Ohio-Kentucky trip

[Mark Sedenquist]

We got home Thursday night around 11:00 or so, a day early and a little shaken.

RoadTrips can sometimes be fraught with challenge and unexpected events... and a few thousand bugs. Thanks for taking us along on this journey!

Mark

[lhuff]

Eww!! - Thankfully, I've never had to deal with bed bugs.

However, chiggers are nasty creatures and they absolutely love me. It never fails that at some time during the spring or summer I wind up looking like someone has attacked me with a very small whip. BTW - rubbing alcohol on chigger and fire-ant bites is the best to ward off whelps or bumps after being stung. My intrepid travel partner and I never travel without rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide or chewing tobacco for wasp, bee, spider, etc stings.

Mark - I can not tell you how many hours I spent playing with roly poly bugs growing up. I still find them fascinating.

Ok - still trying to get past to bed bugs and my paranoia induced scratching.

Sounds like everything else was fun.

[Mark Sedenquist]

Mark - I can not tell you how many hours I spent playing with roly poly bugs growing up. I still find them fascinating.

The articulated shells and their 12 pairs of little legs? Yeah, I like those too. Still do. But these others were like an invasion of an alien lifeform. I have never seen anything like it before or since. Still makes me itch to remember them. They got in every possible crevice and niche, if you get my drift, in the vehicle...

Ok - still trying to get past to bed bugs and my paranoia induced scratching.

The last time we had bed bugs was in --what should have been a nice hotel -- in Page, Arizona. Yucko!

Mark

[lhuff]

Ok - I was worried you were knocking my beloved roly poly bugs. But those others - they sound weird and disgusting.

I'm going to have to avoid Shamrock, TX, though. It might be a nice town, but I don't think I could even drive through there without a gallon each of Off and Raid.

[Mark Sedenquist]

I'm going to have to avoid Shamrock, TX, though. It might be a nice town, but I don't think I could even drive through there without a gallon each of Off and Raid.

Me too. This is a dilemna worth of Solomon to share this info and still not violate our "good neighbor policy" -- {I will probably have this post edited by the Moderator of the day....}

I, too, have been itching since I started reading Mass Tim's post....

Mark

[Mass Tim]

I suppose I should clarify - we did not pick the bugs up the first time in Shamrock. Rather, we were in a hotel there, I could not sleep due to the insane itching, and I woke my travel partner up to take me to the hospital. We had to ring the doorbell at the ER! After the medication, they suggested heading into OKC to see a dermitologist. My only time there and we spent it, with no luck, trying to find a Dr. that would take my insurance, because nobody knew for sure what we had run in to.

We could have picked them up in IN, CO, UT, or AZ that time. I was COVERED - I mean, my arms and neck and face, etc. looked like some form of swamp creature. It did help to thwart any would be muggers at some of the seedier places we stopped. I should have taken a picture (we have a picture of me on the jackrabbit at Jackrabbit, AZ, but it's too far away to tell). So, just to sum up - nothing against Shamrock, Texas here.

This time, we're pretty sure they were in that location when we arrived; had we picked them earlier, the symptoms would have been showing. The owners of the establishment were very kind to us, even though they were getting flaked out by it all (and the motel they set up for us really needs to be replaced).

My intrepid travel partner and I never travel without rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide or chewing tobacco for wasp, bee, spider, etc stings.

Rubbing alcohol definitely helped with this, to help dry out the whelps. So does Aveeno soap and bath powder (oatmeal).

Glad it's not just us that have had these experiences. I imagine, even being very careful, it could happen again. But we're adamant that it's not going to.

[Mass Tim]

I forgot to mention, in the Dayton area, is one of the best names for a street I've seen in a long while:

Needmore Road

[Mark Sedenquist]

I was COVERED - I mean, my arms and neck and face, etc. looked like some form of swamp creature.... I should have taken a picture (we have a picture of me on the jackrabbit at Jackrabbit, AZ, but it's too far away to tell).

Personally, I am glad there is no photo record -- my imagination is running amok as it is. It is really weird, everytime I come back to this work station now, I feel something crawling on my leg. I think this thread has hit a nerve. Good to know about Shamrock, and thanks for the clarification -- in our our case, I know exactly what parking lot was the source of the rolling invaders....

Mark