Side Notes--paper towels vs. poisonous killers!

I did not grow up in Arizona, but I did get my degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson. Arizona is known for having a few things that would like to off you, such as nasty cactus, Javelinas, and scorpions.

My old dog, Scottie, and I had a few run-ins with the cactus, often ending in me frantically searching for the tweezers and pulling spines out of his face or my hands. I understand they are called "prickly pear," but I didn't think the pears would be prickly....

The only run-ins I had with the Javelinas occurred when I was in my truck, so that was never a real threat to me. If you don't know what a Javelina is, it's a giant hairy pig-like thing. But, it's not a pig. It's a peccary. You'll have to look it up if you want to know more--that's all I've got from my two and a half years of residing there.

Now, the last is probably one of the more common annoyances in Tucson. The first couple of times I lived there, I was told to close my drain plugs in the bathroom as they would crawl up through the plumbing. I don't really know about that, as I never encountered one. Not once.

So tonight, as we are camping in the Virgin River Gorge with the temps topping out at 108.5F, we chose to do our dishes in the ladies room. There is only one other camper in this giant place, so we just popped into one. It was full of dead bugs and looked as though it hadn't been cleaned in a really long time. Regardless, we cleaned a little spot for ourselves, washed dishes, and turned to head out.

I took this pic a few minutes too early. It would hit 108.5F later.

As I open the door, something small comes in, and I pay absolutely zero attention to it. Josh promptly steps back and says, in a very excited voice, "It's a scorpion!"

I said something to the tune of, "Really? Huh. Well, this is Arizona after all."

He re-opened the door and told me I had to see it.

It was nowhere to be found, but nevertheless, the idea of camping in Scorpion Land had me a little nervous. Thankfully, one thing Marmot has done correctly with its tents is make the openings round, with the opportunity to put the zipper heads at the tops. No tiny little Scorpion gaps for those little pukes to get in.

As we walk out of the bathroom for the last time, Josh says, "Well...it might not have been a scorpion.... It might have been a little piece of paper towel floating in on the breeze...."

Wait...WHAT!?! What do you mean a piece of paper towel? You can't tell a scorpion from a piece of paper towel???

In the end, it really doesn't matter. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have nightmares about scorpions army-marching into my tent while sleeping.

Good night!

 

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