Yeh, yeh, yeh….. blah, blah, blah. Actually, I just love this picture. I took this with my phone, while on a 7-mile training walk. I was training for the 3-day walk for the cure. I remember coming across this “rattler” and was just thrilled. It brings the John Wayne out in ya, when ya stagger across a rattler! You woulda thought it was alive, for Pete’s sake!

Where I live, the summers are the 3-digit kind, and rattle snakes are ample. In fact, that training walk brought to my attention an ample supply of road kill of all varieties.

About the point where I came across the snake, I had gone about 5 miles and was on the home stretch. Three-digit weather and an extremely narrow shoulder on the road made for a rather disappointing choice in routes. I was hot, thirsty, and a bit fearful of spinning stones, flying off the tires of cars and trucks that were flying by me. Surprising how fast the cars were going, and trucks too, on that “country highway”. John Wayne, where are you when I need you?

So what is the moral of this story. Who knows? Just wanted to show off my snake picture, I guess. No wait, there is one thing. It’s about the routes we take. You can accomplish the same goal, on an easier route. From that day forward, I stuck to the woods.