LaFayette IN to Lawrenceburg IN

We spent Wednesday night in the parking lot of one of the LaFayette Walmarts. In the morning we decided to go and visit Wolf Park which is located in Battle Ground Indiana and is one of the primo wolf research locations in the country. It was started in 1972 by Dr. Erich Klinghammer who is like a rock star in the wolf biology field and who still actually lives on the grounds although he is in his 80s. They have many, many wolves as well as fox, coyotes and bison. Amazingly they have one wolf, Kiri, who is actually 17 years old! Unbelievable almost as wolves in the wild only live to be from 4 to 6 years old generally. They also have a litter of puppies brought in this year from another location. They are socializing them to people and will send 2 of the litter to another facility in return keeping 2 black females to add new blood to the current pack. Unfortunately you could see the new for more funds at the park as some of the areas were a bit run down, fences needed to be upgraded and repaired and enclosures enlargened in my opinion. Every Sunday afternoon they have a wolf/bison demonstration so people can really see just how hard it is to be a predator in the wild. They also have wolf howls and other educational opportunities. Our tour guide was actually a wildlife biology student from California who was doing an internship. We became supporters of Wolf Park as this kind of research and educating the public is desperately needed to hopefully put an end to the aerial gunning and wholesale slaughter of wolves which many people advocate.

Although I realize that wolves need to eat and they of course eat meat, it is very sad what they eat at Wolf Park. A volunteer told me that they get fed rabbits who don't "make the cut" due to being the wrong color. Although they do end up aiding Mother Nature's plan it is shameful that we are always in search of the "perfect" animal and the ones that aren't are disposable.

http://www.wolfpark.org/

Wolf Park keeps both coyotes and wolves on the premises to be able to show people the difference in body size and features. The first video is of the resident coyotes, Twister and Willow, reacting to the group howling at them. The second is one of the retired wolves at the park. It should be very, very clear to anyone with a gun in their hand which one they are shooting at! Not that I agree at all with the indiscriminate slaughter of coyotes either but they, at least, are not endangered.

From LaFayette we headed east towards Cincinnati and decided to stay overnight at the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg Indiana as they offered Buy 1 Get 1 Free Buffet coupons when you sign up for their players card. The casino is absolutely huge! In Indiana all casinos must be riverboats although they don't have to be able to sail. How hypocritical but that is another Oprah show. The Hollywood is no exception as it is on the banks of the Ohio River across from Kentucky. We were directed to park in an overflow parking lot that was really difficult to get in to as the majority of the parking is in their two parking ramps. Friday morning we went in to the casino to sign up for the players card and to have the buffet. While signing up the rep asked for our social security numbers AND we were to give them out loud where any standing by could hear. When I objected the rep couldn't understand why! Granted if we every win over $1199 at one time we have to fill out an IRS form but until then the SS numbers are on a need to know basis and they sure don't need it! Then we got to the phone number question and I said "nope" to that one too...the rep then says I can check off "no phone calls" if I want and then shows me a filled out form -- get this -- with someone's elses name and SS number filled in! What??? Plus, if I can say I don't want phone calls from you why would you want it then? Uggh....so the rep gets a snotty and says "Do you want to give me a 4 digit pin?". I cannot believe that in this day and age people are just giving out their SS numbers to entities that have no need for it at the time! Especially these older people who do it without thinking as they are not used to being careful with their number and then their identity is stolen. At least the buffet was very good, especially as it was half price!