Welcome to the Roadkill Cafe: Today's Special...
Apparently, it's armadillo.
While making the return trip to St. Louis from the sticks I enter I-44 at Rolla. From there it is about 110 miles home. With as much driving as I do, I have to come up with new ways to entertain myself. Today, it was counting and separating roadkill. After what I have seen today, I am pretty sure armadillos are invading my great state in preparation for a takeover. As many years as I have lived in Missouri I have only seen 1 live armadillo, and that was during last weekend's trip. I knew they were found in southern Missouri, but damn.
What gave me the great idea of counting and seperating roadkill? Seeing six armadillos in different states of decomposition within the first mile of entering I-44. I thought to myself, "If there are this many dead armadillos, how many deer are there." It grew from there. Here is a breakdown of the dead animals I counted minus the 5 or 6 that I just could not identify.
16 Armadillos(an early invasion force unwittingly destroyed by rednecks and their pickups)
4 racoons
2 various species of birds(I am pretty sure 1 was a hawk)
1 deer(the armadillo apparently started by exterminating the deer, they are normally found in much greater numbers along our roadways)
1 skunk(thank God it was more than a couple of days old)
1 turtle(I guess he just was not fast enough, one time I saw one shoot out from underneath a tire like a ball out of a machine in a batting cage)
Now that I have sufficiantly disturbed some of you, my brother who is visiting from out of town has returned and I must go spend some time with him.
posted by Larry @ 5:30 PM
26 Comments:
during the 8 years i lived in missouri, i never saw an armadillo in the state. in fact, the only time i saw any was during a road trip through southern kansas, oklahoma, and arkansas about 10 years ago. after passing our sixth corpse, we dubbed them "oklahoma speed bumps".
So you could be on to something with your armadillo theory. Because I would think there would be more skunks. I can't go down the road without smelling a dead skunk. This must mean the armadillos are taking out the skunk population too. Who but a man in a van would have ever thought it!
Duff: I have lived here most of my 27 years(all of that my Dad has owned the property where he lives) and never saw a live one until last weekend. But the last couple of trips I have noticed an over abundance of the dead buggers.
Doug: Take a bath once in a while. I'm tellin ya it works. Hey, maybe the wife might even become more amorous(spelling?), who knows.
That explains it! I wasn't sure what an armadillo was, but, after seeing your picture, I am quite certain I saw one in my garage the other day. Then, I saw him running down the street a yesterday. He/she seemed very nervous both times. Obviously trying to get back to Missouri.
I think we are on the same page with Star Wars...
The armadillos must have chased all the skunks to California. I swear, not a day goes by when I don't see one of those dead little stinkers on the road.
Think I'd much rather have the armadillos . . .
O: Be wary of them, Tennessee might be next. Oh shit, I have to warn my grandparents.
C: Maybe the skunks and armadillos are working together and they figured it would take more than a hard shell and ratlike tail to take over California. All Iam sayin is be careful out there.
C: I almost forgot, LOTS OF PICTURES!
the great armadillo migration.....do they eat fire ants and large roaches, by any chance? if so, i'd be more than happy to help them migrate to south carolina.
and why do i get the feeling you're not requesting pictures of armadillos?
I have no idea what they eat, but what I do know is that they are not impervias to automobiles, and that is a start.
I remember visiting my grandparents when they lived in NC. Those fire ants really, really suck.
I am just requesting, beautiful, 'vacation' photos.
hrmmmm...guess i need to start taking photo-worthy vacations.
dammit- too bad hawaii didn't work out.
Yes, I need to get a camera of my own so that I can actually take photos on vacation.
did your ex get the camera in the divorce?
Not really, she is a professional photographer so all our photo equiptment was hers to begin with.
I just haven't gotten around to buying a camera, cause the one I want is hanging around $300 I and just can't bring myself to buy it.
Maybe next month.
professional photographer? no wonder you have such a fixation!
is the camera you're coveting film or digital?
Digital, I am just hoping I can wait it out until it drops to $200.
It is a middle of the road sort and more than I need for my capabilities. I play sports okay but when it comes to photography I suck.
i'm a film kinda girl, but i must admit that the digital camera is pretty convenient when it comes to taking pictures for the blog and website.
Oy, Armadillos eat grubs. They rooted up our front yard before I shot them. there's still one of 'em loose, but I'll get 'im!
Yeah I have a laptop that I have with me at almost all times. It can be used as a portable photo album at times.
I have a DVD full of almost all of my family photos from the late 19th century to now(at least on my dad's side of the family) that my dad put together. He has been a comp scientist for 30 years and has money, so he always has the latest stuff and has had a scanner and programs capable of great quality.
When I finally got a good computer, after splitting with the wife of course, he gave me the DVD. I can pop it in whenever I feel like seeing the pics.
now as soon as I take the time to figure out photo hosting I will actually post pictures from my collection.
lar- I told You you can host on my site, but it'd be easier to host on www.imageshack.us. If you still want to host on dimebowl.com after checking out imageshack, let me know and I'll build you an account.
i cheat- i actually have a dummy page set up on the station's website where i upload all of my non-gnomad photos. it's not actually linked to anything, and as far as i know, only the webmaster and i know it is there.
Duff- that's about the easiest way to do it, if you know how. I've just got my own site, So I pretty much do what i want. I bought the site back when i had money.
Larry, next time you road trip, you should make yourself a few cards for Roadkill Bingo. You just draw yourself a grid and fill in the boxes: skunk, armadillo, possum, deer, housecat, squirell, whatever.
I came up with the idea on a trip where I saw one of every species of animal in history dead on the side of the road. Fisher, beaver, mountain lion, yak, flying monkey, etc. You name it, I saw it on that trip.
So it was kinda like a noah's ark of animal remains?
Sweet.
Absolutely. That trip remains the only time I've ever seen roadkill wolf.
Post a Comment
<< Home