SNAKES OF ARIZONA
SNAKES OF ARIZONA
The run to Aquila was pretty routine. Half the sky was deep blue but the sun was trapped under a white cloud for most of the day giving me some relief from the heat. The cacti also became more and more interesting the deeper I run into this wonderful Arizona desert. Some of the cactus grows very tall just like trees, which people have planted around their houses.
The magic letter didn’t work in Jim’s Buro Motel as Ricky the owner said it costs $15 just to clean out a room after a guest has left, so my $20 offer was not acceptable. I believed him as this is a figure I have been quoted a couple of times in the past. Instead he offered me a corner of his field to pitch my tent for free. In his office I noticed an ominous picture poster captioned: SNAKES OF ARIZONA!
I had pitched the tent as opposed to sleeping out under the stars in my bivy for this very reason. I have ordered a new bivy with a vent mesh so as I can zip up completely and breathe properly!
As I strode across the dark motel yard I was watching my every step all the way to my tent. Everyone tells me to avoid the long tall grass, but that is usually where I operate!
Inside my poorly lit tent while I was arranging my baggage into a pillow, I got the fright of my life and nearly woke the whole town up, when a long red bungee strap fell onto my lap!
I was all packed up and ready to hit the road by 7am. The cafe I was camped beside did not open till 8am so I decided to see what else was available for breakfast in town.
At the far end of town I met yet another Aussie cyclist, my third in a week. This one is called Shane and lives in Phoenix. He is making a short trip from San Diego back to Phoenix. He told me he has seen many rattlers on the road and has videoed them.
” But I have only seen two dead ones, run over by cars. ” I said.
” Well perhaps your cart scares them off the road? I can get up to them pretty fast and quietly on my bike as they come out onto the shoulder and zoom in with my camera. I got some good footage! ”
” Whaaaaaattttt! ” I stammer.
We walk back to the cafe I was camped beside and wait a few minutes for them to open.
Shane treats me to breakfast but after what he has said I feel like changing for a drier pair of pants!
***
After a picnic lunch by the side of the road I am running along on the left, towards the traffic in the hard shoulder when a silver car zooms by well over a hundred miles an hour and shocks the bejesus out of me! There has been very little traffic on the road and I never heard it coming so I shook my fist madly. Suddenly I realize the silver car stays on the left side of the road just as a white camper van is coming towards it. It looks like it going to be a head on collision. Just in the nick of time the white camper moves to his left. As he comes towards me moving nervously back onto the right side of the road I make a shocked gesture but I suppose he is also too shocked to stop or respond. He goes on his way. I wonder was it someone driving fast and close to scare the wits out of me and perhaps the prank backfired by him almost running into the white camper. I called 911 but didn’t get much satisfaction.
But my day of shocks was not yet over as an hour up the road I saw my very first live snake out on the road about half a meter roadside of the white shoulder line, just about right for the next truck to run right over it. I don’t know which species it was and I certainly wasn’t going to do a forensic exam to find out. I stopped to take a photo, on my zoom lens, I hasten to add. It was greyish about a meter long but coiled up in about 3 or 4 loops. It was sitting up about ankle high hissing and looking ready to strike. It’s body was about a centimeter thick. I never thought of zapping it with my dog deterrent (ultrasound) device to see if there was a reaction.
The snake looked a bit bewildered and didn’t seem to know how to get off the road. I decided to let nature look after nature and took a ( very ) wide berth of it!
I ran through Wenden and at the far end of town stopped at the Highway Patrol Office. Shane had told me he had cycled across on Interstate 10 and saved about 45 miles by not having to ride north to Parker and back south again. I could make the same saving, it would mean about two days saved running for me.
A very friendly officer called Harry was just going out on patrol as I ran into the Highway Patrols fenced compound. He invited me into his office so as we could consult a large detailed wall map of Arizona. I made some notes. From Wenden it’s about a 50km run to the start of the interstate. I will do about an hour tonight and the rest tomorrow and then roughly another 50km on Interstate 10 west I will run on Wednesday, that should be fun. This will take me up to the Californian state line. Harry gave me my food stop mile markers.
He then rang his boss and asked for permission for me to run on the freeway.
