Like a Bat Out of Hell

Today, we drove to Carlsbad, in the Southeastern corner of New Mexico. I have driven thousands, perhaps a million miles on the roads of the country and I have often seen vehicles pulled over the cops/police/state troopers for something or another.  Today was the first time I saw not one, but 3 different vehicles right in front of us pulled over, in the course of about two hours.  We saw the cops/police/state troopers put on their lights and pull them over. We have not seen that many safety officers in our whole trip before today. Yes, these folks were driving like a bat out of hell.  I am so lucky that I decided to behave myself today and did not have a lead foot....therefore, did not get stopped.  

This evening we went out to Carlsbad Caverns to learn about bats and watch them come out of a cavern there.....a different cavern than the one that people tour in.  They come out swirling like a giant tornado and then fly in the air and take off to happy hunting grounds.  This was a deep, low cavern so it truly was like the bats were flying out of "hell."  FYI, bats do not want to get in your hair and they are not rabid (for the most part) and if they have rabies (rarely) they will lie on floor of cave and not be aggressive, like dogs or raccoons.  Interesting program and watching the bats come out, in silence and with no camera or phones allowed (affects the bat's echo-location) was quite the experience.

Before the program, as we got to the parking lot, Paul got shortly ahead of me as I was looking for something in the car.  He comes back and says, "Come and see the rattlesnake."  I say, "No, way!"  Apparently, this 3 feet snake was on the sidewalk as another couple walked to the sidewalk and then want into the bushes and curled up in there less than 3 feet from the sidewalk.

I gimped like a bat out of hell back to the car to get my camera.  Always wanted to get a photo of a wild rattlesnake and now I can take that off my Bucket List.....ha-ha it was never on my list.  I truly didn't know if I really wanted to see one or not.  I was surprised how I close I got and bend down to get this shot.  I'm nuts, I know!  Also, this was a 300 mm lens.

To top it off, as we left the Carlsbad Caverns property, we waited for a car so that we could get out on highway.  We had just made a left hand turn and a car appeared heading towards us and turned on its lights, red, white, and blue.  Go figure....another vehicle going like a bad out of hell caught right in front of us.  This is getting freaky...and it's not even Friday!