A brain teaser...what is this snake?

[clarionite]

As a young kid, I grew up on a farm in Arkansas.

A 6 year old has a ton of great places to play on a farm.
One of these places is the loading shute for animals. It's
basically a ramp that is built to load animals into trailers.

One day while defending my fort (under the loading shute)
with my trusty machine gun (a ceder branch) I was lying in
prone position peaking out of the fort. I turned to the right,
and about 12 inches from my face was what I thought at the
time was a King Cobra... Well, he inherited the fort in about .0002
seconds.

I thought my grandpa was going to die laughing when I told him about
the king cobra under the shute. He told me what it really was, and that
because I wasn't a cricket, lizard, or tadpole I was probably safe.

[JKlebPhoto]

My cousin and I used to catch hognoses and chicken snakes and sneak them into school. When we got to fifth grade the teacher had a terrarium set up for us since he knew our bad habits. You gotta love private schools.

[clarionite]

My brother and I would catch water snakes, chicken snakes, blue racers, and garter snakes as kids. I didn't have any fear of snakes (other than the king cobra ) when I was a kid. I can remember diving off of a pond bank to catch a water snake that got away from us. I caught it right behind the head and came up from the dive grinning from ear to ear. I guess my little brother had more sense than I did. On our walk home, He said "I can't believe you did that". Years later, I can't believe I did it either. I've developed a healthy respect for snakes. Not a fear exactly, but enough of a respect that I give them their distance.