I know you’ve all been secretly clamoring for some exotic Southwestern wildlife, so have a peek at this menagerie.

I’ve probably seen a hundred of these bad boys already.  Where the deer and the antelope play indeed.

Not very cuddly, but certainly exotic and cool by Midwestern standards.  This was the first rattlesnake I saw on the road that wasn’t, shall we say, “vertically compressed”?

This jackrabbit was hanging around US 60 by the Very Large Array.  (Don’t worry, I’ll get to that eventually.)

Drive around enough on open rangeland and eventually, you run into the occasional bovine roadblock.  One honk is all it takes to clear a path, though.  They understand that much automobile.

Finally my favorite was this horned lizard.  On a cool, cloudy morning, this dude was sitting by a roadside pullout hoping the sun would pop out and give him the energy to start his day.  The look on his face says, “It’s to cold to deal with you, buddy.”