Today began with a trip to Nexcare in Cottonwood, an urgent care center, to have my right knee x-rayed.  As I mentioned previously in this blog, after the hike to the cliff dwellings at Cliff Dwellings National Monument, that knee swelled up, sore and stiff.  It was slowly getting better, but I needed to know if something serious was underlying these symptoms.  It turns out to be age-related arthritis, so I was given a prescription for ibuprofen, told to use ice on it (which I was already doing), and wrap the knee before hiking.  At least I now can continue with this adventure without being concerned about whether I was causing serious injury to my knee.

The prescription was transmitted to the local Walgreens pharmacy, which is where we were when our friend from Prescott called to say she was in town.  Not the most interesting place to rendezvous, but it worked out fine.  She followed us to the RV park, where we selected the local attraction that would suit our interests for the day.  We decided on Out of Africa, a nearby wildlife park.

Out of Africa had many sizes of animals in small cages through large compounds.  It was very difficult to get good photos of the smaller animals through chain link cages.  In the Arizona afternoon heat, the large animals were mostly lethargic and unresponsive.   The lions and tigers were draped out on platforms in the sun.  There were even air conditioned houses for some large animals to use to escape the heat, so they understandably retired into this preferable environment.  A large albino rhinoceros was never in plain view due to this.  It seemed odd to have us pay money to see the animals as we endured the heat only to miss out on seeing them due to their seclusion into air conditioning.  Seems we should have come much earlier in the day when it was cooler.

There were a few exceptions to this rule.  The giraffes were quite affectionate, especially when fed their favorite goodies.  Betty found herself the recipient of many giraffe "kisses," a copious application of their very long tongues to her face.  A video of this can be found at the following link:   https://youtu.be/6U3OnKY9tGU  Betty also got up close and personal with a reticulated python (see photo).

Betty helps to lift python back into its cage

Zebras were very forthcoming when treats were handed out.  The driver of the safari vehicle warned us to keep our hands away from zebras who would snap off fingers if given the chance, then she proceeded to hand out goodies surprisingly close to their aggressive open mouths with very large teeth (see photo).  Some other large animals came to the fence as goodies were tossed out by the driver.  She spoke so fast and ran through so much information so quickly that we missed most of the names of these animals.  I have included a few photos that we managed to get from a distance.

Careful of those fingers

The hot environment, combined with speakers broadcasting recordings of songs sung in African made the mind drift a bit, leaving one feeling like one might actually be in Africa.  The Serengeti motif employed throughout was very effective.  I recommend going there around 9:30 am.