First thing I must do is apologize for being so far behind in creating my posts.  We have been spending most of our time since my last post visiting friends and family.  So we haven’t had much down time to get these posts done.  We are currently in Redlands, CA.  For those of you from other states, this is in Southern California near Riverside.  I will attempt to get my posts up soon so you can catch up on my trips.

We pulled in Robert and met our friends, Mike and Jane Smith, at the campground.  They had recently purchased an RV and wanted to make a trial run before a longer trip.  When I was talking to Jane about meeting up with them in Texas we discovered that they would be on a trip to Arizona at the time we wanted to visit.  So they decided to make their maiden voyage in their RV and meet us in Louisiana.  For those of you from Washington, you might remember back many years to the time we sang in a group called Living Water with them.  We traveled around the state giving concerts and sharing the Good News of God’s love and salvation.

We decided that we wanted to take a Swamp tour.  So we made reservations to go through Cajun Encounters.  We were expecting lots of alligators and we were disappointed in that we only say one little one.  However, we saw a whole lot of wild pigs.  The guides had food for them and them fed them from the side of the boat right by where we were sitting.  In was kind of scary when one started to climb into one of the boats but they were not able to get in.  We did see some raccoons and turtles as well. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

After our friends left we took a ride around town and decided to stop at an Alligator Farm.  What we found was so much more than just alligators.  They had lizards, turtles, a 90 pound snapping turtle, a Nile crocodile, raccoons, and even some donkeys.  But they had a LOT of alligators.  The guide’s name was T-Mike and he was very knowledgeable about all the animals there.  This place was Kliebert’s Turtle and Alligator Farm.  T-Mike’s father was one of the original men on the TV show Swamp People.

The first place we went to see was a building where they had baby gators, lizards, snakes, and more.  Tony and I were able to hold a baby gators.  Even the kids on the tour with us were allowed to hold them.  They just sat quietly in your hands if you were holding them as T-Mike showed us.  They had a black and white Argentine lizard, turtles, and a python as well.  They had tanks with a lot of really small baby gators and pens with some that were bigger but not enough to go out into the ponds.  The alligator by the sign is not real, just wanted to let you know that.  LOL

We then went outside to see the other animals.  They had a pen with quite a few raccoons and then they even had a fox and burros.

Then we went to see the Snapping turtle and the tortoises.  The snapping turtle weighs in at 90 pounds and can take your hand off if you are not careful.  When he snaps his jaw you hear a loud snapping sound, hence the name.  LOL

Finally, we got to the ponds.  In a section all by himself was the Nile crocodile who looks like he has grass growing from his back.  Interesting to see an animal there from Africa, but the explanation is that this farm takes rescue animals.  They used to raise alligators for commercial use such as food, boots, and purses.  However, they now just take in gators that have become a nuisance somewhere, are injured, or found on roads, etc.  They even took in one that had lost the bottom half of his jaw.  They need to feed him separately since he is unable to catch the food when they throw it out.

T-Mike is the guy sitting on the gator and with his hand on the gator’s top jaw.  He says that during the winter the gators are really slow as they are slowing down their metabolism to compensate for the colder weather.  He said he can’t do the same things in the summer as they are really fast during warm weather.  The fellow in the blue shirt had a gator grab him by the hand and start rolling.  Because of this ordeal he lost all 4 fingers and his thumb is at an odd angle.  You can see his left hand in the picture.

When we were leaving Louisiana we went over the Mississippi River.  I thought you might enjoy the pictures but for some reason I was unable to upload the images for quite a while.  Then when went to publish they just showed up.  I even got one of a Mississippi riverboat.  So here they are.  Our next adventure will be in Texas visiting friends and family.  Talk again soon.