Last Days in Arkansas
I spent my last few days in Arkansas in grand style, and I have pictures to prove it. That’s right—it’s photojournalism time.
Exciting Thing #1: The Drive Through Wilderness Safari
For the past two years Julie’s been threatening promising to take me to the drive through animal safari. This year she delivered.
I know what you’re thinking: a safari in Arkansas? What the heck kind of animals will it have? Goats and armadillos?
Well, yeah, it did.
But in addition to the regular farm animals and assortment of mangy cats, they had black bears, wolves, peacocks, and real jungle cats (tigers as well as lions). I even touched a baby tiger.

Here’s Chloe the monkey. She’s a klepto. We were warned that she’d try to steal anything shiny, so I put my earrings in Julie’s pocket for safekeeping. It turned out that it was futile—Chloe pick-pocketed Julie. That was after the monkey jumped on my head from behind. Three times.

We had a Jurassic Park moment on the drive through portion of our visit, except instead of dinosaurs we were inundated with ostriches. Demon ostriches (note the glowing eyes).
Then Julie introduced me to my new boyfriend. He’s a rock star. He’s got style.

Exciting Thing #2: Box Suite at the Game
Last weekend, we went to see the Naturals (a minor league team) play. From a luxury suite, of course, because that’s how we roll.
At the game, I realized having a rock star boyfriend was overrated. He never stuck around and was always chasing other chicks. So I threw him over for…

It was love at first sight. Don’t worry—Sasquatch promised he’d groom his eyebrows and nose hairs for me.
Goodbyes, and Other Incidents
First, meet Jasper:

Jasper was determined to get my attention. I resisted, so he finally resorted to extreme measures: stealing my flip flop. He looks innocent, doesn’t he? Don’t believe it. He's a thief. He and Chloe should hook up.
And now...
I’m headed back to San Francisco—just for a few days before I’m off on another Big Adventure. I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I’m looking forward to walking my beach. On the other, I already miss Julie, her daughter, and the other friends I have here. But I’ll be back.*
* Note to Julie: that wasn’t meant to sound as threatening as it did.