"My earliest herp experience that I can remember was when I was four or five years old. We lived accross the street from West Lake Park near Davenport, IA. There was an old wooden truck topper in our apple trees when we moved in, and we climbed on it until it collapsed. A while later, we were picking up the boards, and there were dozens of garter snakes under them. I remember thinking that the ones with red on them were ribbon snakes, and the ones without were the garters. Not long after, I realized that the line of railroad ties at the near by park were also always full of garters. I used to catch them with my friends just to put them in the grass and watch them slither around. The next 15 years or so was filled with various random encounters with herps, but I never put any serious effort into finding them."