What a trip. Raymond and I were the only two brave souls who loaded up and went. It snowed and sleeted in the panhandle all Friday night, so we actually ended up leaving Saturday at 5 a.m.
We made it to Waynoka and drove past Little Sahara. It was PACKED!!! People were parked everywhere. No one was camping outside the park alongside the highways like what is normally reported. There was so much standing water that it looked like it was a pain in the ass!! Everyone was dirty with red clay.
We drove down to the square first where they sat up the vendor booths and rides. When we got there, there wasn't that many people out at all. We walked through what was there.
We went to the first vendor who was selling pythons for $50, water dragons for $20, scorpions for $18, and more stuff. NO THANKS!!
We walked through some vendor booths where they were selling funny T-shirts and stickers. We picked up a few shirts and stickers there.
Finally, we saw the "Den of Death" in one of the buildings. We walked up and you could hear all the rattlesnakes rattling their tails!! It was a hair raising on your arms kinda feeling. We paid $3 to get in there.
People were standing around this box about chest high that had tons of rattlesnakes in it!! They were frickin huge!!! All of them were rattling their tails! I had goosebumps!!!
The handlers were flat crazy!! One guy I called "Bubba" because he was dressed in overalls looked like he liked it when a female was scared. He got this weird look in his eye as he handled a snake and would come to where she would be standing.
The other guy was really friendly and wouldn't approach you if you were scared. I was videotaping and he started to approach. I shut off my camera and backed away. He stopped and said "I won't come any closer. I just want to show you his fangs." I started filming again while he showed us fangs and venom shooting out of the rattler's mouth. Later in the day, one guy standing and watching got shot right in the eyes by venom. He started to panic. I would have fell to the floor and thought I was dying.
The handlers said it wouldn't hurt him...yeah right, I believe ya...
All of the handlers weren't dressed like I thought they would be. None had on gloves or they all wore ropers. I figured they'd have on boots past their knees or something. These rattlers would bite at them as they walked past. The handlers wouldn't even flinch!!!
Raymond and I stayed in there for quite a while. Finally, we decided to go check out the rest of the vendors. We ended up driving back to Little Sahara park to check out some stuff down there.
We drove through the North and South campgrounds. Like I said before, the water was standing. We drove past one guy on a flat bottomed boat floating in one of the puddles in the parking lot!! It was funny!!!
Everyone was wearing Mardi Gras beads, so I'm assuming the boobs were out the night before!!
We were leaving the North campground and saw an ambulance go to the entrance to the dunes, so we followed it. Yeah, I know ambulance chaser!!
We waited to see what was going on. We watched them bring out a guy on a stretcher and put him in the ambulance. Not sure what the details where to the accident!
We went back to the square and went into the Den of Death one more time. Raymond wondered off into the back and found the "Butcher Shop", so he motioned at me to go look. We saw the handlers grabbing a snake, chopping its head off, skinning it, wash it, and then they'd chop it up. UGH!!!
It was a very interesting day!! I really enjoyed it. I just wished we would have camped and taken the quads. I think that would have really made the day!!! We only did a day trip, so I think next year, we will make it a weekend event!!! I hope more people will venture out with us.
Yes, it was packed...but it still looked like some fun!!! ;D