Cruisin'

I've been really lucky down here to fall in with some interesting people. Second day here I met some guys who quickly asked, "Want to go snake cruising with us tonight?" I laughed and said "no thanks" but to my overall benefit they insisted and this is what happened:

I found myself in the back of a beat up Jeep Cherokee. The A/C only worked on full blast and the radio was stuck on the Top 40s radio station. Thankfully, snakes seem to like the music of Lady Gaga.

We were listening to "Telephone" when we drove by this guy...

This is a cottonmouth. They are poisonous. I've decided to stay very far away unless one is trapped in this box like contraption.

Again, measuring the poisonous cottonmouth.

Scarlet snake...looks like a coral, sort of, but not poisonous so whew, he's okay to have in the car.

But so the overall goal is to get the PYTHONS that are in the park. To catch them and track them and get an sense of their movement, etc. They're an exotic, invasive species so bad news for the locals. Did I really think about the idea of a python riding in the back with me? No, after two rides we'd seen mostly garter snakes so I felt comfortable that the third night would be much the same.

Oh wait:

Please note the lack of footwear during this capture...I can't explain.

She's so pretty, right? I'll take his word for it.

So this snake got to sit in a bag in the back of the Jeep for the rest of the trip. But it got bored and decided to sneak out of the bag and just curl up underneath the back seat...much to my surprise when we stopped driving and saw the stupid thing!

I will be leaving the cruisin' to the crazies from now on.