Teenage me lived in Colorado & I had a moto-cross style motorcycle. Two cycle, not very big, but light weight and what with the two-cycle engine, robust acceleration, and overall very fun to drive. A dirt bike in other words. I noticed early on in my motorcycle riding days that other drivers (in vehicles) found me nearly invisible, I was constantly having to veer to avoid being run over, so I was paranoid about riding it on the roads in any sort of heavy traffic. I did most anything I could to avoid that situation. I usually rode through little-to-no traffic neighborhoods to get to the mountain area where I was going for some dirt trail riding. Another upside to this, as long as I stayed on roads w/speed limits 25 mph or below I wasn’t required to have a helmet. So of course, being a stupid teenager, I didn’t ride w/a helmet.
On this occasion I made it to the mountainside ok, and was motoring along a single track dirt trail parallel to a huge water pipeline that snaked (no pun intended) along the side of a steep cliff. Apparently snakes (actual snakes) liked to hang out along this pipeline b/c it was cool from the shade and the water in the pipe probably lowered the temperature too. I’d see snakes there laying under the pipe from time to time but never paid much attention. This time however the trail descended at a very steep pitch at one point, oh oh, I see a big rattlesnake sunning itself, laying right across the trail. It was pretty big snake, 5 to 6 feet I guess, long enough it covered the entire trail. And the hill was steep, and what w/the dirt surface, not much traction for braking, no way to stop, so there was nothing to do but ride over the poor snake. This of course made the snake very mad, resulting in a lot of hissing & rattling in my direction. … lol …
The problem was the route back to the neighborhoods involved going back up that same trail. There was no way I was going to try to get past that angry rattlesnake, so I had no choice but to continue down to the bottom, then the canyon road back to the neighborhoods, 2-3 miles of paved surfaces, 50 mph. With no choice, away I go. Another oh, oh, lights flashing behind me. Officer pulls me over, despite my snake story, he gives me a ticket for not having a helmet. Judge is a little more sympathetic to my snake story, reduces the fine from $35 to $25 (this was a long time ago mind you), so all in all I thought this was reasonable, and I paid.
I rode two stroke bikes back in the day. You are correct about the robust acceleration. I rode 125’s, 250’s. Had the chance to ride a 500cc two stroke a few times. The “hit” when those things started making power (which it did in an insanely abrupt manner) has remained unmatched in anything else I’ve ridden or driven to this day. Not the fastest thing on wheels, but perhaps the most violent. Not really usable off-road, either in anything resembling a tight space…maybe ok for the open desert. But what a glorious terror it was lol!
I want to ride one of those 70’s two stroke 750 cc triple cylinder street bikes, just to experience it. Only in a straight line though, I do not want to try to turn on that skimpy 70’s suspension lol.
I also have a rattlesnake story when I lived in Florida back in the full service gas station days a friend of mine was working the evening shift I was hanging around and helping him when a lady pulled in and said there was a funny noise coming from underneath her car my friend asked me to drive to see what it sounder like so I drove it around the block OK it sounded like a U joint so I pulled in the shop and put up on the lift walked under it for a look see and very quickly walked back out and told my friend what the problem was but I would not help him fix it the problem was a rattle snake was wrapped around the drive shaft and the head and tail was hitting the floor boards making it sound like a bad U joint.
Funniest rattlesnake story I have, we were cruising pine timber in noxubee county, MS. Unusually cold morning for the time of year, we came across a rattler frozen stiff. Chucked him behind the seat of the work truck and motored on with the heat on. Some time later, we got out of the truck, looked behind the seat and no rattler to be found, so we vacated the area assuming he’d thawed out, revived, and crawled somewhere that we did not want him to be. But false alarm, he just rolled under the seat, still as dead as ever.
Then there was the time I killed a pretty big timber rattler, brought it back to the house I was renting, and posed him precariously across the sidewalk at dusk to see what my roommate would do when he came back from his first and last date with his new ex girlfriend.
