Weekly Update Archive

Week Ending 05/15/05

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a weekend! Let me tell you about it. I have been so busy, I am just getting around to posting this, but here we go! Meridith and I left Houston later than I wanted to but Duty with Verizon called, so we got out at 7:30. We arrived in Del Rio, checked in and we were out on 277 looking for snakes at 1:30 A.M. We only stayed out for a couple of hours, seeing nothing but a D.O.R. atrox and coachwhip. We were weary from travel so cruised back and crashed.

Saturday morning, we cruised into Mexico and had lunch at Crosbys. I had my obligatory 2 margaritas, but will do so no longer. The last 2 times I have done this, I came down with a major splitting headache and it has almost ruined my herping for the night. Cheap alcohol does not cut it, plus they do not know how to make good margaritas anyway. Do I have to stoop to the level of bringing my own to mix? GEEZ!!!!!!!!!!! If you can't get a good margarita in Mexico, where the hell CAN you get it??? Okay, sorry, I get carried away! After we left, we cruised back and took a 2 ½ hour nap, then we hit it hard, and I do mean hard! We set out for Langtry dirt for the sundown festivities, and we saw only one atrox in the "hot zone" as I call it. There is a 1 mile stretch on this road where I will see snakes NO MATTER WHAT, anytime I am on it! I can literally sit on my tailgate, drink a beer, and watch snakes cross the road. Yes, I have done it before, and have witnessed them cross. This certain stretch of the road is the only part of the dirt road that I have caught alterna on. Why hunt anywhere else? We hit 90 West after sundown and hunted very slowly all the way to Lozier Canyon. Alas! before we got there, at the 3.8 mile cut West of Langtry, we scored! Meridith was spotlighting the cuts and saw something. She said "back up!" That's not animal poop! I know poop when I seeit! That's a snake!" I have learned form experience that when Meridith says GO BACK!………..I go back! I got out of the car and walked up to the cut. We were 3.8 miles West of Langtry, a very popular rock cut for alterna. I looked up about 12 feet on the cut and shined the light and saw gray, orange and black. I yelled to Meridith, "It's an alterna!!!!!!!!" She screamed with excitement and got out of the truck. I started climbing up the cut and got about 4 feet up and the rocks collapsed under my feet. I fell to the bottom without injury. I ended up driving my Blazer into the rocks where my front bumper was all the way against the rocks. I hopped up on the hood of my truck and was able to get a good foot hold and I continued up the cut about four more feet. There he was! A 1.5 foot light phase alterna (Blairs phase). I grabbed him without much incident and then I had to put the snake in my teeth in order to get down the cut without falling or injuring the snake. We unfortunately left the video camera back at the room so we have no footage of this. I wish we did because it was extremely cool! Meridith did the Gray band dance for the first time. She now knows what it's like to find an alterna on a rock cut. This verified in her mind that it can and does happen! This is the third alterna she has caught with me, but the first one ever on a cut. The weather was perfect! The time of collection was 10:12 P.M., 75 degrees, winds S.SE. at 5 mph. The pressure was dropping as there was a storm brewing in the distance but it seemed to surround us. We never got rain but got to watch a great heat lightening show. This alterna would be the last snake we saw all night, but hey!, that's okay! We got what we were looking for. This phase was also Meridiths favorite!

We ate dinner on top of the Lozier Canyon rock cut and enjoyed the lightening show. It was truly awesome. We hunted back to Del Rio and got back into the room at 4:30 A.M.

Sunday would prove to be a different story. We were wanting to eat BBQ in Uvalde but it seemed all of the places were closed. We were going to hunt up a place after we got through Uvalde, but unfortunately we never made it. My transmission in my beloved Blazer gave out once again leaving us stranded on the side of highway 90. This has become old hat,………and I do mean OLD HAT. This is the fourth transmission my Blazer has had since the original one and I am damned tired of paying high dollar to get it replaced and not even making it 50,000 miles. Four hours later I was able to get AAA to send a flat bed truck to transport my truck to San Antonio since it is a might closer to my home than Uvalde. We met and rode with a man by the name of Marvin who owns La Hacienda Motors almost exactly where we broke down. He was unfortunately on another call and had seen us sitting there only to find he would be making a trip to San Antonio. Thank GOD for AAA! I have used it to the max now within the year. Thanks Meridith for suggesting I get back with AAA. Marvin drove us to San Antonio and I left my vehicle with AAMCO. The manager, Bret, had the work number transferred to his cell phone and met us there where he locked my truck up inside the gate for security. He drove us to the airport where I proceeded to rent a car to drive back to Houston.

I have since struck a deal with Bret as I found he too is an avid snake lover and collector. I will be trading him some pythons and a boa as well as some other odd and ends for his collection in return for a transmission rebuild. Just when you thought the blazer had died, she has been (will be ) resurrected! I thought she had died at 361,000 plus, but she is presently at rest as she grows a rebuilt transmission. This will become a backup vehicle as Kim and I did go out and purchase a 2003 (used) GMC Yukon. I have always wanted one and now I do. It is metallic charcoal gray. You know I would have to get a low profile vehicle. There are just some "people" out there that I would rather not know that I was out there. Shadows in the dark. Know what I mean Verne? I will let all know when my baby is back on the road! Maybe I will make 500,000 miles. Yeeehaw!!!!!! Rock on herpers. We are in full swing!! See ya on Memorial Day weekend.

Wayne Howell
May 15, 2005

The season is starting out great!
(Click on Photos to Enlarge)

First gray-band of the season

Pretty, ain't it?

My new snakehunting vehicle

Ain't it pretty, too?

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