Lions, tigers and bears, oh my!

Our virtual trail guide at Frontier Texas!

One of Joan’s frequent comments is that we don’t spend enough time just sitting around the trailer enjoying some peace and quiet. It’s usually my fault because I try to find interesting, and inexpensive, things to do when we are visiting a city for the first time.

So when we pulled into Abilene, Texas yesterday my plans were to have no plans. I was thinking we would Just have some down time for a few days before we head to San Antonio.

Imagine my surprise when Joan asked me indignantly what my plans were for our short stay in Abilene. I had to first admit I wasn’t planning any excursions until our departure Friday. But with her sudden interest in discovering Abilene I hit the Internet and found a number of local attractions that sounded interesting.

Looking down on a giraffe at the Abilene Zoo

The local Chamber or business organization offers a one-time-pass to six local attractions for $15 a person. If you just visit two of the attractions you break even and a third and fourth just increases your value.

So today after a short walk to a nearby RV parts and service center where I picked up a new water filter and spare parts I hooked up the water to the trailer and about 11 a.m. we set off to the Abilene Visitor’s Center in downtown Abilene.

(I made the water hookup sound much easier than it was because for some odd reason it took a long time for the hot water to warm up today than it usually does. My theory is that some residual water was frozen in the tank and it took a considerable time to thaw that water out. But anytime I get to use my drill driver and several of my tools is a good day.)

Looking for love in all the wrong places

The visitor’s center is located within one of the attractions, Frontier Texas!, which was one of the places we expressed an interest in seeing. We were met at the front desk by some nice local Texas folk who sold us the $15 pass and we immediately cashed one of the tickets in to see Frontier  Texas!

This was a really cool exhibit that included projected actors talking directly to you about Texas history. The story of Texas 1775-1880 was told through the stories of a few historic Texas figures. Some of the interactive displays put you in the middle of a buffalo stampede, a poker game shootout and in the middle of a bar room discussion about a very bad man.

The trip's first bonnet photo

There was a lot of difficult history about the treatment of Native Americans who were here long before the Spanish, Mexican, buffalo hunters or Texas settlers arrived.  The exhibits included weapons and other interesting displays and we thoroughly enjoyed Frontier Texas for about two hours. Pretty much we were the only people there.

Following that experience we headed to the Abilene Zoo where we again joined an intimate group of folks in a tour of the small, but interesting zoo. Going there cashed in a second ticket on our attractions list, so we are already even on our purchase.

Joan and I enjoyed a close encounter with a couple zebras and were within a few feet of a Lion female and male. The male lion was trying his best to romance the female lion, but she was having none of it. Eventually the two got into a loud and sometimes frighteningly sounding roaring argument.

The “Creepy Crawler” building housed a number of venomous snakes and reptiles and with the cooler temperatures of the day at least a few of the usually nocturnal animals were out and about, or at least visible.

After visiting the zoo we headed home to the trailer about 3:40 p.m. Joan fixed cold cut sandwiches for dinner and we took a short walk around the RV park after dinner. Temperatures are supposed to reach into the 70s tomorrow and stay above freezing overnight.

 (Scroll down to see more photos of today's adventure.)

Tomorrow we plan to cash in a couple more of our fun pass tickets. Stay tuned.