Credit: Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE via Wikimedia Commons/CC2.0

Credit: Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE via Wikimedia Commons/CC2.0
Look, we get it: You don’t love snakes. Some of us here love them enough for all of you and hey, we’re not asking you to love them, we’re saying you should respect them. Why? Fun fact: Out of fear over rattlesnakes, early Florida developers dynamited a whole bunch of gopher tortoise burrows, where indigo snakes, rattlers and gopher tortoise all live. Guess which of those three things suffered as a result? (Hint: Not rattlesnakes.) Learn more about these spectacular serpents at the Rattlesnake Festival in Dade City.

Pasco County Fairgrounds, 36722 SR 52, Dade City | Oct. 20: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Oct. 21: 10 a.m.-4 p.m | rattlesnakefestival.com

This article appears in Oct 11-18, 2018.

Cathy's portfolio includes pieces for Visit Florida, USA Today and regional and local press. In 2016, UPF published Backroads of Paradise, her travel narrative about retracing the WPA-era Florida driving...