Saturday, August 27, 2016

Killers, Views, Human Trafficking & Ch, Ch, Changes

Before we left Pennsylvania,  Nicole had been looking into some insect ID's when she stumbled on a cool looking creature called a Cicada Killer.  She thought it was pretty darn neat but figured her chances of seeing one were slim. 

Then, one afternoon, she and Darlene were standing outside talking when something slammed to the ground right beside Darlene's feet.  Stunned they both looked on and marveled at what they were seeing.  It was a Cicada Killer and...

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                                           it had just killed a Cicada!

The cicada was so big that the killer could not take off.  It was furiously flapping and flapping and flapping to no avail.  Then it started walking...

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Smart little booger that it was, it carried that cicada up the side
of the shed flapping its wings the whole way to the top to aid the ascent.

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Freefall avoided, it reached the top, took a leap of faith and, with
wings at full throttle, flew off with its very large prey.

We left Pennsylvania a few weeks ago.  My, how time flies!

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We pointed our noses due south.  On the way, we took a rest break to view the New River Gorge from above.

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                    This bridge is quite iconic and stands 876 feet above the river.

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  It was quiet warm and a beautiful Eastern Comma Butterfly was enjoying the day.

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This is a Comma not a Question Mark.  Three dots not four.

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      We also caught sight of a Spined Micrathena.  What a cool looking spider!

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   Always nice to see the fun-gis popping up as we rested at yet another stop of rest!

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              Sweat Bee getting tipsy at one of our super south resting places.

Speaking of getting drunk, there is a good chance that indulgence in the hard stuff had something to do with our latest encounter with the PoPo in a Walmart parking lot in Georgia.

In case we already have you confused, we were not the indulgers.

The story goes as follows...

We arrived at our Wally World destination having pre-called and received permission to overnight.  It was still quite early on what had turned out to be a very hot day so we parked under the only tree in the lot, opened all of the windows and spritzed ourselves with water until the sun went down. 

At that point, we moved our girl to a more "appropriate" spot for overnight visits.

All windows still wide open and curtains un-drawn, we sat on the bed and took advantage of a fairly decent internet signal.  Unbeknownst to us, a police officer had pulled up right behind.  Since we hadn't noticed him at all (probably clue one that we weren't doing anything wrong), he came up to the window behind us shinning his flashlight and asked if we could come to the side door. 

After some general chat where we assured him we were just passing through and had called ahead for permission to overnight, he asked to see our ID's.  Upon confirming that all seemed to "check out"  o.k. he then told us that he just had to let us know why he was at our door.

It appears that someone had called to report suspected...

Are you ready for this?

Human Trafficking going on in a van at the Walmart parking lot. 

Um.... o.k.

By that time his backup had arrived and asked if either of us was being "held against our will".  Good judgment got the better of us and we did not voice any of the witty retorts that were running rampant through our minds. 

After a hearty laugh, they bid us "goodnight" and said they would pop by to check on us during the evening.

It's not everyday you get pegged for human trafficking.  So, we bet you can guess our new catch phrase for just about anything at anytime that we want to make a joke out of something!

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Well, that's all for now.  We've got big changes in the works.

   Exciting things are a-happening Where the Wind goes.

                            More to come...