Bull Snake

We had a sweet stay at the Rapid City Ho Joes, which was chock full with tour bus loads of Roads Scholars also-known-as Elder Hostiles, so we had to upgrade to the jacuzzi suite. Whoopee! The motel also had French cowboys (Parlez vous Français, partner?) and the waffle iron instructions were also written in German. Anne attended a quilt show in town, while I chilled at Starbucks and wrote this post. We are headed up into the Black Hills and Custer State Park today. Pictured is a Bull Snake, one of two that we saw in the Badlands. Bull Snakes look similar to the Prairie Rattler and even try to imitate that venomous snake by coiling and hissing, but without the tell-tale rattling sound. It’s a good sign to see a Bull Snake, because they eat the rattlers and seeing one means that the other one s not around. There were signs everywhere warning us about the Prairie Rattler, even though only one in 5 million visitors to the Badlands have been bitten and no one has ever died from a Prairie Rattler in the park.