Rock Ranch

Now that we've finished our first week of Kindergarten (a success! - except NO recess yesterday and today which made someone sad), I'm going to try to catch up on all things summer. SO. If you will, let's time travel back one month to July 9th in order to visit The Rock Ranch, found just outside of Barnesville, Georgia. 

The Rock Ranch is owned by Chick-fil-A. It's a 1,500-acre working cattle ranch (Eat More Chicken!) where families and businesses can spend the day enjoying agritourism. (We are all about Agritourism in our neck of the woods.) The kids at the church were PUMPED because they knew all about the rock wall and the zip lines. When we arrived we paid ($10 per person - 3 and under are free - plus zip lines are $8-12.75 per ride, rock wall is $5, carousel is $2 per ride or $5 for unlimited rides) and looked at a map. We decided the best course of action would be to hop on the wagon ride and see the whole place.

After that, the big kids wanted to do the zip line and the rock wall so we watched them.

We took the little kids to a few of the offerings for them - Tiny Town (a PRECIOUS village of playhouses that made me want my own Tiny Town in our yard...but better yet, they were AIR CONDITIONED) and pony rides - and then we had lunch. After lunch we walked through the petting zoo and farm area, rode the train, rode the carousel, did the inflatable jumpy thing, did the slides, etc.

{I will mention this again later, but it was just as hot as the picture above looks. Will has a tendency to get RED fast when he's hot, but look at the girl behind him. She is sweating to death. She had the WORST job. Hot and stinky.}

So, here is the takeaway {from me} on The Rock Ranch. I was disappointed. We had fun! We really, really did, but I was disappointed. It's owned by Chick-Fil-A so I was expecting it to be SUPER well done, friendly, well-kept, etc. It just wasn't. I AT LEAST expected Chick-fil-A food and there was none. There was over-priced pizza. There were gross pre-made sandwiches with nasty looking lettuce. There was not a waffle fry to be found. The things to do were VERY spread out so we walked a ton. It was HOT. There was no breeze. Barnesville is so close to the surface of the sun that it is a million degrees. The workers there were not very friendly {although, I'll give that to them - I can't be friendly when I'm sweating to death}. It cost money for every. little. thing. even after we'd paid $10 to get in. {Seriously. $2 PER carousel ride? Come on.} There were very few things that weren't extra. If you went to do just the zip line and rock wall and eat lunch you dropped over $30 per person.

Now, the positive thing is that I think a Thursday morning in the middle of July isn't their "prime time." I think October and November would be so much fun! They bring in pumpkins and have themed Saturdays and then after Halloween they do pumpkin chunking. FUN. But not in the heat of the summer.

The good news is that we had a BLAST with the group of kids that went. Everyone was well-behaved and had a great time! Would I go back? YES! Would I go back in July? NO.