The next day, our last day in Florida, started off cool and with a drizzle of rain.  After breakfast we headed south into the Apalachicola, stopping to investigate fallen logs and other potential herp hiding places.  The rain continued, and the air temperature began to drop a bit.  Even so, Rick managed to locate a Brownchinned Racer under a log (a tale told in detail in my journal entry The Why of a Brown Chin).  The snake was quite chilled, and we weren't much warmer.  Shortly thereafter the heavens opened up and the rain fell in torrents.

We parked and waited for a while, but the rains continued and the temperature continued to fall.  What to do?  We decided to head north on our route home, and hope we could outdistance the bad weather and find some good herping on the trip home.  We plotted a course north on two-lane roads towards Alabama.

Off to our right we spotted a small pile of white plastic siding near a homestead.  Pulling over, we asked the homeowner if we could  poke around.  He not only gave us permission, but gave us directions to a group of abandoned trailers in the back of his property.  The pile of plastic siding was our first target, and rather quickly Rick slapped hands on an Eastern Glass Lizard.  This was a good-sized specimen, and was secured for photographs without any loss of tail. 

The trailers and the junk surrounding them yielded no serpents of any kind, but a nice assortment of skinks and lizards.  In a nearby patch of wet woods we found a single Plethodon glutinosus grobmani, the local subspecies within the Slimy Salamander complex.  It looked just like the Slimy Salamanders from back home, but genetically distinct enough to be according subspecies status, and to be noted here.

We headed north again, and Rick had his nose in the Florida Gazetteer.  "This looks like an interesting place," he said.  The map inidcated railroad tracks running through a low, swampy place.  Why not?  Railroad tracks can be very productive.  We found a side road crossing the tracks, found a place to park, and began walking in the direction of the swamp.