Fossil Rim Safari

At the end of July, we took a trip south to Glen Rose to see Dinosaur World (which I'll talk about in my next post) and Fossil Rim Safari. We all thoroughly enjoyed this, as we had animals sticking their heads in our car, slobbering everywhere, and a giraffe sticking it's head through our sun roof. And don't forget the ostrich, which can be quite an event as they stick their long necks inside (by the time we got to them, we were out of food and it was a bit unnerving as one searched for food inside the truck.

Here's a link to some pictures - click here




We had quite an eventful safari, especially when we almost ran out of gas. As we were driving down to Glen Rose, I knew I was going to have to buy gas soon. I decided that we would stop at the hotel we would be staying at, drop some things off and then we would go to Fossil Rim. However, we arrived a bit later than anticipated and we decided to go directly to Fossil Rim to ensure we had plenty of time so we wouldn't feel rushed. I completely forgot that I needed to get gas until we were already into the safari and my gas light came on.

At that point, I wasn't too concerned as I had approximately 20 miles of gas to go and the safari was about 9.5 miles. I didn't consider the fact that to do a safari, you constantly stop to feed the animals, it was surprisingly hilly. By the time we were 1/2 way through the safari, my display was showing only 6 miles of gas to go. So I burned approximately 14 miles of gas in just 4.75 miles.

Luckily for us, at the 1/2 way point there is a stopping point overlooking the valley. There they have a gift store. I talked with the employee there and advised her that we were going to run out of gas before we got out of their park. She said that since it was before 5, she could have maintenance bring me some gas. She made a call and then told me that they would bring me gas, but it would be a minimum of 2 gallons at $6 a gallon. Quite the highway robbery, but what could I do since I was the one who didn't plan properly after all. So I paid for the gas and waited. About 5 minutes later, she came up to me and apologized as apparently all of maintenance had left and there was nobody available to bring me gas.

So now we were back to square one. She then told me that we could go out the side gate and down the back roads back to the main entrance and then back into town. As long as we made it back before 5:30 we could still come back through the main gate to finish our safari.

While we didn't have a choice, it was still quite a dilemma. I had approximately 6 miles of gas (and I've never run the truck out of gas, so I'm not sure how far I can go beyond 0 miles), it looked like it was about 2-3 miles back to the highway and then 4.5 miles back to Glen Rose. I was showing 0 miles remaining at least 1 mile short of Glen Rose, but we managed to make it to the gas station and back to the safari before 5:30.

Needless to say, the second time through the safari was much less stressful for me, as I wasn't having to watch the gas gauge and wonder if we were going to make it.