Well, they're clearly not THAT fast. I drive a Buick, for Pete's sake!

Some time ago, Jen and I were told about a snake that lives here in the desert, called a red racer. It's supposed to be a pretty shade of red/pink, and very quick (hence "red racer" instead of, say, "red creeper"). I saw one once, very briefly in our back yard. It was sunning itself on some rocks on the far corner of our back porch, and I startled it when I opened the back door. By the time I realized I was looking at a red racer, it was already long gone.

Today, as I was driving home after sitting in class for one measly hour, I got to see one for real. I was on Lee Station Road, driving through the pasture that the cows are currently in, so I was taking it nice and slow (the calves think they're dogs and insist on running into the road and chasing our car when we drive by). Suddenly, I noticed something long and reddish draped across the right half of the road. "Huh," I thought to myself. "What on earth is that? Wait a second. Could that be a-" By this point in my mental monologue, I had to look in the rearview mirror to confirm or deny my suspicion, since I'd just run over the mysterious length of pink something. The rearview revealed that the victim of my hit-and-run was now coiled up instead of all stretched out. Typically, old lengths of hose don't coil on impact, so I figured I'd probably just had my first real encounter with a red racer. Being the type who likes to poke dead things with a stick, I threw the car in reverse, got up close to the roseate bundle, and got out for a closer look. For just a moment, I was sure I'd killed this beautiful reptile. But then his black tongue flicked out for a sniff of me. Assuming I'd merely wounded the racer, I wandered off to the side of the road for a stick with which to examine him more closely. In the time it took me to bend over, pick up a stick, and turn around, the racer had recovered from his tire-massage and was beating a hasty retreat off the other side of the road. Naturally, I followed him til he started making his way under a little desert scrub plant. Then I reached down and stroked the end of his tail. Apparently he prefers being rubbed by car tires, because he picked up his pace considerably and got the rest of the way under the plant, post-haste. My only regret in the whole episode is that Jen couldn't be with me to see it for herself. At least my sexy new cell phone has a decent camera.

PS- I'm not sure why, but Blogger has decided to make it impossible to enlarge my posted photos by clicking on them. If you want a larger view of the snake and you happen to be my friend on Facebook, look for the photo there. It will actually let you enlarge it. Stupid Blogger.