An Ounce of Prevention

Using Mrs. Anderson's instructions, they had no trouble finding the camping spot. The last three miles took them off the narrow two-lane highway on a dirt road. They hadn't seen a vehicle in the last half hour. Carmen was comforted by that fact, but Alex was concerned that something could happen to them so far away from civilization, as he called it. Something could happen to them at their home in Arkansas, too. They had deliberately put their house where it would not be visible to the neighbors, and those neighbors weren't close enough to hear if anything went wrong. The difference was; they didn't know anyone here. They had cell phones, water and electricity, though, and they had each other.

They spent most of the day setting up camp. It wouldn't have taken so long if they had been more familiar with the equipment. Even simple things like pulling out the awning on the travel trailer required time to determine how to do it. The camp site had a wooden picnic table and a fire pit. They had purchased hot dogs and marshmallows to roast when it got dark.

Alex hooked up the electric and water while Carmen and Jonathan gathered wood. Destiny watched the twins. Working together, they got the camp ready for an evening of relaxation and enjoyment of the night sounds.

Carmen was the first to see a snake. It was a light color that blended with the desert soil. It looked like it had horns on its head and it moved across the top of the ground unlike any snake she had ever seen. The rattles on its tail indicated it was a rattlesnake of some kind. She called Jonathan.

"Look at this rattlesnake. I've never seen one that moved like this before. I wonder if there is something wrong with it."

Jonathan joined her. "Oh. That's a sidewinder. You have to be careful when the ground is sandy because it will bury itself in the sand to spring on its prey."

Carmen glanced around nervously. "Is this sand?"

Jonathan grinned. "Yeah, sand mixed with the dirt, but not loose enough to bury a snake. I read that they can travel across the top of the ground up to eighteen miles per hour."

Carmen grimaced. "I can't run that fast."

Jonathan laughed. "I don't think it's going to chase you, Mom, but humans can run up to 28 miles per hour, so you should be safe if it does."

"We'd better get back to the camp. We've wandered too far already." She turned back toward the camp and Jonathan followed.

A flat wide lizard ran out from under a bush and stopped, watching her. It looked like a miniature dinosaur. She frowned. "What's that?"