It’s funny how the mundane can instantly become exciting or terrifying or a combination of both. For example, I was raking hay early, way before the coffee kicked in. It’s hypnotizing watching the hay roll down the V-rakes into a nice big windrow. It’s exciting when the rake picks up a large snake and catapults it toward the operator.

I was looking back and the snake came out of the rake like a 100 mph fastball out of a pitching machine. He was totally stretched out and headed right for me. I was trapped under the steering wheel but I was wide awake and formulating an escape plan.

Thankfully, he fell just short of the tractor. He was squirming around trying to right himself and I was trying to slow my heart rate back down when the rake caught up to him. Here we go again.

The snake was airborne and I felt his chances of getting to my seat were improving. This was not how either of us had planned our day. I figured he was probably sleeping away the morning under a nice cool windrow and now he was flying, being chased by a steel swirling monster, and his only chance of survival was to join the guy that was dancing.

Dancing is a bit of a stretch, but you can drive a tractor standing backward on the hood, steering wheel in one hand balancing with the other. He missed the tractor for the second time, but I made the executive decision to abandon ship if he came at me again.

It was a relief on the third attempt he was towards the end of the rake and didn’t get nearly as close and finally went through. I sat back down in my seat and realized I had performed the entire show fifty feet from I-80. If they didn’t see the snake, I can only imagine what they were thinking.