Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I took a trip this past weekend to film in Philly and New York. I met some great people, saw some beautiful snakes, and even managed to get a life lister on my birthday. This trip was made possible by all of your generous donations of airfare, lodging, rides, food, time, and capitol, and I want to thank you all so much for helping me accomplish this important goal. Thanks for reading/looking.
DAN

Shortly after landing in LaGuardia I was greeted by Jerry Kruse, his family, and this sign:

I know it's spelled wrong, it's kind of a running joke between Jerry and I.

Jerry gave his donation to our non-profit in the form of a free ride to Philly and some filming assistance. We headed to the Academy of Natural Sciences and met up with Ned Gilmore who was kind enough to show us around the collection room. We filmed Ned, the alterna holotype and checked out some of the freaken old specimens. We saw a coral snake collected by Lewis and Clark. (Yes LEWIS AND CLARK!) a Lechesis collected by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, father of homeopathy, and of course the alterna holotype. Here's some pics of the collection.
Ophibolus alternus:




Jerry with the jarred alterna:

Jerry with a monkey. This thing looked like a hairy little human baby and creeped me the F... out.

We thanked Ned and headed out. Jerry took his kids to the pool, and I went out for dinner with Bob Assetto. Bob is an old-time alterna hunter, breeder, fieldherper and all around good guy. He said I couldn't leave philly without going to Pat's Steaks

Part of the film Rocky 1 was filmed here and there is a plack to prove it

On this spot stood Bob Assetto while filming the great film Alterna Rush March 7, 2008.

That night I stayed with my dear friend from gradeschool thru highschool, Roshen Abraham and his lovely, doctor, girlfriend Erica:

Roshen is not a herper, but he does brew his own award-winning beer which evens things out for me.
Here's Roshen with his previous brews:

The next day, Bob Assetto drove me to New York Via Jim Dobis' house. We interviewed Jim and filmed his grayband collection. Here's some pics:
Jim, Wife, and baby:

I tried several times to take a picture with her eyes open, but to no avail. I was able, however, to photo their wee son smiling in his sleep.

OK THE FIELD HERPING...
I mentioned to Jim that it was killing me that it was 45-50 degrees and raining, but I didn't have time to look for caudates, and he suggested we check his backyard. After much leaf raking and fooling around in the rain we managed to find my birthday-lifelister:
Plethodon cinereus

That night Bob dropped me off at Tom "Coach's" house. Tom is a herper, snake breeder, and fellow documentarian.

Tom showed us his collection which consists mainly of getula and alterna. This carpet was such a looker, I had to snap a shot.

She's big and beautiful:

That night Tom and his wife "Mo" fed me pizza, sang happy birthday, and even gave me a real New York Cheesecake complete with candle! We ate and drank and stayed up late in the night watching Tom's footage of his herping trips.

The next day it was off to Mike Russo's place to interview him and film his snakes. Mike is a major grayband breeder who has never herped West Texas:

We also met Russo's Ugly troll-like children:

Mike has some fantastic snakes and he has collected every magazine and book that has an alterna story in it. Here's the grayband boy's playing:

Gerry Merker will be happy to hear that Mike bought THREE copies of Alterna the Graybanded Kingsnake. He keeps one upstairs one down and one in plastic as a collecter's item. :bigthumb:

On the way home we stopped by Jerry Kruse's house to film his graybands. He had some really neat animals, I photo'd some of them.
Again we were forced to hang out with ugly little carpet rats:

Rats with the sign they made for me:

He just had to show me his sypila first, because he knows I'm a syspila connoisseur. I believe he said these are a southern Illinois locality. First the male:

The girl has this interesting circle on her neck:

Some other stuff I liked:
Kenyan

Rosy


agalma

And with that, my trip was through. Coach dropped me off at the airport the next morning around 11:00 am. My flight wasn't until 5:10. I was supposed to have lunch with a friend, but his car broke down so...

I had a beer or two...

and spent the day with a guy named Ralph:

I shall leave you with a passage from Ralph:
In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child.

In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through man, in spite of real sorrows.
SmallScaleFilms

Great trip and even better shots. Very well documented... sure they're are many more. Especially cool shots of J. Kruses's agalma... gettin' all the way down for some of those! Thanks...

Chris

Wow is all I can say. It was a great time, and thank YOU for the entertainment. Looking forward to jettin' out your way at some point in the near future -- warn the neighbors, lol. But seriously, you're doing a kick-ass job Dan. Kudos all the way. Now let me get back to putting my carpet rats to bed, hah!

Jerry Kruse

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a. Where are all the Alterna?
b. Did they disclose the secret of what they do with all the hatchlings they produce every year? (Not including Russo)
c. You didn't get a picture of the 20 million candle power spotlight at Bobs???? Where's the VADER PICTURE????

post script: Congrats to Dobis on his baby boy! We will have to share some war stories this summer if Gas isn't 4 bucks a gallon.

Best Wishes,

SXO792

And as always, the fine print: It is hard to judge emotion, point of view and sarcasm is email. Always assume positive intent when reading mine.

It is what it is bro -- why not just say "nice post Dan". Jeez!

Jerry Kruse

So I was hoping to see more "live" graybands.

No harm in that right???

But to keep everyone happy...

"NICE POST DAN"

Best Wishes,

SXO792

Great Post Dan!

It looks like you had a great trip. It was a pleasure to finally meet you and I was honored to be part of your production.. I am looking forward to seeing the final result of your work and of course adding a copy (or 3) to my collection!