” Yes Sarge he knows that regulation that when no other road option is available to a cyclist or pedestrian they are permitted onto a controlled access highway. ”
” Yes Sarge he is wearing a high-vis vest, I just wanted it on your head and not mine! ” Said Harry down the phone line to the main man of the western Arizona Highway Patrol.
It sounded to me like this is something they don’t like to make common knowledge of. I also heard a comment along the lines of… The regulation is drawn up so as vagrants and transients won’t be camped out along the highway. ( And presumably experienced and competent travelers can be trusted to make a quick and safe hassle-free passage and exit . )
I took a note of the Main Man’s name and badge number, just in case as Harry had mentioned I still may get a visit from a Highway Patrol officer when the idiots behind the wheels start hooting and phoning his office about a mad man running up the wrong side of the highway pushing a baby.
I promise you before this trip is finished I will put the biggest doll I can find into Nirvana and push it down a highway with a smile as wide a national lottery winner 
But Wednesday on Interstate 10 south won’t be the day!
” Remember now Tony… If they honk, no rude hand gestures! ”
” Sure Harry! I will just wave and say thanks for wishing me luck! ”
So I told Harry about the mad driver in the silver car and my 911 call.
He mentioned there were many calls about that incident but nothing to report as of yet.
He also said that the magic time for him on patrols is 2.30pm and 2.30am as drivers are often very sleepy after a large lunch or during a long night journey.
I asked Harry where the library was as I wanted to logon to the internet. He let me use his office computer for an hour while he worked on his reports on another computer behind me.
” You mind if I turn on some AC, I mean air conditioning Tony? ”
I’m thinking of the hot road ahead in Arizona and the Californian deserts. Highway to Hell.
Two minutes later.
” You mind if I crank up some music on my cell phone Tony? It’s amazing the things we can do with phones these days. ”
” No not at all! I miss good music, had my ipod stolen in Flagstaff. ”
” What you going to play Harry? ”
” AC/DC Ok? ” He said.
” You got… Highway to Hell there? ” >> PLAY
” Sure thing.. ”
And then Harry was pumping out one of my favorite tunes. No Harry I don’t mind you turning on some AC.
Then he gets a call and has to leave in a rush. So I got to go too.
” The next town west of here is Salome about an hours run for you. Go to the Cactus Bar they have wifi there. ”
So I spent the night hanging out in the Cactus bar and restaurant and got talking to the bartender Steffany who stood me my Pepsi’s for the evening. She said she saw me on the road and also the mad driver. About 10 miles from where I encountered the silver car she was still driving down the wrong side of the highway. Steffany also met her. She said it was a female driver in her forties and was in fact driving a gold coloured Cadillac. I really thought it was silver coloured but Steffany said it was definitely gold coloured. She said the woman almost drove her off the road. It was particularly scarry as she had her young child with her. The deranged driver almost toppled a motor home.
(WEEKS LATER STEFFANY SENT ME THIS MESSAGE >> HEY TONY THIS IS STEFFANY FROM SALOME AZ. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THE LADY THAT ALMOST RAN YOU OVER AND ALMOST RAN ME OFF THE ROAD ON HWY 60 IN MAY NEVER WAS ARRESTED. IT NEVER SHOWED UP IN THE LOCAL ARREST REPORTS. HOPE YOU ARE MEETING A LOT OF GOOD PEOPLE AND WE WISH YOU A GREAT JOURNEY! TAKE CARE!)
I asked Steffany if I could pitch my tent in the parking lot.
“No problem but I don’t think the snakes will be out tonight as it’s a bit too cold for them. ”
” Yes but you better make sure you got a good tent anyway to keep out the other things! ” Said her friend Nicole just as I was leaving.
” Ottttthhhher things?? ”
” Yes we got some scorpions around too and maybe a few tarantulas! ”
” Are they venomous? ”
” Only some but you may be lucky! ”
” Ok girls have a nice night, I hope to see you in the morning. ”
As I was setting up the tent I was thinking of those lovely cold blizzards of Maine, Ma. and New York that I ran through. The harshest winter in American history and I ran through it. Wasn’t it fun!
Winter running has a lot going for it. No bears, snakes, scorpions, terranchulas, deer bourne ticks, lyme disease, heat stroke etc. It is so much easier to run in the cold. You just put on extra clothing but in the heat you got all this and if it’s too hot you can take off all your clothes, dance around and you are still hot!
Oh For a lovely nice blizzard and not a lizard in sight
