This year was definetely different. The trip to this year's Daytona Expo will be remembered by me, my lovely wife, and plenty of others due to the devastating effects of hurricane Charley. My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by this catastrophe. In my opinion, since this post is about the pits I saw in Daytona, two people I need to take note of:
Jim/ Home Grown Herps....please let us know as soon as you can about how things are with you. Jim had his home severely damaged by the hurricane and was forced to leave the expo early on Sunday.
Alec and Robert/ Peace River Herps....these guys left the Expo immediately after it opened on Saturday morning to assist their elderly neighbors who had their homes affected by the hurricane. You guys needed to be noted and I applaud your willingness to help others.
Due to the storm, of course not everybody who was either attending or selling at the expo may have been in the best of moods. I tried to be happier than I may have shown myself to be. What could you do, ya know? I tried to make the best of things and of course, so did others. The attendance on Saturday could have been better, but what would anyone expect due to the storm?
On a lighter note.....I will now talk pits and what I saw and got at the show! 
My first hour and a half was spent picking out my first jani. Yes....that was very long but buying a snake that you have no clue whatsover how they will turn out to me is a very hard thing to do. Not much motivation on my part to instantly spring forth the money for a dull, brownish and yellow snake. LOL! I went to every vendor I could find with jani. The prices ranged from $75 to $125. I had the great opportunity to meet Steve G., a regular poster on this forum and who has a love for jani. He was kind enough to give me some pointers and saw the jani I picked out. I purchased my jani from Suncoast/ John Schmitt. He had the prettiest ones there in my opinion, and for $100, I thought it was a good price. John was great to talk to and also had the best albino Sonoran gophers there, screaming with yellow, white, and intense red. His graybands ( my other love ) were brutal with color as well. That was one thing I regretted not picking up, and of course, my wife heard ALL about it. LOL!
Then....I picked up two Ocean Co. northerns from John Meltzer. A nice black and white with light brown-reddish saddles and a killer red phase northern pine. I have never seen a northern pine baby with this much red, and he had two in the clutch that hatched out like this. With more red than a baby Okeetee corn, this snake will be promising to watch grow up.
As always, Meltzer had some other killer locale pits as well. Wisconsin bulls, Kankakee bulls, and Saw ( ? ) county yearling female bulls, which were painful to not buy. Also, he had an adult cape that was not only the only adult cape I saw there, but was very nice as well.
As I was speaking about my new red northern pine, I will talk about the red bulls I saw! There was a ton of bulls from red bull clutches at this show!!!! I had the pleasure of meeting Tony D. and about had a heart attack when he handed me his adult female Crumbly line red bull. That thing was awesome!!!!! So much color!!! Very nice!!!! I wish I could have purchased that one bull! Yeah.....keep dreaming!
All these bulls from the red bull clutches were killer to say the least, regardless if they were going to turn out red or not. Some babies, you could see the red, others you couldn't. One red bull baby in particular, had as much red as most adults I have seen. I went to go get a snack, sit down and rest for 5 minutes, kept thinking about that snake, then decided to go buy it. Nope. BAM! Gone! AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That will teach me to wait!
I love both lines of red bulls out there and eventually wish to have one of each. I did pick up a Ginter red bull after the show back at home, and now wish to get a Crumbly line one in the future. I could have grabbed one there, but had others snakes in line to buy. Yes.....it would be nice to be a millionaire and be able to buy EVERYTHING your heart desires!
There were some black pines there, most had a substantial amount of pattern. Also...one clutch of deppei was seen. I saw my first Sunglow hypo ( is that the correct term? ) sonoran gophers produced by Tom Stevens/Nokturnel Tom. It was great to meet him and talk metal and snakes with him.
Getting back to Jim from Home Grown Herps, he had the most unique looking Southerns I have seen. They were in no way normals, but very hypo-ish and very cool. Almost a lavender or chocolate color on some. He posted a pic of the clutch a few weeks ago. I was very tempted to get one, and anyone into Southerns should inquire about them.
One albino southern I saw there was from Mark Bell. Those seem to be so rare these days.
The prices at the Expo were pretty good to say the least. One breeder had some hypo and high yellow bulls left on Sunday and was asking only $35 or so. If I didn't have any hypo bulls, I would have for sure grabbed one. There was one ten year old female jani for only $125. One guy had two very detailed and patterned TX bulls with lots of contrast and high yellow for $60 each. I already have one, but would have surely grabbed one of those if I didn't.
A good buddy of mine, Shannon Brown, scored big with purchasing a sub-adult anerythristic Great Basin gopher for $20! The joys of buying from people who have no clue with what they have.
On the way out of the show Sunday, I picked up a killer Trans-Pecos rat snake from Howie Sherman, who by the way had the best Okeetee corns I have ever seen there. They were yearlings and it really did hurt to not buy one.
I did miss not seeing the infamous Tom James there. Also....Gregg Feaster, go to the next one! I will not quit bugging you about that! LOL!
In all, another great year there and great for pits. Let us all remember those who were affected by the hurricane.
Take care!
Billy
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Genesis 1:1
