One of my semi-regular stopping places is this truckstop on I65 just North of Indianapolis. It's an ok truckstop, one of the big chains. More importantly it has a bar at the edge of the parking lot. A very good quality for a truckstop.
On my walk over to the bar I scared up a rather large snake. It looked like a basic garter snake to me, but at 2 feet long and a good two inches around a lot bigger than any garter snake I had ever seen. I grabbed it, picked it up, and examined it more closely. I was pretty much convinced it was just the biggest garter snake I had ever seen. This thing was at least two feet long.
Talking to some folks in the bar I found that yes, garter snakes get pretty big here. A couple of folks went out to check out the snake to verify it's variety and confirm that they also thought it was just a big garter snake. Well, ok, never seen one that big but then I haven't yet seen everything. Corn-fed snake I guess.
The bar was pretty much the same as it's been over the years I've been stopping in there. A few locals, several truckers, and a couple of unidentifiable species, most folks trying to get along with each other, and some opinionated conversations here and there. We talked about everything from the merits of various dog varieties to politics to music, all the while consuming adult beverges of various types.
At one point came a shift change when the bartender went off duty and a new one came on. Dang, I was just getting used to the one on duty when I came in. She came around to the customer side of the bar and sat next to me for a bit. She suggested that perhaps we should leave and go party elsewhere.
I'm not a "stick in the mud" but I am also not anxious to expose myself to possibly deadly STDs so I politely passed on the invitation saying that I had to get rolling early in the morning. I have to say at this point that it's been over two years since I've "been with" someone so the offer was more than tempting. I've just never been much of one for what I consider dangerously casual contact. I guess I follow the Groucho Marx idea of not belonging to any club that would have someone like me as a member.
Anyway, I had a pretty good time, drank a few brews, smoked a couple of bowls of good tobacco, had a couple of conversations about pipes in general, shot a few games of pool, called someone an asshat (always a plus), had someone of the female persuasion make a pass at me, and made it back to my truck with all of the bodily pieces I left it with. Can;t complain.