An Everglades break during our annual family vacation to Florida.  This year my nephew Ben joined Ron and me for a day of swamptromping and a night of roadcruising.   We walk a canal looking for Burmese pythons, but all we find is this Ribbon Snake stretched out on the limestone levee.     Next, some trash sites, where Ben flips a gecko and peels his first Corn Snake from under the bark of a fallen Australian pine.      Back to the wetlands, hoping to see pythons.  No snakes, but on the banks of a pond we spot the most massive crocodile we’ve ever seen in the Glades. At another pond, a considerably less formidable subject.     Nighttime on the roads produces the usual collection of Garters, Ribbons, Moccasins, and various Water Snakes, plus a few species we don’t commonly see.       Still no pythons, so we head home, resigned.  On the way back we drive down a side road, see nothing, and decide to turn around.  It’s just past midnight, the first few minutes of my birthday, and at this point I don’t expect any wishes to materialize.  But then almost immediately after our U-turn, right where we had just passed, our headlights pick up a thick white speed bump that wasn’t there a moment ago. We scramble from the car, make our grab, and proudly have the invader in hand.  Next day we make our contribution to science by delivering the snake to a research project, but not before taking a few celebratory photos.