ticked....

This weekend was an adventure for me. Saturday I went bike riding over at Wilder Ranch, and it was definitely wilder this time. Because of all the rain, this winter/spring the brush had grown crazy, I could not see the path below my feet. The trees and brush were about 6 feet high, so I was hoping that I wasn’t going to just end up in a swamp. Now of course doing this, I wasn’t thinking about the bugs that are in the brush, I am just thinking, “Geez, don’t let me dump into a swamp”, and Diana was probably thinking, “please don’t let a rattlesnake jump out at me”. So we kept going forward, found the trail up the cliff and carried on our merry way.We go to the beach and there was a dead seal that had washed up onto shore. I kept smelling this rancid fish smell, but didn’t know why, until I almost stepped on the thing. On our way back, we saw 2 snakes, and I almost ran over one. Thank god I was able to stop, and it ended up slithering through the rim of my front tire and off into the grass.
After our adventurous ride, I got home about 4:30pm. I am telling you the time because as you read more below, it will become apparent how much time had passed and why I was so mortified.
OK, it’s now about 9:30pm and I need to take a little pee. I drop my drawers, and I spot this black thing moving, and think “oh, a bug” I am not real concerned until I go to flick it off my shorts, and I realize that this is a bug that I have never seen before. The floodlights come on over my head and suddenly, the image of riding though dense foliage in Santa Cruz comes back to me. TICK. This might be a tick! I call for Laura, because I have never seen a tick in real life and still am not sure what it is. I show her and she’s like “yep, that’s a tick alright” I am mortified. Not just because it’s a tick, but because it was big, and I found it in my crotch, and it was there since I have been riding hours earlier! Laura gets concerned because she now is thinking if I had one, I brought a whole crew home and we have dogs/cats. I jump into the shower and scrub down, so she can inspect all the areas I cant see.
I was ok , but definitely traumatized for the evening. I of course start feeling itchy, and think that every time I do, Im going to find tick. The next day I was fine, and to tell you the truth, I am glad it happened, because I now know what they actually look like, and I don’t have such a huge fear of them anymore.