man, I’m really enjoying this senior thing.

Old buses to become fake rock wall

The first thing that caught our eye was a string of old, decrepit buses, shipping containers and large vehicles parked along the main road leading into the animal park. The woman at the gate apologized and explained that they use the vehicles as the base for the fake rock walls they are making.

As we got closer we could see the wire and metal mesh attached to the vehicles were all ready for the concrete trucks to spread a coating over them to make it look like a formidable rock wall.

She also warned us not to get out of our car and to keep our windows and sunroof closed as we passed through Wolf and Bear country.

A black bear keeps a wary eye on us

Inside the large compound we crossed over those metal grates that keep animals from crossing and started our journey through the park. At first we were a little disappointed as the first animals were American burros. Not exactly the animal you would fear meeting in your car.

But soon we passed into the section of the park that included the Bison, rams and bear. On our first pass through we did not see the Tundra Wolves that were advertised on the fence. When we returned for a second pass, we saw the wolf sleeping right near the road. So close he could have bitten us, but only if he wasn’t sleeping, if our windows were not up and if he could run 70 mph.

Four black bear cubs form a chain of ear cleaning

When we approached Black Bear country a nice man greeted us at the gate and warned us again to shut our windows and sunroof and to not let the bears get too close to the car as they could do serious damage to the paint with their claws.

After learning we were from Michigan, he mentioned that some of the bears in the exhibit were rescued from upper, lower Michigan after they became repeat nuisance offenders. There were plenty of Black bears and we got up close and personal, but none of them seemed interested in my Tahoe’s paint job.

At the end of the 2-mile road Bearizona turns the tables on the animals and let the humans walk around and see the animals in smaller habitats. Most of the animals in this area were young (bear cubs) or rescued wild animals. We also saw bobcats, lynx, raccoons (I know, I know), young wolves, something that looked like a wild pig, but an animal that a sign warned us not to call a “pig.”

Great Horned Owl

At 3 p.m. we went to the Free Flight Raptor show and saw a number of beautiful birds of prey, including three that were allowed to free fly over us. In fact, when I saw over us, I mean we felt the wings hit our heads as they passed by us. The woman narrator was very knowledgeable and then invited us to stay after the show and watch as they worked on training a young barn owl to participate in the show.

Just seconds after I asked Joan (she was a science teacher after all) why the birds didn’t just fly off into freedom, the small barn owl did just that.

A sleepy Tundra Wolf

The bird was returning to its perch on the stage when it was spooked by a large raven that flew at it near the stage and it took off in the wrong direction. One of the bird handlers grabbed a large container and went off in the direction of “Burro Country” to see if she could coax the bird back home. Eventually, she did.

One of the bird handlers brought out a hawk and let us get up close and personal before putting the bird back to bed. All the birds are rescue animals or ones that were domesticated to a point they could not be returned to the wild.

Our favorite was a large Great Horned Owl. Could not believe how big that bird was.

Look close and you'll see I'm nearly prey for this bird

Weather here was terrific today with highs in the high 70s to low 80s. On the Phoenix television news station tonight they were sighing with relief that tomorrow’s temperatures were dropping back into double-digits. The high tomorrow in Phoenix is supposed to be 98. But it’s a dry heat.

Because next week we are storing the trailer while we head to California for a few days without our mobile hotel room we are eating in each night cleaning out our stock of food that we brought with us. Tonight we had a Shrimp Louie Salad with Joan’s homemade dressing and I took Joan to the old-fashioned diner that the local visitor center official didn’t know existed.