A slithery subject…

They scare us, they fascinate us, they’re beautiful, and sometimes they’re deadly.  Snakes evoke strong reactions.  Most of us are terrified of snakes.  No less a mythical character than Indiana Jones feared snakes above all else.  Even though they scare the bejeesus out of us, they’re fascinating.   That’s why they’re in the news so much, I guess. 

Here in southern California, we live near one of the top snakebite treatment centers in the world…that’s the Loma Linda Medical Center.  We get a lot of rattlesnakes out here, and occasionally, people get too close to them.  Dr. Bush (no relation to either of the former presidents) is the snakebite expert at Loma Linda, and I remember his television interview a few years ago.  The good doctor said the typical victim is characterized by the three Ts:  Testerone, tattoos, and Tequila.   The reporter interviewing Dr. Bush followed him into the treatment ward, and sure enough, everyone of the patients there were young guys with tattoos, and all admitted to being drunk when they attempted to pull a Steve Irwin.

All that aside, I’ve been fascinated by snakes ever since I was a kid, and maybe you’ve been, too. It seems to be a universal trait, especially among guys who ride motorcycles.   Love ’em or hate ’em, when we see a snake we gotta get a closer look.  Maybe it’s that testosterone thing creeping in.  Do you recall the YouTube video we showed a month or so ago of our ride up on Glendora Ridge Road, and the snake we encountered?  Here it is again, and watch what we all do…

There are only four species of poisonous snakes here in the US, and lately, it seems that copperheads have been hogging the headlines. I saw a news story about a guy in Georgia who was bitten in his backyard by a copperhead, and after a hospital stay, a television news team was interviewing him. In his backyard. Yep, the same backyard where he had been bitten. You can guess where this story is going…

Whaddaya know, another copperhead slithered up to these folks right on camera during the interview. It might have even been the same snake! The guy went back into his house, came out with a Glock 9mm, and proceeded to get a little payback. It took him 30 shots to finally hit the thing (I would have been embarassed with that kind of marksmanship), and the cameras were rolling the entire time! It was kind of a “man bites dog” story. Folks, I can’t make up stuff like this!

Another Georgia copperhead, this time found hiding in the laundry

And then yesterday I came across a story that really gave me the creeps. This also happened in Georgia, and it also involved a copperhead. Seems a woman went to take a load of laundry out of the dryer, and when she opened it, a copperhead was nestled on top of the warm sheets. It had evidently slithered in through the dryer vent, found a nice warm spot, and settled in. I’ll bet her husband picked up a new duty after that one…taking the clothes out of the dryer! I read about this one on another forum (www.Rugerforum.com), and Tyrone Phillips (the animal control officer who removed the copperhead shown here) allowed me to use his photo. What is going on in Georgia with all those copperheads?

When I got out of the Army back in the mid-1970s, one of the companies I interviewed with was US Gypsum in Sweetwater, Texas. The company was cool, and so were the people who interviewed me. When I asked what folks did in Sweetwater for entertainment, they lit up. “We got the Rattlesnake Roundup!”

It was the first time I had ever heard of the Rattlesnake Roundup.  My Sweetwater friends explained to me that it was kind of like a bass fishing contest, and it lasted 4 days.  Whoever bought in the most rattlesnakes was the winner.

Hmmh.   How about that?  I thought about it for a couple of seconds, and I guessed that the the guy who won it would catch maybe three or four snakes.  When the US Gypsum folks told me that last year’s winner had bought in over 1200 pounds of rattlesnakes, you could have knocked me over with a feather.

I told that rattlesnake roundup story at dinner one night to my friend and riding buddy Marty, and he was mesmerized by it.  Ten minutes after he left, Marty sent me an email.  Marty found the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup on the Internet, and he wanted to make a motorcycle trip out of it.  Hey, we’re guys, we didn’t need much of an excuse for a motorcycle trip, and a few weeks later we droned from southern California to Sweetwater (a 1200-mile freeway ride, one way).  I was on my big 1200cc Triumph Daytona, and Marty was on his big 1200cc BMW K1200RS.   A couple of geezers on big roadburners on their way to see the snakes…

The Rattlesnake Roundup was cool. It was different. It makes for a great story, and I shot a lot of great photos there (you can read more about that trip here).  I used to live in the great state of Texas, and I enjoyed being there again.  And the Roundup?  Well, let’s just say it was unlike anything I had ever seen…

A scene from a horror movie...one of many pens holding western diamondbacks in Sweetwater, Texas!

Closer than I should have been...one of the handlers told me the snake could hit me from where I shot this photo...I jumped back sharply!

More stuff for bad dreams...check out those fangs!

We had a lot of fun, as you might imagine from the above photos.  The ride back was a hoot, too.  We actually got snowed in when we were coming home through New Mexico, and we had to wait a few hours for the snow to melt before we hit the road again.

Caught by a snowstorm in Lordsburg, New Mexico

So that’s it for today, boys and girls.   I’m gonna get back to detailing the route for our 12-14 August California Scooter Road Trip.   No snakes.   I think.   We’ll see…