Rattlesnake

Yesterday was a momentous day for both tidy camper and dirty girl. In all the years they have been hiking and climbing and backpacking neither of them have ever seen an adult size rattlesnake. Late in the afternoon tidy camper walked by a bush and heard a sound. Initially she thought that her gas canister was letting out gas.  She then realized it was not her gas canister but the sound of a rattlesnake. She quickened her pace and shouted out to dirty girl who was in front of her. Dirty girl did not hear her. This was a bit concerning to tidy camper because had she been bitten by a rattlesnake snake dirty girl would not have heard. Tidy camper would be slumped over her backpack slowly dying of poison wihile 

dirty girl walked on merrily taking in the beauty of the blooming cactus. 

        A few hours later in the day tidy camper was walking ahead of dirty girl. Dirty girl heard her scream and thought maybe she had fallen down and hurt her ankle. Not so. Tidy camper once again heard another rattle, jumped into the air and ran forward. The sound of that rattle does very strange things to tidy camper. She immediately goes airborne and yelps like a coyote. Dirty girl was close enough to hear her and she stopped in her tracks. Tidy camper said rattlesnake and it was then that dirty girl saw her first rattlesnake. It was big and fat and looking straight into her eyeballs. They communed then dirty girl took a wide berth and let the rattlesnake be. Tidy camper did not actually see the rattlesnake she just heard it. She said she would've taken a picture of the rattlesnake had she seen it. Dirty girl told her to look into an encyclopedia to find a picture. Dirty girl was not carrying a camera. Later on down by the Palm Springs District water conservation area the security guard said that the rattlesnakes were in a bad mood having now just come out of hibernation. Dirty girl had to think about the idea of a rattlesnake in a bad mood. Really? He then said that the sidewinders rattle snakes on the flatlands were way more dangerous. That's where they were headed. Apparently they are flat camouflaged into the sand they move sideways and they're blind. When you're blind you're a bit more Agro. Oh joy of joys. Here we come sidewinders.