Flag Beats Snake

We had an interesting time packing up the camper today at the campground. I was packing up the outside with my sidekick Winthrop, while Cheryl was packing up the inside of the camper alone. I noticed this six inch praying mantis walking across our mat toward the camper, thinking how really big he was so I called for Cheryl to peek out the door and see. It was headed right for the wheels of our camper as she opened the door to look.

About the time it arrived at the wheels and started to climb up, I saw a huge snake rear its head at the praying mantis through the spokes of one of the tires. I yelled snake! Cheryl saw it and screamed, "Ahhhh, get the dog!" and went screaming back into the camper slamming the door shut leaving me with Mr. Snake and the dog.

Meanwhile, the snake is slithering out of the tire passing by the praying mantis, me and the dog while I'm tripping over Winthrop's water dish, trying to grab his leash to pull him away so the snake doesn't bite him. By now I see the snake is huge!! At least three and a half feet long!! OMG!! I'm trying to think what I am going to do because now he is slithering under the steps and up one of the stabilizer jacks. So, while holding the dog leash with one hand, I whip off the top of our grey packer box, pull out my American Flag on a wooden stick, flip it around with one hand and start prodding the snake off the jack. I got him to fall to the ground, but he was coiled back looking like he wanted to go back up the jack. I started beating the jack with the stick to make noise and he eventually started slithering away. Whew!

Now he is heading for my truck!! Urghh!! I'm starting to get pissed off at Mr. Snake so I scoop him up in his middle area with my flag stick and threw him out into the grass. Well, once he hit the grass he was in heaven and slithered real fast toward an oak tree. Hurrah!! I watched him go up the tree and into a hole where a limb had broken off. I'm very happy with myself, but now I'm getting my wits about me and thinking oh crap, I should have grabbed my camera because Mr. Snake would have made a good blip for today. I figured the dog was safe now, Cheryl was still in the camper screaming, so I ran to the truck to get my camera, and raced back to the snake tree. Thankfully Mr. Snake came back out of the hole in the tree and started slithering up the tree. I got several shots but this one lets you see how thick Mr. Snake was. I was going to take a flag shot since it is Memorial Day here in the states, but this is the closest I got. The US Flag beats down the snake!

Did I tell you, I really dislike snakes??