In the Same Boat

Usually when we say this phrase, we are talking about happy companionship or suffering a hardship together with friends.

Well....

Our family went north recently - more north than I think I have ever been.  Quite an experience for this heat loving human.  Another group doing a totally different thing thought we needed a break and invited us along on their event.  It took two days just to travel up there, and it was COLD!  Not that cold - when the days warmed up, we did (well, not me) swim in a lake and use various styles of boats.

They had one boat which resembled a kayak, but different than what I was used to.  A little harder to steer.  It held two people, so I took my daughter on a ride across the lake and through a channel to another lake.  It was there that it began....

I heard a squawk from behind me, and a "I'm ok, mommy, don't panic!"  Then some more squawks and a muffled scream.  "A spider!"  I was helpless to assist but clarified that the spider was indeed IN the boat and she could not get him out.

If that wasn't bad enough... "Mommy, don't panic, it's ok, really, but oooh! Mommy! there is more than one!"

"How many?"

"Lots of them mommy!  Please, its ok, just it is ok, I don't like them, but I'm ok, don't panic!"

This daughter knows how mommy usually reacts to a spider - jumping way out of the way and standing there shivering and calling for a male member of the human race to exterminate it quickly.

I could not believe that there would be many spiders in the boat, but I glanced down by my legs, and AAAACCKKK!!!!!!!

There were at least fifteen spiders crawling around my feet, landing on my legs and jumping off - basically having a happy family outing all over my legs!!!

Now I knew why she was saying, "Mommy please don't panic!"

There was no place to jump, and no way to reach inside and kill them.  And no male member of the human race to scream for.  We screamed, her and I, we screamed little squeaking screams the whole way back across the one lake and through the channel.  She alternately sobbed and tried to comfort me as I paddled as fast as I could.

Thankfully, rounding the corner into the last lake to cross, there was a male member of the human race - her brother paddling on a small raft sort of thing.  He immediately paddled nearby to see why we were screaming, but could not from his position rid of us the spiders.  He was, however, able to get close enough so my daughter could jump onto his raft into safety.  He brought her back across the lake.

And I was left alone in the same boat with the spiders...

It is simply amazing how fast I can paddle with spiders crawling over my legs.  I screamed, squeaked, shuddered, and paddled to the docks, jumped out, stripped everything off but my swimsuit and stood there shuddering in horror.

UGH!  UGH!  UGH! 

Never again!

By evening, we surveyed the damage.  My daughter and I both have matching bites on our tummies.  And nightmares.  I think I have successfully gotten over ANY desire to sit in a kayak again!