Snail Trails

I've written before about the tiny snails that live in my backyard. They mostly stay in the grass, so I forget about them until we have a bout of heavy rain that drives or floats them up onto sidewalks and patios. One rode into the house on Levi's leg the other day. I gently plucked it off and set it carefully back on the patio, which was ridiculous since the snail population out there is often so thick we can't help but step on them.

This photo of two brown snails and a dragonfly will give you an idea of how small the snails are:

I didn't realize how much traveling these little popcorn-kernel-sized creatures were doing until the late-afternoon sunlight caught their slimy trails on the slab in front of the garden shed:

Where do snails go, I wonder, and why do they go there? The photo above shows that the snail at the upper right had traveled in a nearly straight line, so why did so many others take crooked paths to get where they were going? Do you suppose the shells on their backs make them wobble? Or that most snails are male and refuse to ask for directions? Or that there's a high incidence of craziness among snails?

The older I get, the more I realize how many questions there are that I can't answer. With new ones popping up all the time, I'll never be able to catch up.