Slither 1

After having lunch in Lampasas, the idea was for us to come back to the house long enough to pick up my cousin's luggage, after which we'd head up into Waco and visit some of the Texas-themed attractions.

Right as we were entering McLennan County, however, a freak rain storm moved in; we quite literally went from "clear blue skies" to "hard, driving rain" in just a few minutes, something that slowed us down by a good clip.

The rain cleared right as we made it into the parking lot of the Cameron Park Zoo, but when we made it up to the ticket counter we were given a piece of rather unpleasant news: due to the rain, most of the outdoor animals had been put away; since there was only two hours left before park closing, the decision had been made to simply keep them that way. Save for one or two critters, all that was open were the concessions and the indoor exhibits.

Despite this, we carried on anyway. It almost immediately paid off for us when we encountered a school of catfish swimming in a body of water surrounding a monkey exhibit; said cousin (remember that giant catfish sculpture?) 'bout near hit the floor when she realized just how big they were.

After a detour to the Asian wildlife exhibition (the Komodo dragon was still on display in its enclosure, but the rest of the animals had been put up) and a few moments playing with the interactive features, we made our way to the snake exhibit.

The guy you see up there was one of only two snakes that I was able to get a good picture of; the rest were either in hiding, asleep, or matched the insides of their enclosure too well to be properly seen.