Next morning our car broke down in the middle of nowhere, but true to form, some local folks passing by helped us get to a mechanic, and we managed to limp into town and literally coasted the last half block into the garage as the alternator gave its last gasp. Couldn't be fixed till the next day, but the mechanic was so amused by what we were doing that he lent us his personal (spare) car so we could keep hunting. He even told us where we could find some old collapsed cabins in the woods down some really back roads. So off we went. En route we spotted this guy basking on a concrete pedestal from a demolished bridge that once crossed the canal. So near, yet so deep and wet, so we passed on making any attempt to have him in hand and just kept going.
Brown Water Snake Nerodia taxispilota Found a dirt road skirting a very swampy area, so we got out and walked. Came across three more Cottonmouths, including the biggest one I've ever seen (I'm guessing close to five feet, and really fat). Unfortunately, we discovered him when he spooked and got away before we could get a decent shot with the camera. No such problem with this attractive slowpoke.
Next morning we got our car back and headed toward the busted up cabin that our new best friend (who turned out to be a pretty good mechanic, too) told us about. Stopped to flip some boards and turned up a juvenile Skink, complete with bright, blue tail. Notice the cryptic coloration, obviously the result of selection pressures to adapt to their natural environment of silk-screened T-shirts.
We passed a DOR Rat Snake on the way, then spotted one AOB (Alive on Board), just stretched out in a patch of sunlight among the shaded ruins of the house. Walked inside and flipped a mattress (a species of couch) and a big, bright, bronze, Broadhead skink (Eumeces laticeps) darted out, but there was so much junk to hide in we never had a chance. As Ron stood up I glanced up above his head and there was yet another rat snake, wedged in between the rafters and the tin roof which was beginning to warm up.
As we walked out of the cabin I said something to my brother like, "There's nothing quite like that electric moment of discovery when you flip something, and your eyes resolve an unexpected image into the realization that you're looking at a snake." To which he replied, "Like flipping that piece of tin over there," which he then proceeded to turn, and we had another electric moment as this Kingsnake was revealed.
We walked along the road for a short time and came across one of my favorite turtles, a real charmer (though a bit shy).
This was the last live herp of the trip. After our ridiculously quick start at the couch, I was afraid the rest of the trip would be an anticlimax, but the steady pace and variety left no room for disappointment. Our excitement just continued to grow as we anticipated the next find, that addictive feeling of "more, more". Far from being let down, all we wanted was to go back the next year. Which we did.
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