I took a 4 day weekend to go meet up with my old pal, Chris, from my AZ Herpetological Association days.  He now lives in Baton Rouge and I in Temple, so Beaumont was sort of a central point for us to meet up.  He is also very familiar with the area and he proved to be an amazing guide to the shockingly different ecosystems that collide in the relatively small area of the Big Thicket and the Gulf Coast.  Along for the trip were my wife and daughter, as well as a good number of folks from the DFW Herp Society, of which Chris was an active member up until he moved to Louisiana.
 
We started our trek Friday morning and right away the fresh DOR's were on the roads.  Flattened or otherwise obliterated armadillos, skunks, opossums, raccoons, box turtles, hognose snakes, rattlesnakes, garters, and a coachwhip were seen as we made our way down into Houston.  And that's just the stuff I could recognize as we sped by on the highways.
 
I would normally avoid a big metropolitan area such as Houston during a long drive, but since we're new to Texas we wanted to check it out and explore it for a bit.  Another reason was the exotic pet store that is located there.  The wife wanted a Hedgehog, so we went to look for one.  Unfortunately, they were out but we did manage to get out of there with our first live herp of the trip (albeit a captive bred one), Squishy the Stinkpot Turtle:
 

 
With Squishy in tow, we went to lunch and then got stuck in rush hour traffic and construction on the way out of Houston.  I wanted to be in Beaumont to meet up with Chris by 4 pm, but I didn't end up getting there until almost 6.  
 
Once there, I got the girls settled into the hotel and took off with Chris to meet up with the Dallas contingency at Anahuac Wildlife Refuge.
 
A quick sunset walk along the canals revealed the unusually xeric conditions of this otherwise lush marshland.  Not seeing anything on the move, we decided to drive on the roads outside of the refuge to see if we could spot something.
 
As soon as it was dark, the frogs and Gulf Coast Toads started coming out.  I believe the frogs were mostly Cricket and Leopard Frogs, but I did not try to catch any for pics.
 
Our first snake of the night was a Diamondback Watersnake, freshly run over.  Next up, we saw a 4 foot Alligator that was also hit.  How you can't avoid an Alligator on the road is beyond me...
 
A sight for sore, DOR weary eyes was this little guy, a Gulf Coast Ribbon Snake:

I took a couple quick in-hand pics and moved it off the road.
 
Disappointed and tired, we decided to go back into the preserve to see if we could find anything by walking along the canals.  I don't know if any of you have tried this, but walking along Alligator infested waters in pitch black darkness is a little intimidating.  And exhilarating, especially when your flashlight catches eye shine in the water!  I actually saw 2 Alligators in my beam and caught about 8-10 eye shines in the distance.  Very cool experience!
 
I didn't get any good eye shine pics, sorry.  I did get this little dude, though:

 
That was my day one.  Days 2-4 to follow.  It gets better, I promise.    

Dang it, Gerald!  Didya have to give away the ending so soon??   You've been on my facebook, haven't you?
 
If you must know, I found 3 L. t. amaura.  One was found peeking out from under a log, one was a DOR, and the 3rd was seen darting across a road and under the leaf litter.  All moving in plain daylight, might I add.
 
I'll get the rest of the pics up tomorrow or Friday.  I have a crazy work schedule again this week.

Quote from monklet on May 6^th, 2010, 11:42am:

 
Matter of fact, I did!  I had oysters on the half shell, BBQ crabs, and gulf coast shrimp.  Evrything was super fresh and delicious.  I don't think the oil catastrophe has affected that part of the gulf.  Yet.