Since returning to the AT on July 12, I have discovered I am just about the only hiker who is south bound (SoBo) on the trail.
What this means practically is that I am spending most of each day
alone, and I get to bust through all the spider webs.
I do not mind that
so much, but I must confess I have never been a big fan of having a web
across my face.
Performing this action dozens
of times each day has caused me to think of some of my family's African
spider stories. Here are my two favorite.
One
evening as I was working in my office to prepare for teaching in our
Bible school, I heard Mary say "dad, I just heard a tarantula land on
the floor of Zeb's bedroom." At first I did not believe her. I mean
could a tarantula weigh that much? But when I went into the room, I saw
she was right! A tarantula was on the floor.
The next night Zeb was home from RVA and when I went into his bedroom to
kiss him good night,
I saw he was under his mosquito net. Now that boy
always refused to sleep under a net so I said to him, "I am glad to see
you have decided to use your mosquito net." To that he replied "it is
not for mosquitoes, rather it is a tarantula net!"
The second one happened one evening when I returned home from Nairobi
with groceries. As Thomas and I unloaded them, we saw a mouse run
under the upright freezer. So we decided to stand on either side of it,
slide it out from the wall, and dispatch the mouse when it ran out. As
we slid the freezer, a mouse, a tarantula and a scorpion ran out.
That was so unexpected we just stood watching and burst out laughing!
I think we killed the scorpion but the other two lived to see another
day.
At least there are no tarantula webs to burst through on the AT!
Uncle
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