DEAD SNAKE-AT LEAST WE THOUGHT SO

There are so many wonderful things about camping.....getting close to nature, getting to see the country, meeting so many wonderful people, having new experiences, the list goes on and on.  However, there are just a few drawbacks.  Like not having a bathtub, or a good oven.  The one big drawback that we have found is .....snakes.  We have been on the road for a year and have, up to this point, not encountered any snakes.  We don't dislike all snakes, just the bad ones.  Well, I did have one encounter.  One night, while riding my bike at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, I saw something ahead in the road that looked like a piece of tire on the edge of the road.  It was quite large.  So I just steered around it with my bike, passing about a foot from it.  Since it was under a street light, I glanced over at it and got quite a shock.  It was a VERY large water moccasin....coiled up on the street.  I put pedal to the metal and headed home at record speed and told Tom that I had seen a VERY bad snake.  When we went back in the car to see it..it was gone.  Not good news, that meant it was alive.  Sighting #1.
Earlier this week Tom was walking Barklee late at night here at Edisto State Park.  We have been told that snakes are very rare here since they like fresh water, not salt.  He came home to tell me that he had seen a copperhead cross the road here in the campground.  Sighting #2.
Last night, Tom took Barklee for a walk around eleven.  He came back to the camper to tell me to get dressed and to come out, he had killed a copperhead.  Well, I was less than enthusiastic to go look at a dead copperhead and possibly run into one of his friends or family.  When he saw the snake, he immediatley put Barklee into the truck, then kicked sand into the snake's face to confuse it and then kicked it in the head and then stomped on it to kill it.  Dead snake.  When he got there for the photo shoot, the snake was gone.  Tom saw it slithering, confused and dazed, toward a tree.  He went back to the truck, got a piece of pipe and proceeded to beat it to death.  Mr. Snake definitely looked like he had a broken jaw as well as other mortal damage.  So Tom picked it up with a pole and brought it to the camper and hung it on our flagpole as proof of his amazing feat.  When he told me what he had done, I replied that no snake will be hanging from the camper in which I was sleeping and asked him to bag it in a kitchen garbage bag and TIE THE BAG.....you never know.  Deed done.  We went to sleep.  Tom will confer with the ranger on duty in the morning to see how to dispose of the remains.
So the snake is now "hanging around" in the bag over our picnic table. R.I.P.  Come early morning Tom goes outside to get his shoes on to walk Barklee.  He glanced over at the bag, and there, sticking his head out of a hole in the bag was the deceased...alive and well, doing his best to leave.  Needless to say, Tom was a little surprised.  He had killed it twice.
Well, the snake was then double bagged and given to the ranger, who was going to "relocate" the varmit.  It seems that they do not like to kill snakes in State Parks...that is probably why the snake was living here, he thought he was off limits.
From now on, no more walking the dog in the dark late at night.  And no victory dances after murdering a snake with multiple lives.
Below is the picture of the snake hanging on our camper....it was actually still alive when Tom hung it here.....not a good idea...