Watch out for Snakes!

On Thursday, I had the misfortune of encountering a snake while out on my bike ride over lunch. The problem was that I didn't see it until it was too late and I ended up riding over it. Yes it was alive. And no, I didn't kill it. But it kind of freaked me out for the rest of the afternoon.

It was towards the end of my ride and I was starting to get hot and hungry and guess I wasn't paying too much attention. But it's not like I always stare at the road straight in front of me. One has to look ahead as well. Anyhow, I realized that the stick was moving and was not actually a stick. I started to slam on my brakes, but then my overactive imagination got ahead of me and I thought that I was going fast enough that slamming on my brakes might actually send me over the handlebars, which would put me on top of the snake. It seems like a better idea to try and keep the bike in between us. This was a big ass snake. It was probably about 4 feet long and about twice as thick as a garden hose. It spanned across the entire bike line. So my options once I decided to not slam on the brakes were to go off road into the dirt and grass, possibly where there were many other snakes awaiting to attack. Or I could swerve into the road, and would have to be well into the lane since the snake was heading towards the center of the road. But this would possibly put in front of a car because I didn't have time to check behind me. Plus it would require me to look, which meant taking my eyes off of the snake, which meant that it might be in a different spot when I looked back. And yes, you can think of all of these options in a split second. And so all that was left was to go over. My first thought was to pull up my legs, but then realized (after starting) that I was still clipped in, so standing up and screaming seemed the next best thing. I had slowed down enough from my attempted effort of slamming on the brakes, so by the time I hit it, it hopefully wasn't such a big impact. There was a distinct bump (front wheel) followed by another distinct bump (back wheel) and then it was over. When I finally looked back, it seemed to be continuing on its way to the middle of the road where it would likely be hit by a car.

It was a bit traumatic. I kept my feet off of the floor for the rest of the afternoon.