The Rock Ranch

A few days ago I saw a listing at Half Off Depot for The Rock Ranch and though I had never heard of the place, it just caught my attention.  The Rock Ranch is a 1,250-acre working cattle ranch owned by Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy and the listing was for their Fall Family Fun Days.  I checked out the website (looked interesting), checked out the weather forecast for Saturday (mid-70’s, sunny and 0% chance of rain), looked at how far a drive it would be (2 hours each way) and decided that I’d give it a shot and take Maisie for the day thinking she would probably have fun.  Well fun doesn’t even begin to describe our day, it was fantastic!!  I thought that we’d spend a couple of hours down there but in the end we were at the ranch for just over seven hours and we could have stayed longer as we were having such a blast but it was going to be a 2 hour drive home, we were both good and tired and Maisie has her final gymnastics meet of the season tomorrow so I didn’t want too late of a night.  I took over 300 pictures so this is a post of pictures.

We arrived just as the ranch was opening and I thought we’d need our jackets but thankfully it was warm so we ended up leaving them in the car.  November 13, sunny and mid-70’s, couldn’t ask for better.  We took the wagon ride from the parking area to the entrance. 

Being some of the first guests we decided to stop at the attractions that I thought would be popular and have queues once more people arrived so Maisie wanted her face painted so that was our first stop.

Maisie was in a “take a picture of me mood” so anywhere she wanted to stop and have a picture taken I was happy to oblige.

That’s one tall cow and one cute little girl!

We were the first passengers on the train and what was nice is that they didn’t wait for the train to fill up, not many people were there yet so they ran it with just a few passengers.  We found that to be true throughout the day, when we went on a wagon ride later on, same thing, after a few minutes the wagon only had a few passengers so that’s what they went with, very guest oriented.

There was a beautiful little garden area which Maisie said looked much neater than ours…thanks Maisie!

Maisie couldn’t wait to ride the ponies, so began my day of chasing after her and getting pictures of her running in front of me.

After checking out each of the ponies she finally made her choice.

Since we arrived so early and since there wasn’t a queue yet Maisie got to take a second ride right away but decided to try a different pony.   There was still no queue and Maisie could have gone again but decided that she wanted to try something else and that she would ride again later in the day, which she did get to do.

The ranch was gorgeous and with beautiful views, this is the corn maze viewed from the pony ride.

Our next stop was the John Deere Gator track and Maisie adored driving round and round the track.  We returned to this venue three times and she probably spent a total of 45 minutes riding around.

When we first arrived one of the greeters spoke with us for a few minutes and suggested that we not miss Tiny Town and oh-my-gosh was he dead on in knowing what Maisie would love, we ended up returning to Tiny Town four times and if Maisie could have driven one of the John Deere Gators to Tiny Town and lived there forever, she would have!

Tiny town is made up of 14 fabulous pint-sized playhouses.

And she was off!

The town was just adorable and the buildings inside and out had great detail and such charm.  Maisie first keyed in on the little red schoolhouse.

How funny that Abe Lincoln was so prominently featured after Maisie just did her Social Studies presentation as Abe Lincoln.

The boarding house was cute with bunk beds upstairs and I think it was a kitchen and another room downstairs. 

The grocery was packed with all sorts of thing to play with and that kept Maisie’s attention.

The fire house had a room stocked with fire-fighting equipment and clothing as well as a two story fire station and even a dog house with a Dalmatian.

Inside the fire station was a pole that Maisie had fun sliding down time and time again.

The bank also held Maisie’s attention as she pretended to hand out cash to anyone who came in.

We spent a lot of time in the restaurant, it was just great how all the houses were stocked with so many things for the children to play with.

The theater was cute with a front entrance and a stage entrance on the side.  Maisie had fun performing on the stage for me but as soon as someone else waked in, she would get shy.

Inside the theater there was a stage (where I am taking the picture), seating and a balcony too!

The jail seemed to be a popular place for the children to put their parents.  Inside were two cells and a sheriffs desk.

