Another little story: Years ago I lived further in the sticks than I do now, in a little bitty rural Texas community called Gray's Prairie. I was living in someone's RV, and on their property that they shared with their in laws, besides the child of their own, the people had adopted FIVE children. Their family produced lots of garbage, and as it was legal, they would often burn a large portion of it, and had been doing so for a great many years on the family's large property.

I'm ever the scrap metal scavenger, and so I was doing a bit of digging for metals - tax free income that, and when I can NOT pay income taxes, that inevitably go towards the murders of persons in far away places, I do that for it's moral superiority. On top of a large and old mound that had been a burn pile in the past, I was gathering aluminium cans when I got that peculiar feeling that one sometimes gets when he realizes that he's not alone. Soon, beneath me, the largest snake I'd ever seen emerged from the mound. I'll not forget the rustling of the leaves as it slithered on by, disturbed as it was by my intrusion - a King Snake.

The Largest of the Eastern King Snakes that had ever been measured was Eight feet and Five inches long - but they could possibly grow larger than that. The Eastern King Snake and the Speckled King Snake are both found in my area of North East Texas. The snake that I encountered in the story above was the largest reptile that I'd ever seen. I did not feel fearful of the creature. I felt like I'd been sort of rude towards the thing - trespassing on his mound for aluminium cans.