Hank! Oh betrayer of secrets. I had started to talk about the squiggly-wigglies but was afraid people would laugh at me and say, ‘What a guurrrl.’ Now that I am forced to fess up, here are parts of the original story that were edited out to save my reputation as a woman of steel nerves.
BRIMSTONE: CREEPY CRAWLIES OR CREEPING/CRAWLING Dave and I had wanted to do Brimstone.. YADA YADA YADA.. Identifying only the front feet was enough for her [Carol] to give up the lead. It was my turn; I found hundreds of my least favorite creepy crawlies. We had had a hint they were around. We saw plenty of them on the approach. They are not good climbers. The slightest wind knocks them off the walls. They are harmless and eventually turn into lovely colored butterflies. I can’t help it, that ugly duckling stage creeps me out. I haven’t actually seen a ‘pillar crawl on anyone, so I tried to manage my fear (my completely irrational fear) by picturing them on the walls and the floor. Just a couple corners down, I looked at my tummy and started screaming,’Get it off! Get it off’. It took Carol a short eternity to realize what I was on about and carefully remove the creature from my belly. After a second, more minor incident when I thought one was in my hair, I realized I needed to get hold of myself. We had a lot of canyon to go. Still in the lead, and with the canyon becoming increasingly dark, I set about to convince myself caterpillars don’t like dark canyons. They only hang out at the tops and mouths of canyons. Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine.. ..Spiders don’t bother me, and everyone knows caterpillars don’t dwell in dark canyons. I smiled. YOU JUST KEEP THINKING THAT LITTLE MISSY. Dave was about 10 feet behind me. It was time to go…
I can’t say I feel better. Perhaps, in the next 10 days the height of caterpillar migration will be over, but I know those short, fat, brown fuzzy-wuzzies haven’t even begun. Penny PS Hank I believe you have your own story to tell. Something about a fine feathered friend?