Well, we missed it. If only I had spotted this earlier,
I could have flagged it for you. Well, someone needs to go and do this next year and then send us a post about it.
I’m talking about the World’s
Largest Rattlesnake Round-up in Sweetwater, Texas. The contest draws people from as far away as Australia (of
course…what’d you think we were gonna say? France?) who all come together to share the experience of ferreting out
poisonous serpents from the region’s many holes and bushes.
But there’s more than merely snake hunting.
You can’t miss the Miss Snake Charmer Scholarship Pageant, which brings together legions of lovely teens to smile, pose
and hack off rattlesnake heads before skinning their bodies. Tell me that doesn’t sound fun?! One fact is certain:
Sweetwater is hard-core about rattlers. And the audience gets to learn a thing or two about snakes…probably more than
you ever wanted to know. During the course of the weekend, trained experts will milk venom from the fangs of live
pit vipers, and the culinarily adventuresome can sample juicy chunks of deep-fried diamondback meat. Then there will be
the award for the Longest Snake. Last year the record was 77 inches. Sorry, you can go ahead and pick that one up.