Feeding Alligators: Day 2

We got a late start this morning. My wife wanted to laze around the hotel and rest after breakfast. I mean you’d almost think we were on vacation or something the way she was taking her sweet time! Oh well. We managed to get a full day in anyway.

We started at the Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo. Troy has been looking forward to this all week, so we wanted to ensure we’d get to do it. We decided to pay a little extra so Troy could feed an alligator. Well…a baby one at least. You could feed the big ones too, but I was afraid he’d end up as lunch. He got to feed the babies some cut up pieces of hot dog off the end of a stick. He held it out over the pool, and the alligators would lunge up and snatch it off the stick. He also got to hold a baby alligator, which was cool. I did as well, but my wife chickened out.

At the outdoor pools, the large adults were lazing around in the sun, warming up while they waited for lunch. I had been telling Troy that they fed the alligators stray cats, which he surprisingly accepted as fact. But they, in fact, fed them chicken parts instead. They would hook the chicken on a string attached to a stick, which someone would then dangle over the pool, waiting for an alligator to lunge up and rip it off. Troy didn’t actually have much interest in any of this. He preferred to go to the petting zoo. So, off we went to that.

They gave everyone a small cup of Chex cereal to feed to the goats, sheep, donkeys, and emus. I managed to scrounge up a second cup off the leftovers littering the ground. It was plenty to interact with the animals and have them nibble out of your hand. I loved the emus the best, as you’d hold the cereal on the palm of your hand, and they’d strike at it with their beaks. Troy wasn’t too jazzed about having a giant bird pecking at his hand, so he stayed mainly with the goats.

You could also pet the rabbits and tortoises. The rabbits were a little skittish, but the tortoises were extremely curious and would come right up to let you pet them. One saw me trying to take a picture of him, and he came right up and nosed my phone! Troy enjoyed this, but his favorite part was going in the goat pen. You could pet the Pygmy goats, while they nosed your hand, looking for food. If you weren’t careful, they’d even nibble on your clothing or shoelaces! Troy and I both ended up with goat spit on our pants.

The neatest part was when all of the goats suddenly stopped and looked up in the air at the same time. I watched them curiously to see what they were doing. A minute later, the wind started blowing, and the tree that was shading the back of the pen started to sway. Dried leaves detached themselves from the limbs and dropped to the ground, and all of the goats rushed over to gobble them up from the ground.

When I realized what they were doing, I jumped up and ripped some fresh leaves off the tree and fed them to the nearest goats. I instantly became a god to the goat herd. All of them started coming up to me to beg for a leaf, even the most skittish that wouldn’t let anyone touch them. I fed as many as I could, and I scratched them all, giving them a good rub on the chin, or the head, or the back. That seemed to make them as happy as the leaves.

I started grabbing leaves off the buildings and from the other side of the fences, and I handed them to the kids in the pen. Suddenly, the goats had a lot more interest in the kids, and kids were ecstatic to have the goats stop running from their outstretched hands. Soon, other parents had joined the leaf hunt, and we cleared the entire area of wayward leaves. None of the kids, including Troy, wanted to leave the pen. Alligators couldn’t hold a candle to nibbling Pygmy goats!

We left the alligator farm and had lunch at Kahlo Cafe, an homage to Frida Kahlo. It was sort of like a Mexican fusion place. It was cute, and the decor was eclectic, looking like random pieces collected from garage sales. However, the food was just okay. Filling, but nothing special.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel for a nap…well, my wife and I did. Troy was too wired to sleep. After that, my wife hunkered down in the hotel room to work, and Troy and I headed out for another adventure.

We headed into downtown Hot Springs, because I wanted to walk the Grand Promenade behind Bath House Row. The Grand Promenade is a scenic, half-mile bricked walking trail that stretches along the lower slopes of the Hot Springs Mountains. Trees lined both sides of the pathway, and leaves had already started to fall along the bricks, making it a beautiful and idyllic scene. A scene completely lost on Troy. So, while I enjoyed the leisurely walk; he jumped, and skipped, and ran, and traced the zigzagging pattern of the bricks. About halfway along the path, we discovered a trail that led up to the peak of the mountain. Of course, Troy immediately wanted to explore it, and I was perfectly keen to oblige.

I don’t think he really knew what he was getting himself into until we hit the first inclined slope. His legs were burning, and he started complaining. I encouraged him to dig deep and keep pushing himself, and we eventually made it to the top. That’s when we discovered there was a road that led there, and we could have driven it instead. Oh well. There was an observation tower at the top, but we decided not to go inside when we found out it cost money. So, we satisfied ourselves with a scenic view from the road, then headed back down the trail.

By this point, Troy was really moaning about his legs feeling like jelly, but I refused to carry him the rest of the way down the Grand Promenade. He made it just fine, even if he did stop several times and wobble his legs dramatically to show me just how jelly they were. I finally acquiesced and carried him when we started back down Bath House Row. And as a thank you for indulging my desire to see the historic pathway, I bought him a chocolate gelato.

It was getting late, so we decided to head back to the hotel and grab a quick dinner, which ended up being Sonic hot dogs. Troy found his second wind and was bouncing off the walls all night, but when I finally tucked him into bed, he was out cold in seconds. I’d say that was a good day.