Hey, Philfthy,
I know you know this one. The one where you get to that gorgeous stream of water, it's early Spring, you've been waiting all winter long, got new line on the fly rod, you step into the stream and instantly get ATTACKED by the noseeums. I mean swarmed by this bunch of flyers that you *cannot* see except as a black cloud!!! I mean those buggers get in places you are most surprised about!!! (The loose fitting shorts was NOT a good idea here in my case today.) The Cutters is back in the car or worse yet, at home, of course.

So I get out to Pyramid Lake (which is NOT a stream but surface size, larger than Lake Tahoe) on the Paiute Reservation and get to the place where I turn off between the 36 and 37 mile markers, put it into 4 wheel drive and go back into where the petroglyphs are. I'm so excited. I have this new camera (that replaced the one that got stolen last November, 'member?) and I'm set to try it out. I step out of the Jeep and start swatting, wondering what the hell is going on?

Hey, I got my rock climbing boots on and I'm ready to climb up those piles of tufa to take pictures of the petroglyphs (very ancient stone carvings). The higher I got, the worse the swarm. I couldn't believe it!! ALL I WANTED was a couple of pictures, for gawd's sake! They were so bad they were crawling in and out of places, well...I just as soon leave *that* to your imagination. Too much information is not good sometimes. But I was dancin' and swattin' a lot! I looked like some crazy person!!!

You wanna know the kicker? Good news and bad news. Bad news first.... After all of that, I only had a roll of 12 pictures. DAMN! I'm gonna have to go back! The Good news? I got to get in the car and go home.

Hahahahahahahaha......

Mel just shakes her head at me sometimes and thinks I ought to know better now about preparing for things. At my age and all, you know. Boy is she gonna get a laff out of this day's trip.

It's good to be home.
No-smokin' Travelin' Pat

Ten months, three weeks, three days, 2 hours, 9 minutes and 23 seconds. 6561 cigarettes not smoked, saving $1,089.40. Life saved: 3 weeks, 1 day, 18 hours, 45 minutes.