We've landed safely in Phoenix Arizona on Skywest airlines and ironically my
luggage packed with expensive cameras, a laptop and precious hard drives
arrived safely too
Down near Tucson multiple thunderstorms were developing.
Enhanced convergence from storm outflows enabled a middle cell to produce a small tornado
That is a tornado.
How about that?
This landspout was responsible for the upheaval of several tumbleweeds
and many lives were saved as lizards and scorpions sheltered in their burrows.
(thunder crashing)
Now that I got you here with the weak tornado gust devil thing, what should we do?
We're in Arizona the storms are dying.
The last few days the regime has been the storms would fire up early and they would overturn the atmosphere and
the anvil cloud would cool off the surface and...
There wouldn't be any thunderstorms in the evening time.
And that's kind of why we came here is to get the lightning with the sunset with all the branching
But, we don't mind...
We're in Arizona. There's still plenty of other awesome stuff to look for
And I think tonight we're gonna see some cool animals.
So i guess we'll just have to cruise these beautiful lonely roads and see what kind of crazy critters we can find.
You gotta get out of here
You gotta go.
I like your big ears.
Arizona night skies are well known for having many UFO sightings.
Go friend. There you go. Good job.
There's also a good chance you'll see this little green creature out here
Hoho, he's a big'n!
(Spanish Ukelele music)
Oh I gotcha! Aa ha!
This is the Colorado River toad, the largest indigenous toad in the USA.
Glands within the skin contain poison as well as a potent psychoactive.
If ingested, these chemicals can cause strong visual and auditory hallucinations.
Hence all the UFO sightings!
ladies and gentlemen do I have a treat for you.
Check out the California kingsnake. Black and white powerful constrictor.
They're known for taking down rattlesnakes even bigger than themselves sometimes.
But this guy is really really relaxed. It's a boy...
And I just caught him right here crossing this road. It's not very busy.
So we're going to let him go right where we caught.
You're gorgeous! This made my night.
our first rattlesnake of the trip is this Sidewinder.
They're small, quick and as you can see adorable!
Sidewinding is a cross between slithering and two-stepping.
A locomotion practical for traversing sandy or smooth surfaces.
The next day provided our second species of rattlesnake.
The banded rock rattlesnake.
And then...
Whoops! hahaha.
so just caught this beautiful snake. It's a rattlesnake, on my camera bag right now.
let me see if I can get her to come out and play.
I'm gonna try to sweet talk this snake into letting me handle it as you can see right now she thinks...
I'm gonna eat it. I'm gonna harm it. So we're just gonna be
So we're just gonna be patient, we're gonna sweet-talk, we're gonna sit down with it
and maybe she'll chill out.
One of the sweetest rattlesnake species there is
And they come in all sorts of fancy colors this one's kind of yellow.
Back in Texas they're gray.
She wants to on her way.
but I just want to hold you a little bit longer. I want to show everybody how sweet you.
She could turn around and jump on my face. That's my hand right there. You know that's my hand.
Seen the gray ones and kind of orangish ones and they've green ones up in central Arizona
but she's gonna make some striking pictures.
So amazing.
If i stand up right now...
She's gonna get a little freaked out because I'm big. I'm lurking over like a
I'm lurking over her like a predator. So I'm gonna try to get up.
This is probably gonna freak her out a little bit.
I'll let you go.
It's alright.
I'm not going to eat you. I just want to love on you.
I appreciate your sacrifice.
I think we can let you go. I just had to show the world how wonderful you are.
(thunder cracked)
Hey! Don't walk through my shot. I'm serious.
Hey! You're messing up my shot!
I can see your tail.
This next alien creature has as many names as it is strange camel spider wind
Camel spider. Wind scorpion. Sun spider or what I use, Solifugid to name a few.
they're arachnids but despite their names they're neither scorpions nor spiders.
They belong to their own weird order.
They have large intimidating jaws or more accurately worded "Chelicerae" that formed powerful pincers
Capable of slicing their prey to pieces.
They pose no serious harms to humans however painful bites have been recorded.
females can lay well over a hundred eggs in burrows they dig and some species are reported to guard their eggs until they hatch.
I decided to put this to the test.
we're gonna leave this devoted soon-to-be mama alone to let her bring another
hundred or so solifugids into the world.
