True Story:
Before my husband went home with God, he and I used to enjoy venturing in undiscovered places and looking for all sorts of things. We were like two archaeologists digging around and moving rocks trying to find natural wonders. We would hop on his motorcycle and seek the most uninhabited places; old dilapidated barns, turn-of-the-century graveyards, forgotten creeks and stone remains of old churches and houses. I cannot tell you how many unusual “treasures” we found!
We also loved to catch salamanders, turtles and frogs. Of course, we’d release them again but it was fun finding them by a river’s edge and catching them. One morning while investigating a narrow stream almost hidden beneath a line of huge trees in rural Pennsylvania, we were lifting huge stones and found an orange colored salamander. As my husband held and admired the critter in his hands, I stooped over to look for another.
With my foot I pushed a huge dead tree branch from the bank of the stream and as I did the water began rippling. All of a sudden a humongous snake-like creature rose to the surface and silently rippled away. It happened so quickly and so smoothly that I was in absolute awe! I yelled to my husband in excitement and although we searched the rest of the afternoon for it, I never saw it again.
I honestly dismissed it as a black rat snake at first. In rural South Jersey I’ve seen plenty of them slithering around farms and down old dirt roads. The farmers loved them because the snakes got rid of the rats. They are not a huge threat and will remain motionless when threatened or will quickly slide away. They are also excellent swimmers as I’ve seen them cross the cedar creek where my siblings and I used to fish and swim. But they swam side to side, not undulating dolphin-like as this one did. And the biggest black snake I’ve ever seen (approximately 6 ft long) was nowhere near as long and thick as the one I witnessed in that stream.
Anyhow, I still tell myself it was a black rat snake but definitely the biggest one I ever saw. Evidently, it was unusually big because I can’t find anything online that suggests anything the size of the one I saw that day. Or that they swim like a little Loch Ness monster undulating over the surface of the water. LOL
