Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Full-on panic.

Okay, so we completed two floats. We were tired. Now it was time to just go to a "fun" spot on the Buffalo and just hang out, swimming, fishing, and hopefully I could find some good subjects for my 85mm lens!
Now Daniel likes to fish in spots that are not "over-fished" meaning the fish are not so smart about hooks and bait. So he picked a remote area of the river.
We drove and drove down narrow gravel  roads. Some really just meant for 4x4 but our minivan did pretty good! Especially with a trailer full of kayaks. Finally we reached a spot where another spring fed creek met up with the Buffalo.  It was pretty and we were hungry!
It was hot.....
so we headed for the shade on the other side of the river. AS I WALKED ACROSS THE SLIPPERY SLIPPERY ROCKS in the river I saw a SNAKE floating sideways RIGHT TOWARD MY LEGS only a few feet away,  I knew he was about to TOUCH my legs! I went into full panic!!! I knew if I jumped I would slip and land in the water! I was SCREAMING and yelling at DANIEL! He seemed to think I was being ridiculous.  Which just irritated me! HE didn't grow up with a healthy fear of snakes. I WAS! And I was FREAKING OUT! I managed to step to the side a little and the snake slithered on down the Buffalo! Daniel had Jedd walk me the rest of the way across the river. I could hardly see straight!
What does Jedd do.....
Gets the goggles out and LAYS in the river turning over rocks looking for more crawdads!
No fear. Doesn't even care about the snake!
After lunch I get out my 85mm only to have it FOG up completely due to the heat and humidity. The fog was all through the inside of the lens! Yikes!
 I laid it in the sun to heat up and hoped it would clear up.
It did!
And I got these:




I was happy.
 But I WAS NOT 
NOT
getting back in that river. 
Good thing we had a kayak with our gear in it to float across in this time!
Daniel later admitted he saw several other snakes back there as he was fishing!



I still

{heart}

the Buffalo.

Beauty vs fear. 

Beauty wins.

6 comments:

Cathy said...

I am not going to comment on the snake except to say "No way would I get back in that river!"

Beautiful pictures. Those are amazing!!!

Sarah@Life in the Parsonage said...

I admire you for even getting in the river in the first place! :)

Shelley said...

I am not sure you can grow up in AR rice country without a healthy fear of snakes! I just told Joe the other day that my hosta's were too close together and looked "snakey". (apparently WI doesn't have poisonous snakes - but I keep looking for them)

Good job overcoming and getting those beautiful pictures!

marion said...

SWEETREDISM

Reba said...

I almost couldn't read this post because I had a gut feeling a snake was involved. Ick. Scream. Shudder. I will say though that the insect pictures are incredible!

Vicky said...

Amazing butterfly pics! You must give another class on how you do these amazing close-up shots!

And I would have been doing some screaming too, if I'd been told to go in the river with the snake!