Maisie locked away. 

In the court house.

Outside of the church.

Inside the church were small little pews and Maisie enjoyed doing a bit of preaching.

Once I convinced Maisie to leave Tiny Town with the promise of returning later, which we did three additional times, we headed over to the small petting zoo.  Maisie has a thing for feeding goats.

Everywhere we walked around was just beautiful, such a wonderful setting. 

Then we’d find a hidden little treasure like an old swing from a tree, just so fun.

Maisie didn’t want to walk through the corn maze but she wanted her picture taken.

She did though want to ride the cow train though the corn maze and since it was still so empty she got to go two time in a row…but of course we returned for another ride later on.

They had a new barn, Truett’s Barn which housed a model railway display and lots of Christmas decorations for sale.

Maisie recognized Uncle Sam from her recent Social Studies class so again she wanted a picture.

Coming out of Truitt’s Barn there were beautiful views, first to the pond where we could fish and ride peddle boats.

And vies across the corn maze to the main venue area.

Maisie on her third ride on the cow train, one happy little girl.

It was a gorgeous day and Maisie and I had a blast on the peddle boats.  No queue again and we were able to stay out for about 20 minutes.

After the boat ride Maisie asked to go back to Tiny Town and when I said sure, she was excited and an open field for happy cartwheels seemed like a good idea.  I just realized looking at this picture that she’s doing her cartwheel  one handed.

Running back to Tiny Town, yes she loved it!

Also at the ranch were a number of entertainers including Jason Clark from Animal Planet’s Snakeskin.  He was interesting to watch and listen to but Maisie wasn’t too interested in being anywhere near the snakes.

So many places to explore and play including this fun teepee.

Maisie was such a good girl all day and had asked if she ate all her lunch, could she have ice cream to which I agreed.  So a while after lunch she asked to have the ice cream. so we went to one of the concession places and she read on the menu board that it said “ice dream” and asked what that was and since I had no idea I asked the man at the counter and he told us that it was Chick-fil-A’s version of ice cream…to which Maisie responded, “Chick-fil-A is rubbish!”  Yeah…need to teach my girl a bit of tact.  The reason that she said that was, we don’t eat fast food and her school does offer Chick-fil-A one day a week, every week and we’ve never bought it for her, I always send in her bento and we’ve talked about some foods not being the healthiest and she has equated the two…but she was happy to eat the Chick-fil-A rubbish ice dream and it was a first for both of us and it was good…but has anyone noticed that the stuff doesn’t melt…sort of scary!

Mama, take a picture of me with the rooster!

Back riding the Gator and loving it! 

Maisie was hungry, hungry, hungry!  Let’s see, she ate an entire bag of freshly made (totally delish) salt & vinegar pork rinds, a sandwich, some fries, the ice dream and ear of corn, numerous bottles of water and before we left the ranch, 90% of a giant funnel cake.  Yes it was a “rubbish” food day but it was a great treat for both of us.

There were performers playing music at various places throughout the venue.

Our day at the ranch was coming to an end, we were both tired but Maisie wanted one last ride on the ponies so here she is on her third pony ride of the day.

Then she asked for one final ride on the train and she wanted to sit in the very last car, anything to make my girl happy.

Oh and one last go on the slides.

This was a bumpy one! 

Then she spotted the things to dig in the sand and had to give them a try.

Our final, final stop.  Funnel cake!  Maisie ate 90% of this giant funnel cake herself!!

We really had a wonderful day and I can’t wait to go back next year and may even consider spending a night in one of their Conestoga wagons.  Maisie was completely knackered after our day and was asleep within 15 minutes of leaving the ranch and slept until we were 20 minutes from home.  When she awoke she told me time and time again what a fun, fabulous and great day she had and that she always has fun doing activities with me.  Well if my day wasn’t already great, hearing that my best girl had a blast and loved spending the day with me, well that there was just the cherry on top of a perfect day.

Tomorrow is Maisie’s final gymnastics meet of the season, please send good thoughts that she has a great meet!