[PRCo] Re: Interurban track remains/ row

[John F Bromley]

Tongue was firmly planted in cheek.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Schneider" <fschnei at supernet.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 3:27 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Interurban track remains/ row


> Damnit, John.  Don't try to scare him.  I've spent a lot of time
photographing
> the trains in the deserts of Arizona and California and I've never see
one.
> Don Duke told me he once saw one slither out from under a boulder on which
he
> was sitting in Cajon Pass, and decided it was prudent not to move until
the
> snake moved out of striking range.  I heard one buzzing at me at the east
end
> of the Milwaukee Road's tunnel through the Continental Divide east of
Avery,
> Idaho ... shared the skit out of my wife ... don't know why, we were in
the car
> and it was outside.  Did I actually see a rattler?  Only in zoos.
>
> But the best story I can tell about them follows.  I had been walking in
the
> Angeles National Forest ... went up the back way.  I was on a trail from
which
> I could see the old Pacific Electric right-of-way to Mount Lowe.  (The old
> Alpine Tavern was hidden in a ravine that I couldn't see).   Never saw any
> reptilian creatures.  When I got back to the ranger's station, I mentioned
that
> I'd walked for two hours with the telephoto lens on hoping I might have
been
> able to get a picture of a rattler.  Reply was, "Too cool today.  But they
were
> all out Saturday."  I asked him how he knew that they were all out on
Saturday
> and I suggested, "Snakebites?"  He answered in the affirmative.  I asked
how
> did he account for so many snakebites.  Answer: "Crazy people.  They come
up
> here from Los Angeles and pick up the snakes.  Mojave rattler has the most
> toxic venom of all rattlers.  Fortunately we can airlift the idiots down
to a
> hospital in Pasadena in fifteen minutes."   Maybe they've been watching to
many
> Aussie crazies on the boob tube.  The only thing I got out of that day was
a