It had been a heckuva day so far, and it was far from over.  After a quick gas n' grab we headed north towards Kansas City and a rendezvous with Chad Whitney.  On the way we straddled a turtle on the road, and we pulled over for a rescue and a quick look.  It turned out to be a female Western Painted Turtle, a new one for some of the gang and a species I hadn't seen for a number of years.  Some quick photos and then we got the Painted Lady off the road and ourselves back on the road.

We met up with Chad at his house along with his buddies Matt Jeppson and Brandon DeCavele.  Prior to the trip Jim had been corresponding with Chad as to good places for us to check out, and Chad had graciously pointed us to some of the spots we had herped over the past three days. Introductions all around and then we headed south again, our group now just one shy of a dozen, three cars worth with Kansas leading, the Iowans in the middle, and the boys from Illinois bringing the rear.

The rest of the afternoon was a bit of a blur, as we moved from spot to spot at a pretty good pace. Chad's goal was for us to visit as many sites as possible in the time allotted, to see as many herps as possible.  Our group was large and spread out, so it was a bit difficult to keep track of who found what where, and to take photos of everything to boot.  At the first roadcut Brandon found a young Great Plains Rat and a juvenile Speckled King, and Jeff turned up a very nice Prairie King. Jim found a juvenile Yellowbellied Racer, which I missed seeing to my disappointment - the juveniles are pretty little things.

At another stop with a very high cut across the road we found another juvenile Speckle, and Tracey and I each found a juvenile Red Milk, both opaque.  It seemed like a lot of the juvenile Milks were opaque at the same time.

Moving on again and Brandon found three GPRs under one rock, one of which was a real looker.  Jeff found a GPR and a Prairie King within a few feet of each other. Across the road Rick and I each found a large gravid female Redsided Garter.  Rick opted to be savagely bitten by his, and I settled for getting pooped on and musked by mine - I'm not sure who got the better deal.  Rick and I seemed to have cornered the market on gravid female parietalis on this expedition.  Tracey and I found a very nice young Osage Copperhead in a cavity under a rock; we all photographed the snake in situ and then covered back up.  I wondered how long a snake living ten feet from a busy two-lane highway had to live...

From left to right, standing - Tracey, Matt, Dav, Brandon, Steve, Chad
Crouching - Ken, Jim, Rick, Jeff.