Steve.. I think he is holding out on us in regards to the Alterna phohto's.. And, as far as answering questions B & C.. I have no idea??

~ Mike Russo

for allowing ALL folks to participate in the interest of alterna. A true leader.

Jerry Kruse

Thanks for all the positive responses. Though it is difficult, I have had a great time making this film.
Here are some specific answers to your questions:
STEVEXOWENS

Your joking tone is not lost on me.

a. Where are all the Alterna?
THERE ARE THREE RESPONSES TO THIS 1. NOT ONLY IS THERE A GRAYBAND IN MY POST, THERE IS THE FIRST GRAYBAND! AND A 107 YEAR OLD ONE AT THAT! 2. WATCH THE MOVIE AND YOU'LL SEE ALL THE ALTERNA YOU CAN STAND. 3. WHENEVER THEY HAD THEIR ALTERNA OUT, I HAD THE VIDEO SYSTEM ON AND HAD NO TIME TO SNAP PHOTOS.

b. Did they disclose the secret of what they do with all the hatchlings they produce every year? (Not including Russo)
I THINK MOST OF THESE GUYS JUST FEED THEM TO GETULA.

c. You didn't get a picture of the 20 million candle power spotlight at Bobs???? Where's the VADER PICTURE????
I CALLED HIM AND LEFT HIM A MESSAGE ABOUT IT, BUT HE DIDN'T GET IT IN TIME. I THINK HE'S PLANNING A TRIP TO OBSERVE THIS SUMMER, SO I'LL FILM IT IN ACTION.

AS FAR AS I KNOW, VADER IS PUSHING UP DAISY'S. BOB? ANY COMMENT?

Jerry- you better stop defending me so vehemently, or everyone will think you have a crush on me or something.
By the way, that book I was going to tell you about is called Achilles in Vietnam.
DAN

Dan, I am glad the forum still has some humor. I think we all appreciate your efforts in filming.

If gas gets any more expensive Lance and I are just going to bring lawn chairs, walk out to a cut from Sanderson and hit the same one all night. Sit in the lawn chair when we get tired.

Observing of course...

Best Wishes,

SXO792

Dan, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. I'm ready to send off some pacifiers to a select few. You've experienced the friendly side of me last weekend, which is where I prefer to be at all times. But I don't mind switching gears either. I haven't figured out what I'm gonna do with my alterna hatchlings yet as I've still to produce 'em. I'll probably give 'em to someone in Canada or Iceland, somewhere wayyy up north. If I'd known about that Philly steak joint, I would've gone. But we settled for some really good Greek food and the Hyatt pool was nicely warmed. All in all, I wouldn't've changed a thing. Booyah . . .

JK

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>2. WATCH THE MOVIE AND YOU'LL SEE ALL THE ALTERNA YOU CAN STAND.

I will certainly watch the movie, but I doubt I will ever "see all the alterna I can stand."

Keep up the good work.

Any plans to visit south Brewster county this year?

There are some nights, Steve, when sitting in a lawnchair might be very productive. At least I get that impression from the stories I keep hearing from John-O and B. Assetto! ALTERNA EVERYWHERE!

EBY- I will be down for two weeks and will try to film as many landmarks and localities as I can. You are definately on the list.

DAN

Next time, let it be a tequila shot. Not fer nothin my new tornado alley friend, I did have plenty of Aruban rum and Cabo Wabo tequila on hand (one of the many things Sammy Hagar did right as far as I'm concerned...). I'll bring some along when we go a-huntin' for SIS PEE LAHs. Now to go and poke Ned's brain some more, LOL. ANd while we're at it, maybe another round of mugshots are in order?

Jer

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Let me know when you will be down this way. I may be able to arrange a free night or two in my new (coming soon) vacation rental house or one that I manage.

Awesome. I'm planning to be down the first two weeks in JUNE. Other than the HCU meeting and herping every night, my schedule is up in the air. I'll nail it down as it gets closer. Money is a big issue right now. Once that is solved, planning will become much easier.

DAN

June is wide open for the "Terlingua Retreat" (off-grid solar and wind powered cottage that I built and manage) and the "Corazone Adobe" (adobe house that I'm remodeling now and will start renting in late April).

Check out the website for the Terlingua Retreat for more info. It normally rents for $129 nightly.

The website for the "Corazone Adobe" should be up in a couple of weeks. It sits on 20 acres that include a rocky hillside, wide draw, and new pond (just a big hole until it rains). It has 2 bedrooms, bath, full kitchen, living room, LARGE deck, and great views. We plan to offer it for $99 nightly to start, then raise the rate once occupancy is established.

I can get you up to three nights at either place at no charge.

Try this: terlinguaretreat.com/

Awesome. That sounds great. Can I bring Roy? How about my camera man?

I'll check out that link...
DAN

Sure. The Retreat occupancy limit is three. The Adobe occupancy limit is four.

I checked out the link. That place looks amazing. I think I'd like to shoot footage of it. It will fit perfectly in the theme of A-typical vacationing. Very nice of you sir. I can't wait to meet up.

DAN

Email me with the dates you would like to stay so I can go ahead and book it. Filming there would be great. Now I book the free stay as a non-profit donation and possibly get an advertising kick as a bonus.

Daryl(at)mountaindesert(dot)com

Yeah, its called an "in kind" donation. I'm still checking whether room nights are covered and kosher, but I'll keep you posted. I'm not sure on the dates yet, but as soon as I know, I'll let you know. I figure it will be during the first week down as things warm up down there sooner.

DAN