How to make me interested in a trailer park?

"Wild Florida"... Real Florida?... Kinda.

Or, how to take a trailer park and turn it into a Zoo (kinda)

Well, with some free time for once... and an itch for a half-day trip adventure.. We got in the car and headed south down to Kenansville, Florida to go on a boat ride and see some animals and sutff... woo!

So yeah... Welcome to Wild Florida; Airboats & Wildlife Park.

The classy entry way.. featuring a poor little frog being eaten.....

Park map
Wild Florida is actually pretty good sized for what it is!

A neat photo showing off the trailer park that used to be here before the Wildlife Park opened in 2012.
(The Airboat's began operation 2010) 

The main midway uh, pathway?

The former retention pond... now converted into a massive pool of Alligators!

Medium sized Gator getting some beach action.

Little gators :D

Snackums for Mr. Big Gator!
(rawr?)

Oh.. and its that guy... but this time hes holding a Gator!
(uh, this was like my 4th or 5th time holding a gator? haha)

Deer.. and stuff.

Hi, Mrs. Owl. You're out kind of early.

Hawk Swap boardwalk area entrance.

And... the swamp itself.

Check out this luxurious Zebra bench!

Oh, and this uh... Zebra?
(because when I think "Florida"....)

<3 The 3 little pigs?!

Moo?!?
This lovely Ankole Cow

The painting I was given.. painted by a Coatimundi!

This... this Lizard thing

Annddd this awesome Two-Toed Sloth I got to pet annddd feed some corn on the cob!

<3 Serval <3
(Legal to own as a pet in Florida....)

Ugh, snake....

<3 <3 <3
Yeesss!!!!
RING TAILED LEMUR!!!
:D :D :D

Um... Tortoise re-population.

This... bird

Mmhm.. Mmhm.. ducks.

And um.. a Macaw.

Next to the Wildlife Park is the Airboat ride area. After leaving the animal area you enter the attractions gift shop and get grouped to ride the boats. Once its your turn you walk down the 500 foot boardwalk and get on one of the boats for a ride around the lake and into the tall grass with chances to see more Gators and other real Florida wildlife in the wild. This was to be my second time doing an Airboat ride, having done the Boggy Creek Airboat Rides a few years ago.

The dock out on the lake for the Airboat ride

Nymphaeaceae... er, lilies

Oh. and the Airboat itself!
And Lake Cypress.

VIP BITCHES!
We had the boat to ourselves... ha.

Wild Gator out in the lake!

Bird // Marsh

Another Gator. :D

And a pair of Bald Eagles hanging out in a tree.
(USA! USA! USA!)

And a final set of four photos showcasing the progression of an Airboat's ability....

The open waters of Lake Cypress....

A little canal like waterway in the tall grass

Even less of a waterway.... but at least you can uh, see water?

And.. yeah.. at this point the boat is still flying at speeds that seem way too fast for an area you cant even see water! ha.

Yup, Wild Florida Airboats & Wildlife Park. A pretty neat Eco-Park not that far from the Metro-Orlando area, 40 minutes from my place, maybe. It'd be nice to see them expand a little more and add more animals or other attractions (I could see them adding a zipline or rope walk sort of thing) the map also mentioned Bison and a Seminole Village but I don't recall seeing it... I may have just missed it or it might be coming soon.

Woo, animals... and uh, local-ish adventures?!

Michael Goetzke's 'Rocket'

One of the greatest ideas Funtime has come up with!

Take their awesome StarFlyer swing tower... and add looping/flipping rocket ship cars to it, send you up 200 feet in the air... and flip you around a whole bunch!
Ah, the Rocket

200 feet of fun!
(How I wish Six Flags New England had gotten a 400 foot tower like this!)

Here you can see the Rockets are inverted.
Each rocket has a control that sets it to be able to flip or not to flip, the operator controls when the flips themselves occur.
(so if you wanted to be a baby and not loop, you could be seated on a non-inverting car... Just hope the Op turned off the rotation!)
Obviously we rode it with the flips......

Originally opening in July of 2010 in Düsseldorf, Germany for Michael Goetzke. The ride relocated to South Carolina in 2014, being setup at the Broadway at the Beach shopping complex in Myrtle Beach.

After handing over my $10 and insuring we would be riding a looping car.. we were seated in one of the five rockets.

And up we went!

Some 200 feet over Myrtle Beach.

Where we started doing roll after roll after roll.. Even doing an inverted pause :D

From the top, you could see all the way over to the beach itself and the Atlantic Ocean.
An awesome ride.. Although in an awkward location? It might do better had it been setup at the beach itself (or maybe in a better tourist location (Orlando would be nice!))

Uh, video?

And I've added an amazing video of the ride in action via YouTube with both on and off ride video from when Rocket was still in Germany! Worth a watch.

Oh yeah... and it was my Photo of the Day!

Also... Also!

DUCKS!
(and baby ducks!!!)
 
Woo, rides, and uh, ducks?