Then there was the time we were leaving from a swim in the Sipsey river after a hot day at work. We came across a timber rattler coiled up in the road and I told the guy driving not to run over it because I had been collecting rattles. I still had on shorts…no shirt or shoes. I hopped out of the truck and brandished a hammer I found in the toolbox. A couple of older black gents came along, saw me standing in the highway half clothed with no shoes and holding the hammer leaning over a coiled up, pissed off rattler. The two gents pulled up slow and cool and stopped. The guy in the passenger seat took a good pull off his tall boy. “Boy…you’s gonna get yo dumbass killed.” I’ll never forget the way that guy said that!
Used to live by the Mississippi riverbanks in Southern IL. Every spring the rattle snakes would migrate towards the river. Old farmer bud told me you are better off getting bitten by a big rattlesnake than a little one, The are only born with x amount of venom, so as they get bigger and older the venom is not as potent. You heard this?
that part is not true. but I believe when they are younger they cant control how much venom they put out. so the younger ones usually give you more venom making them more deadly. thats what I have heard but could be wrong.
I gotta say, as much as I appreciated this, it’s still the usual F the poor system. If you can’t take half a day off to sit in line at the traffic court, you don’t get to avail yourself of this generosity, and you pay the same money and get a conviction that increases your insurance.
I actually heard the smaller snakes are more dangerous because they go all out and give you the full blast of venom, whereas an older more mature snake might just give you a warning strike and not inject any venom, or at least hold back a little for the next strike.
I really don’t know which theory is true. Best to just not test either theory, I think!
Coming back from Sturgis SD once I was running about 75 MPH in the wastelands of northern KS with a friend about half a block behind me.
Coming around a sweeping turn I see a 6 foot rattler stretched across the road. No way would I miss it and the thought of that thing getting thrown up by the front wheel and ending up in my lap had my heart racing. I aimed for the head and lifted my feet up as high as I could get them. I felt a bump-bump and my trailing buddy said he saw it thrashing all over.
Better it than me is the way I looked at it as medical help was a long ways away; as in 125 miles.
Talking about Stugis in 2003 [ I am not a biker by the way ] I was back and forth east and west north and south for about a week and a half across SD always running with bikers all the way and I thought it was funny when I saw and heard the few rice burners trying to run with the big boys [ I was not on two wheels but 18 ] found everybody friendly and got a lot of waves from them the only problem I had was at a couple of truck stops parking was at a premium the restaurants were packed I did not complain as it was only one time a year and they needed to have their fun I did have some fun and interesting conversations with them and also had a good time myself. By the way I started the trip in Texas with a load to Rapid City SD and by the time I was half through OK I started to run with the bikers and it to be more and more the farther I went after I let SD I got a load to New York there were a lot of bikers also heading east the farther I went they were less and less all together it was an interesting experience all around and I was happy to have had i
In the early 1970’s, while I was stationed at Luke AFB in Arizona, I and a friend would go Rattlesnake hunting in the dry river beds. Using a mirror to reflect the sun light under the ledges of the riverbanks, where the snakes took refuge from the sun and heat, it was easy to see the snakes. We used rods with a curved hook on the end to pull them out and we put them in a canvass bag.
We then took them to the Health Science Department at Arizona State University in Phoenix where they taught pre-med courses and the study of snakes (herpetology).
They paid us $5.00 a snake. They explained that they “milked” the snakes (they extracted the venom from the snake by making it bite into a container. Once you have milked the snake for venom, it doesn’t take long to regenerate as Venom for a snake is much like saliva is for us. After a month or so, being hand fed, the snake’s venom production dropped off, and they always wanted a “fresh supply” of snakes. They released the captured ones back into the wilds. Snakes continue to produce venom for their entire life, or until they are caught again and made into a hatband or belt…
Remember, even DEAD rattlesnakes can bite, it’s a reflex action, so do not play with dead rattle snakes…
I have not thought about Wall Drug for years but I always made it a point to stop there when I was in the area and you are right the best hamburgers west of the Mississippi and also the east of the Mississippi.
Speaking of food many years ago before interstates I went through a small town in south Georgie in the middle of the night when every thing was closed I saw a sign on a resturant saying if the colonel had our chicken he would be a general by now I did not get back to that area for a couple of years and when and when I did could not find it I have always wondered how good it was.
