My wife and I are big into going to see live music. Back in November of 2021, we got tickets to see Jerry Cantrell, the lead guitarist and sometimes vocalist from Alice in Chains, play a solo show down in San Diego at the House of Blues. Therefore, we decided to camp during the weekend of the show. I searched high and low for a place to stay, but I ran into 2 problems: either the campground was crappy or I found a resort RV park that was just too damn expensive. After a few hours of searching, I found Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve which was a quick 18 miles away. Santee Lakes is smack dab in the middle of a massive suburb, Santee. However, once inside the park, you do feel like you’re camping. The camping here was very clean and well organized. Plenty of space, a pool, full hookups, at this recreation area that has 7 man-made lakes. My first day while Lisa worked remotely from inside the camper, I took a few beers and went to the pool which I was all alone. After a few minutes, I saw this little rattler heading towards the pool.

Wondering if rattlesnakes swim, a guy with his 2 boys were approaching the gate to the pool and I spoke loudly to warn them. They ended up getting one of the campground employees to show up with a snake catcher and put it in a bucket. I asked him where he was going with it, and he told me that they dump the snake outside the grounds in some ravine, but they would not kill it. Apparently, they have dealt with this before, so it was no big deal.