On our last trip, we noticed something. Rattlesnake smell. Our warm summer evening interview with Bayou Bob, inside his Rattlesnake Ranch near Santo, TX first brought the smell home to us.
Bob had dozens of crates of rattlers lying on the floor, and their musty meaty odor hung like a full sponge around us.
The next day, near Baird, TX we stopped at a long windowless metal building, with large letters spelling "Rattlesnake Exhibit Gift Shop" screwed into it. Its dirt lot was empty, and the exhibit closed, but you could tell from the powerful rattler smell that it wasn't abandoned. There were probably hundreds inside.
And when we stopped in at the Apache Canyon Trading Post, outside of White's City, NM, we were disappointed to hear that the old Rattlesnake Wishing Well had been removed in 1999 after decades of service. Visitor's encouraged by a "Make-a-Wish, Drop-a-Coin" sign, would rain loose chain down on a pit full of pissed off rattlers.
The two nice old ladies who ran the place knew it was a popular attraction, but "...just couldn't take the smell anymore. We were here every day."
