A day at "Bays Mountain Park"

A bit of a late post tonight, we just got back from Shawn and Jenn's place after watching the game with them tonight....more on that later.... :-((

It started out foggy this morning in the park, but if you just wait for a bit, the Sun burns off the fog, and before you know it you have a beautiful day! Shawn and Jenn along with Emmie picked us up at the RV at about 10:30 this morning, and we headed out to "Bays Mountain Park". This is only about 10 miles from their house, and it is located at the top of a mountain! The whole park was set up by the Eastman Chemical Company, simply as a recreation area for their employees to enjoy. Eastman has a BIG complex at Johnson City, and have quite a number of employees. They also built a full RV Park on the mountain, which we got to tour today, and may end up parked in there come next spring....

In the mountain park they have set up habitat enclosures for a bunch of animals that you can tour and see, and so we did! Emmie loved them all, starting with the deer:

We found this pond that was full of turtles, and I managed to snap one of him, before he could snap me! (I don't think he is really a killer...) He was enjoying the nice warm sun of the day.

Next up was the wolf den. They had a large enclosurer, and had to have 8 wolves in it. Kind of reminded me of being in Sudbury and going to a Wolves game.... :-)) This is just one of them. They were big, and I sure would not want to try and take one on...they would rip you to pieces...

Emmie started to get a little tired, so Shawn had to give her a lift for a while...

We came accross this "Raptor"... He was big .... 5 foot wingspan. Apparantly the park people told us two guys found the birds egg in the forest on the ground, and placed it on their water bed and turned up the heat and turned the egg over and over, and eventually it hatched - two of them. One passed away, but this one survived and once they see a human or are handled by a human, that is it, they think they are human and cannot go back to the wild. This one thinks it is human and craves for attention. It spreads its wings like this to absorb vitamen C from the sun.

This picture is leaving out of the park, and you can see a big dam they built to create a small lake on top of the mountain... money is no object in the States! On the right you can see a small water fall coming off the dam...

Here are the kids all standing up on top of the dam with the mini lake in the backround. You can take a little guided boat trip on the lake.

Here is Shawn and I walking Emmie through the park.... she is very determined and has to walk, and not be carried!

Of course the best picture of the night is last, and is a great shot of Emmie and yours truly, all prepared for the Leaf Game against Calgary no less. She had a choice of a Leaf Sweater or a Calgary sweater, and decided on the Leaf's.... what a smart girl she is.... I think Dad was a bit put off though.... :-(( Too bad the Leaf's lost, but we had a good time with Shawn Jenn and Emmie, and well.... the Leaf's will live to play another day! Have a good evening everyone!