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let's hear some stories about the ones that got away. Seat belts and automatic door locks come to mind. Or anything funny that happened in the field.
I've spot lighted a few DOR snakes on the cuts of 277, thanks Dan Johnson!
Maybe some of you raod cruised a DOR python, I know that's happened plenty of times.
If it's funny or amusing, share it here.
I've got a few stories I can tell, I'll type them up tomorrow. I know some of you already have some stories typed, share them!
Best
Joe
Joe,
I found a mandarin rat and a 9' Burmese python on cuts east of Langtry one night....found a emerald tree boa the next night, all frozen thawed. ECT and Buzz got me a few times with some awesome frozen thawed alterna as well...they look way better that DOR's, more natural. It really gets your heart pumping on a slow night.
One night in Lozier Canyon a couple of guys pulled a wooded alterna on wheels across the road in front of me...now that was funny! And Shannon and Twinky painted some awesome rubber snakes a few years back...they had awesome detail, some alterna morps, some blairs. I still have a couple of them in my snake room lol.
One night Buzz nailed Marla & I with a long twist-tie colored up like an alterna . . . it was laying on the curve just south of the 9 mile hill.
I was really nailed one night at the gap with a gravel snake, complete with orange tape for bands.
One night, we nailed a friend ours with a similar beast, only we used cantelope seeds and scrapings for the orange bands.
Troy
Your memory serves you INCORRECTLY Mr. Long. It was WEST of Langtry. I should know. 
~~~~~~~
Wayne
I think it was either our 96 trip or 98 when we saw a DOR brazilian rainbow at the top of Big Hill, others may remember this.
Don't you think there's a lot better chance of spreading diseases from dead exotic snakes that PROBABLY did die of some nasty disease???!!!
The one that got me the best was on the River, a stick with Reeces wrappers & black electrical tape - Thanks Pete.
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"I may be crazy, but ya know... I can rationalize just about anything."
>>Don't you think there's a lot better chance of spreading diseases from dead exotic snakes that PROBABLY did die of some nasty disease???!!!
Probably! I don't think anyone has done anything genious like that in quite a while!
Some of you guys may have heard this story, I know Gerry has. Back on Labor Day weekend in '77, my whippet, Danny and I made a trip to the Bend. On the 2nd night, I shined up a black phase alterna on the North hill in a small bush on the cut. I was driving a '74 Toyota p.u. with a standard. I put my q-beam down and got my flashlight and located the snake. Believe me I was shaking, but I was about to shake even more. I put my truck in neutral and set the emergency brake and leaving the door open, I walked over to claim my prize. As I marvelled at how beautiful the snake was, I noticed movement behind me and turned around to see my truck going down the hill backward. Even back then I wasn't much of a runner, so after a limited sprint, I started calling my dog, which wouldn't come out. I could see the truck plunging down the East side of the North hill, killing my dog. In the sprint, I had squeezed the alterna pretty tightly and it bit me and fell limp. So here I am, watching my truck and dog plunge down the hill to their deaths, with a dead alterna in my hand. God was on my side and the open door ruddered the truck into the talus on the West side of the hill and the only damage was a creased door which was bent against the front fender. Both front wheels were in the air, so I bagged the dead snake,got my dog and started the hike down the hill to Luna Vista, which was at that time a bar and rest. Luckily, Gene, who used to run the Gulf station in Study Butte was there and I got there just as the place was closing. He had a chain so he went up and hooked this four ft. chain to my truck, leaving about 2 ft of chain between the vehicles. Gene was drunk as Hell. I got in my truck and he pulled me out, but instead of stopping started driving down the road at 70 miles an hour with a rebel yell. About half way to the Longhorn, he stopped and came back to my truck, pried my clamped hand from the steerng wheel, handed me a Coors, laughed and drove off. About that time, I remembered the snake and opened the bag. To my amazement, it had returned to life and looked fine. I drove up to the Elephant Mt. rest area and spent the night. This alterna was the only one I ever heard of coming off of a bush. I traded it to Ron Savage to go with a dark Christmas male he had. It was 11:00 PM when I caught the snake, but the temps were in the low 60s that night.
