Thank God I’m a Country Boy

 

I hopped on my bike to go out for some exercise one day early last summer. Not long after starting, I noticed what appeared to be several tiny ribbons flowing across the road ahead.  Realizing quickly what they were, I steered so that I wouldn’t hit any of them.

It wasn’t easy.

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Probably a dozen tiny, newborn garter snakes were sliding across the blacktop.

I almost paused my ride to study the diminutive reptiles, but looked ahead at that moment and saw a doe with her two fawns from the previous year.  They were standing, eating our soybeans, just feet from the road I was on.  One of the youngsters sported six inch velvety spikes while the other was a slick head.  Three of God’s beauties amid the green of the field.  The young buck raised his tail to half mast as they trotted a little distance away before stopping to graze again on the money-crop that keeps the farm in our family.

I rode on, reminded of other things I’d seen while out for exercise.  I’d been riding fast a few years ago when, in almost the same place I saw the garter snakes, a fat doe jumped from the weeds onto the road, running the same direction as me.  I grabbed the brakes just enough to prevent a collision, then pedaled hard, managing to  almost keep pace with the graceful creature as she ran down the pavement to where our field road cut off from it.  She bolted off into the corn and I continued on my ride.

Many times I’ve seen deer in the neighbor’s pasture as I rode, ran, or walked by.  Sometimes they were alone, sometimes in groups.  Other times they were mingled with the neighbor’s goats or cattle.

Last spring a deer jumped to its feet in the woods and ran along the side of the road.  Our yellow lab, Sampson, had been running along beside me but, when he saw the deer, he thought it was his job to protect me from it, so he leaped off the pavement.

I yelled for him to stop.  At that same instant the deer tried to jump the fence, but ran into it instead.  She bounced off the wire and Sampson collided with her.  The two animals that normally run so gracefully rolled in a heap of tangled paws, hooves, and brown and golden skin until they managed to unravel themselves.  The deer cleared the fence this time in one fluid leap and Sampson rejoined me, tongue lolling from the effort.

I swear he was smiling as if to say, “THAT was SO much fun!”

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Many years ago, I jumped out of bed one day at dawn to take my regular run.  A thick fog lent an ethereal air to the cool morning.  There was a lot less traffic on the road in those days, and it was still gravel, so I figured I would hear any of the rare vehicles that might approach me through the mist.  I started off at a trot to warm up my legs.

A couple miles into the run, I was almost mesmerized by the sound of my shoes caressing the ground as I flowed along the mist-shrouded thoroughfare.  As in a dream, the fog thinned.  Suddenly, ahead of me, a big coyote materialized.  He still sported his thick winter coat and stood broadside, staring at me.  There was no fear in his gaze; he just stood there, watching.  I slowed my pace and the fog moved in to obscure him once more.  I ran on, expecting to see the big canid again at any second, but I never did.  He had disappeared without a sound, tempting me to think he had been a figment of my imagination.

But he hadn’t been.

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Other times I have seen the expected snakes, turtles, rabbits, raccoons, and opossums.  Once I ran through thousands upon thousands of tiny frogs in the first couple miles of my run, all moving southward across the pavement, one little hop at a time.  I was able to wend my through without tromping any.

I wasn’t so lucky when I was out on a training run and noticed that almost every step was greeted with a very slight crunching sound, or…feel.  I had encountered a mass migration of tiny snails, and I do mean tiny.  Like the frogs in the previous story they were all crawling southward.  Unlike the amphibians there were millions rather than thousands, making it impossible for me to avoid smashing some as I ran.

Interesting – disgustingly interesting.

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Probably the most incredible thing I’ve encountered on the road occurred during a long bike ride.  Dark clouds had been drifting through all day but, as I rode west about 17 miles into the 20 mile route, it happened.  The clouds split to let the brilliant sun shine through just as it began to rain.  No normal sized drops fell on me that day; they were huge.  The size combined with how relatively few there were so that I could feel each individual drop when it plopped on my sweaty body.

But that wasn’t the best part.  The brilliant sunlight was captured and magnified by every drop so that they sparkled as they fell.  For probably a quarter mile I rode through a veritable shower of glittering diamonds before the clouds covered the sun and the rain stopped.  To this day I can see those liquid jewels filling the air ahead of me, splashing into an explosion of sparks when they hit the pavement.

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I finished my reverie that day as I crossed the bridge that borders our land.  My head swiveled to the left, searching for the three deer.  There they were, and they had been joined by a friend.  They were far enough from the road this time that they weren’t at all frightened by my presence.  They watched me with mild interest while they munched the tender soybean tops.

As I pulled into our driveway my quads were engorged from peddling and I breathed hard and dripped with sweat, but there was a smile on my face…and I thanked God.

I thanked God I’m a country boy.

 

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(below) This is another little garter snake I caught.  The babies in the above post were even smaller, probably newborn.