Wirelesstrips.com

Grampa and Rita are on a plane right now, heading our way, and Max and Mason can barely contain their excitement! They’ve been counting down the days until their arrival and today is finally here! They’re not getting here until this evening so we’re trying to keep Max and Mason busy. Max is blowing bubbles outside for Mason right now. I got all the laundry washed and hung up this morning. The dryer in our RV washer/dryer combo takes HOURS to get clothes dry. Grampa and Rita will be staying with us in the RV until Saturday. We’ve done it before and it worked out just fine.

Last night, we took another walk. We went to a small cemetery that borders the driveway coming in. It was very sad. Almost every tombstone was so old that there were no longer words appearing on them. Nothing to tell the stories of whose final resting places they are. A couple had been re-done. They were for two military men who served in the Revolutionary War.

After our walk, we lit a fire and roasted marshmallows. I said to Richard, “While the flies are a pain in the butt, it’s nice there are NO mosquitos here! Have you noticed we haven’t had to put insect repellant on the boys since we got here?

He said, “Yeah, you’re right!”

I’ve been trying to come up with creative ideas to keep the boys away from the stream that’s behind the trees to the right of the RV. “You might get your feet wet” wasn’t enough of a deterrant. Neither was “You might cut your foot on a rock.” What finally worked was, “I wonder if there are alligators in there?” Heh…

Anyway, last night, as the very last peeks of the sunset were cascading down the horizon, Max asked if I’d take him to the stream to see if there were any alligators. We left Mason with Richard, and walked over there and down the small hill.

We didn’t find any alligators but there were lots of birds – more than I could count! They fluttered their wings not gracefully, but with frantic beats. They weren’t flying one way or the other smoothly. They were darting here and there, even coming very close to our faces. I said, “Wow, these birds sure are friendly, Max. They’re not afraid of us at all!”

Then, the lightning bolt struck. Duh!! These weren’t birds. They were BATS! And, they kept getting closer, and

closer, flying in for a close-up right in front of us, and darting away. I pulled my camera out of my pocket and starting shooting. I was THRILLED! Wow!! Bats ALL AROUND US!! I wasn’t afraid and, taking a queue from me, neither was Max. The camera flash wasn’t scaring them at all.

I ran up the hill for a second, and yelled to Richard, “Come quick! There are tons of bats!!”

His eyebrows shot up and he replied, “Uh, NO THANKS!”

Mason wanted to see so I took him back to the stream.

It was very hard to take pictures because they were moving so erratically and fast and it was getting pretty dark. I did manage to a couple of photos that are blurry but show the telltale bat wing shape. I’ll post a couple of pictures on the WirelessTrips.com photostream.

Mason got tired of bats and I took him back to Richard. I returned with Max to see if I could get a few more good shots. I took one video that turned out really well. Max got tired of the bats, too, but I stayed behind, watching in wonder as they feasted on the insects around the stream. Then, one dive-bombed me! I ducked and ran away shrieking. That was just a bit TOO friendly for me!

Max can’t wait to show Grampa the bats tonight!

While I was taking my shower later, I remembered the mosquito conversion I’d had with Richard and it hit me. The reason there are no mosquitos eating us here is because there are thousands of bats eating THEM! Very cool. I feel blessed to have seen such a beautiful show last night!

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