Snakes and ladders

My one regret from when we visited the ruins at Besh Ba Gowah was that I didn't read the brochure till we were lying down in our sleeping bags that night. Apparently you can climb the ladders up to the upper floors and roof! Dang!

And then, that day, we finally saw our first live snake (we had seen lots of crispy motorist-kill snakes, and some huge rattlesnake skins in the ice cream shop at Top of the World Trading Post). But then there s/he was, on the road, near the fog line. It looked whole? And when we talked to Don later, who was just behind us, he confirmed it had slithered off the road when he passed it. A long, thin, quite light colored snake - I assume on the sand it was well camouflaged.

Then, several miles later, right at one of those times when you have a cross wind, and you really wish you were echeloned, but a truck is coming up behind you - and a car is coming the other way? That's when that second live snake (same kind as the one we had seen earlier that day) we've seen in 1,800 miles of biking came scurrying across the road, off the hot asphalt s/he was warming him/herself on - and headed right for my left foot! A snake! Ooooh, a snake!
(Badger badger badger badger...)
I start yelling; but Heidi can't hear me because of the 18 wheeler approaching us from behind, the snake "corrects" its direction of travel so I don't run over it..a sigh of relief.

Then "phmrichmmmsnfph!"

I think 9 of the wheels on that truck must have hit that big beautiful snake. It made me sad. Maybe I should have "not" reacted, maybe run it over with one little bike tire, and it would have gotten off the road, a little injured - before the truck got to its 10-20? (Location, good buddy.)
I tried to console myself with "at least it was quick."
But man, there are a lot of cool - but very dead - animals on the highways of America. Just another of the "unseen" costs of our car culture.