Jeeper's Trip to Snake Road-With Ukulele cover

the song is Copperhead Road by Steve Earl

So...where to begin....

Here in southern illinois there is an amazing place called Larue- Pine Hills...each year in the spring, starting around march 20 or so and until about may 1 or so...there is a migration of snakes. When walking the road there is a large bluff line (cliff) where they hibernate during the winter, and across a small gravel road, a swamp and adjacent forest where they spend the warm months. (the process repeats in reverse in the autumn)
All sorts of snakes make the crossing, but a large majority are the venomous and needlessly feared water moccasin (cotton mouth...same thing...named for its white mouth which it shows when ticked off) Now, i don't condone everyone going out and getting so close to venomous snakes (or any snakes you can't ID) but i can tell you we were within inches of some of these venomous and so called agressive snakes, without anything but a few threat displays...certainly not the snake with with intentionally jumping into your boat to attack you or chase you up a tree we are used to hearing about. I got so close to point out how strikingly beautiful these snakes are, all of them in the video...venomous or not....
Sadly we didn't see any of my favorite vipers ((all venomous snakes in Illinois and all but one (the coral snake) in the US are vipers of some sort,)) the copperhead...the name snake..erm...name sake of the song...

It should go without saying, no snakes were harmed in this video despite that fact that i was peed on by at least 4 ringneck snakes...

Ya'll have a grand day and for more information about snake road read this

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0009160040-tr-sep22,0,3439809.story

and check out a fellow tuber with a great site Herping With Dylan
http://www.youtube.com/user/Reebbo

Category:

Music

Tags:

• snake
• road
• herping
• ukulele
• uke
• ukelele

[keonimanua]

I think I need to visit illinois one day. DId you take all the footage yourself?

[BornAgainJeeper]

@keonimanua yes i sure did...

southern illinois is a wonderful part of the state...its wine country, thousands of hiking opportunties and world class fishing....

[BaronK69]

Man, some great scenery and snake shots there! We don't have many types of snakes here in sweden, but I've always been fascinated by them. Great version of one of my fav songs too. All n all a great vid Jeeper!

[BornAgainJeeper]

@BaronK69 thanks alot, man, i also love this song so very much....its fairly easy, you should consider a cover of it youself someday, i think it would fit your bluesy voice well

[TripAAAHerping]

nice vid man!! hate to break it to you but thats a rough green snake not a smooth

[LoneHerper]

Sweet footage! Love snake road!

The first snake was a Rough Green snake. Second was a young Yellow bellied water snake, and the "Brown snake" that you had in your hands was a Red bellied snake.

[snakestrike8]

Its a rough green snake the smooth green snakes don't climb and have smooth scales but you did really good for snake road Im going agian next year.

[KenMiddletonUkulele]

I have lived in the countryside in the UK pretty much all of my life and I have only ever seen seen two snakes, both grass snakes. We only have three types though and only one of them is venomous. Lovely film Alex.

[mugambismonkey]

Wow, great pictures, Alex! And of course, the music is awesome as ever. My favorite is the smooth green snake. It's so cute! :-)

[UkesterBrown]

Thanks for the cool and informative footage..... another neat thing about southern IL I have seen is oil pumps pumping and wind mills not turning.

[0SkippyTheClown0]

Awesome footage of the snakes. I've been in the woods most of my life here in East Texas and have never run across a Timber Rattler. Not that I'm complaining.... Cool place. Thanks for sharing. Jeep on brother!