My friend Shannon and I walk our dogs everyday. Well we did until I got a job...but I am glad that I am working so it is OK that our daily walks are now weekly walks. We walk from our apartments past some restaurants and doctors offices, then down past a construction area, down a dirt hill, and then on a "path" (a construction zone with huge pipes and back-hoes) that leads us to the
Greenway Walking Trail of Charlotte. This is our own personal short-cut to the
Greenway. We usually walk between 4 to 8 miles and we are considered regulars. Yep we know the other regulars and the construction workers are familiar faces. Now that you kn0w our routine I will tell you about the traumatic event that changed our path.. goodbye sneaky shortcut.
It was a beautiful sunny humid southern end of summer day... Shannon and I were walking along talking about houses, jobs and boys when we approached the hill... like normal we started to walk down... about 1/3 of the way down the hill I froze in terror. About a foot away from my little Ellie was the biggest snake I had ever seen not in a cage. It should be in a zoo or reptile house somewhere! This snake was slithering across our pathway and covered the entire path which is about 10 feet wide!!!! I could not move for about 3 seconds then when I did my body did a weird leg kicking jump scream combo... while screaming I turned yanked Ellie's leash and started running...my scream lead to Shannon screaming seeing the snake, screaming again and running as well. We sprinted to the top of the hill out of breath and scared to death. Our construction worker friends were running to us because they could hear our screams and thought a homeless guy tried to kill us or that we found a body.... they were thinking something was seriously wrong.. and it was HELLO we were almost killed by a giant snake!
We frantically told them what had happened between our gasps for air and wiggling around to get rid of our creepy feeling. They died laughing and told us that because it was all black it was a "good snake" the kind that keeps cotton mouths and water moccasins way. I was very confused by the term GOOD SNAKE! Are you kidding me this snake looked as big as the snakes that eat babies out of huts in small villages!!! I am pretty sure it was related to the huge snake in Harry Potter.
Once we caught our breath and got some composure we had to walk the long way on the side walk to get to the Greenway and we have not braved "SNAKE HILL" since! We are waiting for winter when the giant beast who so rudely made our personal walk way its home will be hibernating!