Jim McLean
n/p
the trip where he slid down the hood of the car on the Big Hill while camcording and not breaking stride in dialog of narrating the event of the road and the cartoon episode of that where his heels of his feet was kicking his backside while trying to stay up right and where he was in jeopardy of breaking that camcorder that he rented for about $1,000 !
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Viper " ( I think with him ) when we found that " albino " whatever on Juno or 277 and turned out to be a SKINNED cal king or something reportedly from John H.
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was an adventure with a great story....
wish I had more time right now.... I promise I will share a couple more hyper viper stories when I return from the promised land.
Forky
River Road at the cuts after the grassy-put-in that either a freaking alterna or a longnose was in the mist of the cows feet and I couldn't get in there to catch or even verify what it was.
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Terlingua where Shawn D and I found nudie mags in the cave.
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Viper......several trips where his " Penny Loafers " became to have holes in the soles due to him jumping out of the car while still in motion and him hanging/dragging on the door to figure out the proper " launch " time to jump from moving vehicle to get the herp on the road ! I swear sometimes I was still traveling at 25 mph when he jumped ! LOL !
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a guy named Pete A went with me that only entertained the notion that he never ate anything but steak and potatoes at restaurants in his life and he decided to partake in the GOOD OLD MEXICAN FOOD at the Study Butte cafe that i sneaked the chili macho salsa on him and he had MAJOR diarrhea for the next 3 days ! LOL !
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>>a guy named Pete A went with me that only entertained the notion that he never ate anything but steak and potatoes at restaurants in his life and he decided to partake in the GOOD OLD MEXICAN FOOD at the Study Butte cafe that i sneaked the chili macho salsa on him and he had MAJOR diarrhea for the next 3 days ! LOL !
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>>I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......
August 2000:My son and I were returning to Oregon from NC and called Hollister to see if he wanted to go herping. He advised he had several people lined up to do so and wanted us to showup w/our 7-person tent at the Park. So we met up w/him, Chris Newsome and 2 new herpers, setup camp and did some nightcruising. Only saw 1 nice blacktail but then it was a full moon. anyway all settled in for the night and I had a "few" brews first. Now John's former dawg, Lucy, that he'd given my son ealier that summer was out and about look'n to get into things (usually w/a havalina). Just as John got to sleep I heard Lucy running up the street and as I looked out he she can fast! Right behind her was a large sow havalina...as she cross the street all ya could hear was clickety, clickety - both parties head'n straght for the tent. Knowing where that could go I jumped up and yelled at the havalina which tankfully turned tail but not before Lucy came crashing into the tent and onto John - he was not amused lol. Now next morn. I was first one , saw Hollister lying half in and out of the tent slond asleep w/his Bermuda shorts a quarter of the way down w/a bad case of..well I sure wished I had a can of puddy that day! Anyway I decided to place bour 7-8 beer cans in a semi-circle around John. and then strolled to the picnic table bout 60' away. As I was sitting there having coffee up drives the Park Ranger who gets out and walks over to my tent, seems some of the other campers had complained "we" had a "wild party" in the dry creekbed at 2am (we didn't get back to the Park til 3am) Well the Ranger looks down at John and states, "Hey!" John groggily wakes up and looks up to which the Ranger sez, "Are you aware of no public consumption of alcohol in a State Park?"
John replied, "I DON"T drink!" The Ranger gave him a double-take and stated, "So I see...well hereafter IF you wish to consume alcohol do so in the tent!" And he left. (Sorry I kinow this was a long post but hope ya enjoyed it - btw John was for some reason a bit more crankly that day than usual).
