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This morning we got up early to head off to the Bronx zoo. It opens at 10 and is about 180 miles away, so we aimed at leaving at 7.
(I was up at 5 anyhow, but that’s insomnia for you.)

Before we even started, we saw signs of unusual animals. I’m sure this is the print of a T-Rex by our dumpster.

This worries me because once one associates a place with food it is very hard to get them to leave again.
But, only one footprint, so it probably didn’t stick around.

It was a pretty dreary morning in central MA.

We consoled ourselves with the thought that we’d have a mostly empty zoo as folks wouldn’t want to come out in the rain.

Hartford CT was even wetter than last week with all the mud.

But, as we kept going south, it started to clear up.

The New Haven tunnel seemed to be a dividing point. Raining east of it, not raining west of it.

Every time I cross into NY along route 15 this cellphone tower makes me laugh.

We got to the zoo and the weather was great. We also found the parking lot totally full for the charity event they were holding.

So much for getting the place to ourselves.
But, we had prepaid tickets and strolled in while the fund raising people were still walking about.

It turns out that the parking lot that is easy to get to from the north is also on the opposite side from everything my wife wanted to see.
But, that didn’t stop us from looking at a lot as we walked through.

This did worry me a bit, as I know tigers have gotten out at other zoos.

But, they were all safely behind thick glass.

They were very active in the morning and playing with each other.

And, they were very close so you could get a good look.

I, of course, liked the bears.

But, I like the brown bears better.

I think they must have just finished feeding them as they were very interested in things on the ground.

I liked the bridge (again, no surprise) especially as it was over turtles.

Eventually, we came to the gorilla exhibit my wife wanted to see.

It was clearly feeding time for them as they were still eating. The big male did not seem to be all that happy with a salad.

But, he still ate it.

We also saw a lot of birds.

This one sounded like a combination of a bad radio, popping bubble wrap and scraping metal.

It was still a bit damp and in the shade a bit cool, so I bought a hat.

I think it was very cool the reptile house had carvings of reptiles along the roof.

This is where the cobra escaped earlier this year.

But, it’s there now.

It did make me watch my feet as we went through, just in case another resident was on the loose.

And, I’ll think twice before ever going to Aruba now that I know they have sand colored rattlesnakes there.

Of course, Massachusetts does have its own rattlesnakes.

None have been confirmed in the wild for more than 30 years, but you never know. I’ve got friends who swear they have seen them in New Hampshire.

We also went to the butterfly pavilion where you can walk around with butterflies and some small birds.

They hatch their own there at the place.

Some of the birds there are very interesting.

And, they have very nice fish in their koi pond.

Back outside we headed to Africa.

Well, that’s what the sign said. Personally I think it was only African animals in the Bronx. But, they said “Africa this way”.

They did have a fair number of African animals.

Don’t know what was up with this antelope.

My wife was fascinated not by lions, gazelles or baboons. But, by the black squirrels they have there.

I’ve seen them before, but usually up in Canada.

To see the Asian animals, we had to ride the monorail.

The cars are open to one side so you can get a good look.

But, they are closed on the other so you can pretend the Bronx parkway isn’t right behind you.

It does take you across the Bronx river to some enclosures you can only see from the monorail.

They had one tiger there that was not as active as the others back in the tiger section. I was only sure he was alive at all because he flicked his tail a few times.

The other animals still kept away from the tiger fence. Can’t say I blame them.

I did wish we could have seen more of the elephants that just passing over them on the monorail.

The same is true of the rhinos.

But, they did seem very happy in their pool

The red panda was very good at hiding. I could see him, but not get a good picture.

Then, it was back over the river and off of the ride.

Once off the ride, headed back towards the car, stopping at our favorites again.

This time the bears were playing in the water.

One of the others looked to join in, but decided not to.

Of course there is a law in New York City that you must eat something out of a food cart, so we stopped and got a pretzel.

I know it is not good for us, but a law is a law.

It does seem to me that no matter where we go, we end up parked in a field.

When the car in front of us stopped in the middle of the exit to play fire drill and load a stroller, I began to wonder about which animals should be in cages.

But, we headed back home.

(We did play a bit of a game about who to feed to which animal, but it was all theoretical. Really. It was. We like the animals too much to ruin their diets.)

As going down, the tunnel was the dividing line of the weather. By the time we were back in the Worcester area, it was cloudy with a touch of rain.