After months of saying, “We are retired. We need to do something exciting!” It finally HAPPENED.
My girlfriend (Franle) and I left our men at home, loaded up my Ford F-150 Super Crew Pickup Truck, and hit the highway on August 4th for our three State road trip. The only requirement was that I had to be back in Maryland by August 15th to attend a business trade show.
Since we are motorcycle riders and vehicle drivers, we are often on the highway. Our men swear – we drive like we don’t have any sense! WHO CARES – we get where we need to be without mishap. This trip was no different.
We covered the first 333 miles of our trip in five hours, and arrived at my deceased aunt’s vacant estate house in Craven County on the outskirts of New Bern, NC.
We unloaded the truck, we each claimed a room for the duration of our stay, unpacked a few belongings, and left the house to spend time with adopted family members. Knowing we didn’t have any time to waste, our visits with friends and family were brief. If we didn’t return to the house before dark – we might encounter black bears, foxes, and deer along the country road or while accessing the property from old highway 70 west.
We returned to the house as planned without incident and prepared for the night by watching a few movies and later went to our respective rooms around 11:00pm.
Sunday morning, as I gathered my clothes to get dressed, I noticed a long belt-like strip on my bedroom floor which stretched from under my bed to the television stand. Knowing, I didn’t have a belt like the one on the floor, I took a few quick blinks and refocused my eyes to get a closer look at this thing on the floor; it turned out to be the skin of a snake. My mind kicked into over drive, and mentally screamed RATTLE SNAKE.
The skin had similar markings as a Rattle Snake, but these types of snakes don’t usually come into houses that are occupied by people. I wasn’t sure since I couldn’t see the skins’ tail, and didn’t want to frighten my girlfriend who was in the next room. I grabbed my cell phone and called my adopted father (Pops). I quietly and quickly told him what I discovered in my bedroom. He said, “It’s probably a Rat Snake. I’m on my way. Don’t touch the bedding, just back out of the room.”
I pondered if I should tell my girlfriend about the snake skin or not. After looking in the parlor, the family room, the hallway, the kitchen, the bathroom, the den, the spare room and not seeing any sign of the snake. I concluded the snake could still be in one of our bedrooms – if he was still in the house; and I couldn’t check Franle’s room without telling her what I was looking for.
I didn’t want my girlfriend to freak out but I needed to alert her of the situation. So I went to her room and gently said, “Franle, I don’t want to frighten you, but we MIGHT have a snake in the house.” She seemed pretty calm when she asked, “How do you know?” I said, “He left his skin in my room. Come on, I’ll show you.” Franle followed me to my room, saw the snake skin, and FREAKED OUT.
Now, you are wondering how I knew she freaked.
Let me put it this way. Do you remember the Hokey Pokey dance we did as kids? Well, Franle did the “you put your whole self in and you shake it all about” quick version; turned on the balls of her feet, raced to her bedroom, grabbed all of her luggage from the floor, threw it on the bed, and simultaneously zipped both bags up. Then she ran out the back door to the field, still shaking her hands as she went. Franle didn’t return to the house until Pops arrived.
As I stood near her room door watching her zip up her luggage – I’m praying, “Lord please don’t let the snake be in there!”
When Pops arrived, he and I went into my room to look for the snake. The snakes’ skin was the only sign of his visit to my bedroom and it measured 5 1/2 feet long. I learned from recent research that Black Rat Snakes rarely grow beyond 6.6 feet long, therefore this snake was pretty big already.
I must confess: I’m so proud of my girlfriend Franle. She turned out to be a real trooper once she recovered from the shock of seeing the snake skin and Pops presence on the property. My girlfriend faced her fear of Rat Snakes, and held the flash light as I pulled furniture from walls, and turned them over to make sure the snake had not found a new hiding place within the underlining and framing of the furniture.
Once it was determined the snake was gone, I made it a point to be more attentive and vowed to kill the snake if it returned to the house. It never did return during our three day stay.
The fourth day, we left the residence and traveled to Brunswick, GA. A few days later we were on our way to Gaffney, SC; returning to Maryland on August 13th.
I hope this short story motivates you to get out of your comfort zone and do something exciting with your friend(s). It’s funny NOW, but then it wasn’t so funny!
To learn more about Rat Snakes click the below link:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/gaston/Pests/reptiles/pages/rat.htm
Tags: Funny, Girlfriends, New Bern, North Carolina, Rat Snake, Road trip