all the best,
Bill
>>August 2000:My son and I were returning to Oregon from NC and called Hollister to see if he wanted to go herping. He advised he had several people lined up to do so and wanted us to showup w/our 7-person tent at the Park. So we met up w/him, Chris Newsome and 2 new herpers, setup camp and did some nightcruising. Only saw 1 nice blacktail but then it was a full moon. anyway all settled in for the night and I had a "few" brews first. Now John's former dawg, Lucy, that he'd given my son ealier that summer was out and about look'n to get into things (usually w/a havalina). Just as John got to sleep I heard Lucy running up the street and as I looked out he she can fast! Right behind her was a large sow havalina...as she cross the street all ya could hear was clickety, clickety - both parties head'n straght for the tent. Knowing where that could go I jumped up and yelled at the havalina which tankfully turned tail but not before Lucy came crashing into the tent and onto John - he was not amused lol. Now next morn. I was first one , saw Hollister lying half in and out of the tent slond asleep w/his Bermuda shorts a quarter of the way down w/a bad case of..well I sure wished I had a can of puddy that day! Anyway I decided to place bour 7-8 beer cans in a semi-circle around John. and then strolled to the picnic table bout 60' away. As I was sitting there having coffee up drives the Park Ranger who gets out and walks over to my tent, seems some of the other campers had complained "we" had a "wild party" in the dry creekbed at 2am (we didn't get back to the Park til 3am) Well the Ranger looks down at John and states, "Hey!" John groggily wakes up and looks up to which the Ranger sez, "Are you aware of no public consumption of alcohol in a State Park?"
>>John replied, "I DON"T drink!" The Ranger gave him a double-take and stated, "So I see...well hereafter IF you wish to consume alcohol do so in the tent!" And he left. (Sorry I kinow this was a long post but hope ya enjoyed it - btw John was for some reason a bit more crankly that day than usual).
>>all the best,
>>Bill
As somewhat of a followup, only cuz I reveil in harassing him and Applegate anytime I can, that following Dec. I got our Oregon Herp Society to fly John out to be our annual banquet Guest Speaker> He finally flew into Eugene Friday morn after having to spend the night before at the Portland airport as his flight got fogged in. Welp I picked him up and of course he wanted a bit to eat so we stopped at the first Burger King as no DQ's or McDonalds weren't in sight (ya know John's appetite!)
Well he gave a great slide show and talk that night on "herp'n the Trans-pecos" As he was to spend the weekend at our house (I had him right where I wanted him) the following night,and as per usual when John can't be online as I was, he settled in for his next best thing - watching old movies on tape. While doing so I sorta um..turned the thermostat all the way up. Long 'bout an hr later John comes stomping thru the kitchen yell'n, "GOD-ALMIGHTY!..it's hotter in here than in W. Texas in AUGUST!" Now Sund. morn. we were having breakfast at home and I'd been tell'n John bout this vegetable extract called Marmite, same as Vegemite but saltier..gee fergot to tell him that or the fact it's NOT to be smeared on toast like p-butter but just grazed on toast. Welp, ole John lathers up his toast and takes a nice bite, dang I wished I'd had my camcorder - suddenly he makes this God-awful face and couldn't spit it out quick 'nough (all over my kitchen floor) along w/unmentionable words! Sun afternoon we got him to the airport and I often wondered if he was never so happy to be flying home Stay tunned, there will be other stories when I next meetup John...he's such a prime target!
Bill
Man that was good!! That's hilarious..did you get any pictures? "Alterna of the month" would be a good place to post that one.
Nathan
Nathan I have a group photo, somewhere, that was taken couple hrs after the "Ranger incident." I'll post it when I find it.
Bill
LMAO!!! That is so bad....poor guy. Had to have been pretty funny though.
Nathan
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
( even though i gots lots as I'm sure you all do too ). Lee F while living at Lajitas and the trailer home in back of Study...so i had to deliver some funds from Hyper Viper to Lee when Lee told him that his life was in jeopardy for not paying for some alterna ( from the " other big hill " on 170 that everybody use to coast down before Terlingua going east, forgot the name of place )...well with that UFO sighting that my wife and me saw one year down i had to bring this up to Lee and for the next hour i couldn't get a word in wise for Lee telling us about HIS encounter of the 2nd or 3rd kind ! LOL ! Then another time while visiting him with my 5 year old daughter and sitting there while he explained how awful and deadly ( anybody remember them dogs ) his attack dogs were I was asking to explain if so how my 5 year old daughter was petting them, kissing them and even riding the bigger one around his yard. LOL again !
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