I was recently reminded of a time a few years back when I had an unexpected backseat driver. Reading an article about a large Boa Constrictor that had snuck its way on to a MTA bus and caught a ride into Brooklyn before the bus driver noticed him (no one said anything before that!). While I was chuckling at the image of Nagini from Harry Potter eating poor people on the bus, I remembered the story I’m going to share with you, but you can probably guess what it’s about.
Back in 2008, some buddies and I took a road trip up to Moab to do some camping, fishing, off-roading, and drinking; the perfect guys weekend. It gave us all the chance to get away from our kids, wives, and any other chaos in our lives (I love my wife, and my kids are my world, but I just needed three days to be me!), and man were we excited; it felt just like we were 17 again! As soon as we pulled into the KOA (I know it’s not very rugged but I’m not as young as I used to be) we left our stuff on site and took off again, we planned to do a few easy hikes to get all settled in, then fish in the morning. This all isn’t really important so I’ll skip to the end.
After our wild weekend, we were all burnt to a crisp, hungover, and ready to get home, three days can have a huge effect on you when you aren’t a teenager anymore. Well we managed to get almost all of our stuff back together and shoved (more or less) securely onto the top of my old Jeep Wrangler. I took the first shift since I hadn’t had nearly as much to drink as the others, and man am I thankful for that. It wasn’t 15 miles down the road when my friend Tim started yelling in the backseat, I nearly drove off the road! As I straightened my wheels and got back on track I turned around to find a two-foot snake sliding its way over the seat. Hitting the brakes I pulled over and threw out the unwanted backseat driver. I guess it had slept in someone’s hiking boot overnight and gotten thrown in the trunk, but whether it did or not ever since that day I ALWAYS check my backseat before I drive anywhere.