The Buff-a-lents are coming!!!

We took the freakazoids to see some honest to goodness real buffalo this past weekend. It was quite the experience let me tell ya. We drove to the area where the Lewisville Lake dam opens to the Trinity River. Andy's been fly fishing there for the past few weekends and it's actually a really pretty area. They do canoe and kayak riding lessons here also, that will be an adventure we want to tackle this spring.

Anyway, back to the buffalo. We paid our money and then drove down to the meeting point. No one told us this was the meeting point mind you as the lady who took our money just grunted and said drive slow. There were about 30 other people all standing around trying to figure out what to do next. Well, miss personality at the park entrance showed up and opened the gates right under the dam. We all jumped back in our cars and started to follow her. We drove on a dirt road for a few miles then the caravan made an abrupt left turn into a pasture. Now HAD we of known that we would be going on a off road adventure we would all be packed into Andy's Ford F150. But since our guide only spoke caveman we were in my very low to the ground Stratus. There were a couple close calls, but we made it through. We drove another mile or so through the pasture and then came to our destination. Then low and behold another guide showed up and he informed us that we would finally reach the buffalos ... after walking about another 200 meters down the fence line. So off we went in search of the mighty illusive beasts.

He stopped us after a very long walk (maybe it wasn't that long ... we just each had 2o extra pounds we were lugging in the form of small booger faced children so it seemed long). Finally after his numerous attempts at shaking a feed bag and shouting, "Hey Buffalo", I'm not kidding, we saw them! These huge suckers could RUN! A herd of 30 or so buffalo came right up to the fence. The guide told us to not pick up our children and hold them over to pet the animals as they have been known to in his words ... eviscerate children. Nice.

It truly was quite magical staring at these HUGE animals. I just couldn't get over how fast they were and how rough they were with each other fighting over the treats he had for them.

The girls seemed to like it. Lucie kept pointing at them and said that they were "bubba's" which is what she calls dogs. Lennon thought that the baby buff-a-lents were the cutest. I think this is Lennon talk for a buffalo crossed with elephant. Who knows. We were about to leave when Lennon of course needed to use the bathroom. Mind you we are in a open pasture a good five minute walk from the car, in front of 30 other people and of course 30 buffalo. I walked her out into the field behind a mesquite tree as discretely as I could and Miss Lennon got her first experience popping a squat in a field. I was horrified for her but of course she ran up to everyone and yelled "I went pee pee - OUTSIDE". Everyone nervously laughed ... thank God.

It was a fun afternoon and a beautiful day. I am glad that they are slowly but surely building up herds across the US. They estimated that during their prime they were 30 million strong. Mate on buff-a-lents, we sure would like to see you around more.