Tuesday 4-12 Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

 

Overcast Day

We had an overcast day with strong wind. It started out with the temperature of 60 degrees and got to 75. 

Larry made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We starting getting ready to move on at about 9:30, we were heading to Berryville City Park which wasn't very far. 

On the way to Berryville we did something special. We stopped at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. It specializes in rescuing exotic cats. It has been doing this for 30 years and has rescued 450 cats and bears from across the country. They are a no contact shelter and survive mainly with volunteers and donations. Most of their animals have been rescued from either other animal parks that were trying to make money on the cats or from individuals who were trying to raise them on their own. The majority of them have been mistreated in some way and many of them have physical issues due to their past living conditions. Every hour on the hour they have a tour by a tour guide. For adults it's $25.00 and Seniors 65 and up are $15.00. When we arrived we had just missed the 10:00 tour so we paid and walked around the facility.

During the riding tour we learned about individual cats and how and why they were in the facility. They try to keep cats that are familiar with each other together. If the cats don't get along they separate them with a fence. They will also rotate who gets to be out in the grassy areas. They do this to prevent them from hurting each other. They are not a breeding facility so some of the cats are on a form of birth control. We also picked up a brochure about the cats and how they were rescued. They rescued a tigress, Priscilla last May and she was pregnant. She had three cubs and they all were born with club feet. At four weeks old they started the cubs on treatment. Now they're fine. The tour guide did an excellent job and the brochure was very interesting. We had a great time.

One of the lions

One of the white tigers

 

Priscilla

 

Entrance

After the tour we had lunch. Then we drove to Berryville, which was 20 miles away. Berryville City Park is a small park with restrooms and showers. We don't normally stay in RV parks but it is suppose to rain most of tomorrow and we wanted somewhere with power. You need a code to use the showers. The sites are full hookups. There are full time residents in the RV park. There a creek that runs by the park. They have a gazebo. Since the park is small there is not much area to walk but I did a bunch of laps around the park and also stepped in place, I ended up with 26,000 steps. This put me in 5th place in my group. While I was walking around I met a lady and she walked with me a little bit. 

 

Berryville City Park

I finished reading Willful Behavior. I played my computer games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Then I did the Event: Medium Mayhem of 27 games. It took me 1 hour, 13 minutes and 33 seconds, which put me in 9th place in my group.

We had an awesome day.