* But certainly the most memorable part of the morning  involved a black rat snake that attacked the van. This beast (3-4 ft long) was sunning itself in the middle of the road, so I pulled up beside it and let the class look at it. It seemed lethargic and unwilling to get off the road. Since there was a vehicle approaching from the other direction, and because this snake would certainly be in danger if it stayed on the road, I suggested that one of the students get out and see if they could scoot it off the road so that it wouldn't get run over. Mark grabbed it by the tail and moved it to the ditch on the other side of the road. But it turned around and came back across the road, went under the van, and then proceeded to climb up and wrap itself around the rear axle. It took about 10 minutes of poking and prodding (and hoping that it wouldn't wrap around the hot tailpipe) before we could get it out of there and move it to another ditch where it wouldn't be tempted to head back for that van.