Are armadillos not a Texas thing?
I had thought so, prior to this trip, and fittingly enough, we saw our first (live) armadillo shuffling through the low brush outside of Austin. “Armadillo, kids!” “coooooool…”
We then left Texas and saw them in Louisiana, Florida (LOTS in Florida), Georgia, both Carolinas, Kentucky, and Missouri. 90% of the armadillos we saw were smashed on the side of the road (and here I should qualify — that should read “90% of the armadillos that *I* saw,” as I was doing the driving. I’m not twisted enough to interrupt anyone else’s activities to point out roadkill.) Never have I seen so much roadside carnage. And armadillos are especially gruesome as such.
The only conclusion I can come to is that they either like to hang out near roads and play chicken (badly), or that there are so incredibly many of them creeping around the South that it’s purely a numbers game that you’re going to see a few dozen flattened on the highway during any given drive. That’s a little disconcerting.
OK, carry on.