I just finished reading The Lizard King: The True Crimes and Passions of the World's Greatest Reptile Smugglers by Bryan Christy. It is about international reptile smugglers and the overworked, underfunded U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agents who try to stop them from smuggling reptiles. While the subject was interesting, the book was not very well written. The author took a lot of time to set up the main villain (Michael Van Nostrand who operates a Florida-based reptile business called Strictly Reptiles) but then failed to really explain how the federal government finally brought him down.
Below: Michael Van Nostrand with a turtle, or is it a tortoise?
When my dad and I went to Wallace Falls to hike, we saw several things along the way that caught our interest, such as signs advertising a reptile zoo, a roadside chapel, and buffalo jerky.
On the way back, we made sure to visit them all.
First, we pulled over at the roadside stand selling buffalo and salmon jerky and cherries. We bought cherries and some $10 buffalo jerky that was pretty good. But not $10 good.
Next, we passed a bakery we saw along the way, in favor of searching the almost deserted route two for slurpees! We were hot and tired, and something warm and baked didn't sound good. Here began our search for red (cherry?) slurpees!
Next, we stopped at a little place along the road. There was a parking lot and a tiny little chapel, about the size of a garden shed. The sign said "Pause, Rest, Worship.... (No Facilities)." We went in, read some passages, and took pictures of ourselves "preaching." Cute!
Our next stop was at a place called a Reptile Zoo. I honestly didn't believe that it was a real zoo! Along a highway like this is not the kind of place you expect animals except cows, horses, and sheep to live. We went up and it was a real reptile zoo. A really cool one! We saw lots of large lizards, huge snakes, alligators, and we got to touch the tortoises! We have plans to get a tortoise as a pet now (and a trampoline, but not as a pet).
To end it all off, we wanted to get our slurpees. My dad had visions of himself worshipping with a slurpee in hand, but we weren't able to find one! We looked at Chevron, Circle K, and Shell without success. Finally, after much frustration, AM/PM had a wide selection of Icees! I had cherry mixed with coke and my dad had straight cherry. We returned home munching on pretzles and beef jerky and drinking slurpees! Yay!
"Hockey ought to be sternly forbidden, as it is not only annoying but dangerous." Halifax Morning Sun, quoted in Michael McKinley's Hockey - A People's History
