So there I was...

and fortunately, here I still am! This is a story of my brush with death...or at least with a great deal of pain and medical attention.

I may have mentioned before that I occasionally add hiking to my mix of exercise. And by hiking, I mean charging up the side of a mountain, accompanied by very fit and very thin women. Sunday night I received a phone call from a friend that such a hike would be taking place the next morning. There were five of us. We arrived at the bottom of the trail shortly after 6 am. Three of us were in front, walking beside each other, taking up the full space of the trail. The other two were a short distance behind us.

Being the women that we are, there was a great deal of animated chit-chat going on. We were about 3/4 of our way up and I was thinking to myself that all the running my friend Staci and I have been doing must be paying off because the last time I hiked this trail I felt like I could vomit at this point...suddenly, my thoughts and the energetic conversation was halted...



a head popped up toward me (exactly between Staci in the middle and myself on the outer right side) and my natural reactions (thank goodness for those) kicked in as I jumped away, off the trail. A RaTtLeSnAkE!!! AHHHHH! I was less than 1/2 a step from stepping right on it. n.o. j.o.k.e. To be totally honest, this was one of my greatest fears realized. Or at least it could have been. The Lord decided He really loved me that day and He drugged that snake or something, because not only did it not strike at this loud hiker disturbing his rest, but he didn't even rattle his tail. I don't know why he was like that, but I have been giving many thanks, you can be sure, and feel free to join me and thank the Lord that your good friend, Kendra, is alive and well today.

Now, I dare say I sound a tad dramatic about the situation. I felt like the other four women with me sort of blew it all off, but I recognize that yesterday morning could very easily have been very different for all of us. This RaTtLeSnAkE just brought his head back down and VERY slowly slithered away into the brush. It seemed incredibly calm. My heart eventually started to beat again, and since that moment, it has been hard to picture it again. I can't believe it happened.

It FREAKED me out. None of the women I was with read my blog, so I will have to tell them later, but FYI...I am done hiking in Dayton, Nevada.