While seeking the best spots to photograph storms,
it's common to run into your buddies in the most random places.
What's up Mike? How's your 2019?
Not a great year but look at this sky right here.
I can't believe that you are here in Arizona. This is unreal.
It's great. Your home state. It's a beautiful state.
Look at how that sky just ignites out of nowhere.
Oh if we would have lightning right now...
Hey little foxy fox.
Beautiful. It's alright!
just trying to get close up shots of you.
Look at you dashing.
Go go go go go go!
Hey little skunk. Cutest little skunk!
Ohohohoh. Look who's Mister Tough man!
Look who's Mister Tough man!
Gotta get you off the road little guy.
Our fourth species of rattlesnake was this macho newborn Mojave rattlesnake
Rattlesnakes have their babies live and crawling ready and able to tackle the world all on their own.
and a fifth species of rattler.
do you remember what kind of rattlesnake this one is?
Rattle! Whoa!
and our sixth species of rattlesnake found in Arizona. The iconic...
(hawk calls)
I've got a treat for you guys I think you're really gonna love.
Say hello to...
Which means in latin, "Big whip butt"
This is a whip scorpion or a vinegaroon.
and he's not really a scorpion but he kind of is.
He's got four pair of legs but the front pair had been modified for antennae-like trotters they're no longer walking legs.
It's completely harmless unless you suffer from some kind of bug anxiety.
but he's got this whip but thing on his tail that kind of also serves like an antennae
if you're gonna come and from behind.
He's got these big 'ol pinchers that he likes to crush anything smaller than himself with and much.
What else. OH! The most important thing...
When you first meet them stand their ground and they raise their pedipalps into the air
And give a good threatening defense and they've got special glands in their abdomen where
they can spray acetic acid into the air. Or vinegar. That's why they're called vinegaroons.
but I kind of like the smell. You smell like Long John Silver's
Now i want fish and chips.
You ready to go back to your rocks and your crevices and your underworld?
I sure enjoyed my time with you
You know that? You are fascinating!
Alright, let's take you let you go back into the desert where you belong.
When in Southeast Arizona it's always a good time stopping in Tombstone.
Not only for the jalapeno burgers at the Crystal Palace, but to walk in the footsteps of
gun-slinging legends like Doc Holliday Wyatt Earp and more.
this is whisker that Doc Holliday used to like. It's been around since 1810. Also this is JFK and Abraham whisker of choice.
Well, give me some of that good medicine.
Here it is. Alright! Cheers friend.
Next you're going to want to stroll down to the bird cage theatre and go back in
time to the days of saloons brothels and lawlessness.
We're here at the Bird cage theater. We're going to go back into the rambling hall.
Back there you'll see the original faro table from Doc Holliday.
Woohoo. Come on in.
You'll see a lot of antiques including the Fiji mermaid. whoa try one of our residents
What???
We'd have plays. There'd be music. You can see the original grand piano's down in front.
If you were performing here in our stage and they really liked you,
They would shoot upwards. You can see where the benches were and if they didn't like you...
They would shoot that way. Uh oh! haha.
If you look up, this is the real reason gentlemen came to the Birdcage.
Now the ladies would come in. They would draw the curtains in the front if they were modest.
if they worked sometimes they'd leave him open.
The love seats upstairs would fold down into a bed and they would accept that
And they would except that gentleman's money. Whew!
It's been about ten years since I've had a good cowboy hat and I think you have the Hat for me right?
I think so. This is a really good one up here for you.
It looks like Angel Eyes would wear something like that right? It absolutely does.
Its got that lower crown that you were looking for. I love it! What about that horseshoe. I don't like that.
I'm gonna tell you a secret. You take a black marker and you
just mark that out nobody will ever know the difference.
Done! Let's try it on what do you say? Absolutely you want to grab that down
for me I'm a little short. Here we go. There's a beautiful face. Oh shucks.
What do you think. You just sold it then just now. I forgot to ask you how much it was.
Oh a million dollars. That's okay.
SOLD! Let's do it.
Where's that cactus.... boop.
Yay we're in the dust devil.
(Pecos Hank singing) Happy Trails to you.
Until... We meet... Again...
Happy Trails to you...
What's going on friend? hahaha!