Matts and Jani returned to West Texas for another round of herpping in West Texas. Kamuran Tepedelen and I would be escorting them on this journey. Kamuran and Matts in one vehicle, and Janni and I in the other.

We checked into the Wildhorse. The skies were clear but not indicative of the massive rains that hit area earlier in the morning before our arrival. There was standing water at the base of most of the Luna Vista cuts that were level enough to hold water.

I was unsure what the prospects might be for that evening, but we started off in the xmas and movement was very limted. A suboc here and there, maybe an atrox and a hypsiglena in between. It cooled off very quickly on the Luna Vista cuts and movement seemed to stop so we decided to track down Matts and Kam on the River. By this time it was midnight plus.

Kam and Matts reported about the exact same sightings on the River. We were there so we decided to make the best of it. It was about that time Janni began nodding off. No doubt the alchohal he had consumed during our short breaks contributed.
Every time I hit the brakes he'd come wide awake, for about 20 seconds, to see what I'd seen.

By 3:30 Janni was sawing logs, and only managed a half hearted attemp to open his eyes when I tapped the brakes for items unknown on the pavement. It was about that time I decided to head back towards the wildhorse. Right before we hit the wildhorse he awoke a little to realize our position, and he managed a smile when he noticed we were close to our room.

I drove right on past the wildhorse, for another run on the Luna Vista cuts before we turned it in, and by now it was just before 4:00 am. Janni looks at me and point towards cabin #1 on the hill, "but that's our room" he mutters "I know" I say with a smile, "we're going to make another crack at it".

Taking a slow pace over the south hill, then the north hill, finally turned around in the flat below Longhorn, and heading back for the cabin, but not before I give the cuts on the east side of the road a once over. About 4:20 am from the other side of the road I caught the unmistakable head jerk and tongue twitch of an alterna on the cut with a flashlight pushing less than 15,000 candlepower at that point.

I did a U turn and pointed the right headlight at what I had seen, sure enough, I thought to myself. I gave Janni a poke in the ribs "JANNI... go get that alterna off the cut" ... Janni opens his eyes, looks at me and says "SH!T snake!"... I busted out in laughter... "NO REALLY, go get it Janni!"... First pull on the door and nothing.... automatic door locks! damn! I pop the lock and janni stumbled out the door into the soft mud on the side of the road and SINKS halfway to his knee in the mud! Now I'm really busting it... but the alterna is 6' up and starting to move. "JANNI!...get the snake!" Janni puts his light on the snake and it makes a beeline straight up. Time stood still, but Janni got it with an inch to spare.

Janni stumbles back to the truck, hands me the snake and says "can we go home now?" LMAO!!

I dropped Janni back at the cabin and made a couple more passes yeielding only a large suboc. I didn't think Janni really gave a durn about it, but years later I found out that recounted the story to everyone he knew back home in Sweden.

Janni missed this years 05 trip to west Texas, and I really missed having him along. Good times....

Joe

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