21. The Spider

In our travels across the country, we shared our camp sites with some pretty strange tent mates. No one really minds a few bugs now and then and the sound of birds chirpin’ is not the worst way to wake up and greet the new day. But sharing our food and drink with wild creatures is where we draw the line.

Judy is very fastidious about this and while she has very strict, clean, personal habits, she does not extend this courtesy to me; having once allowed me to drink coffee out of a cup that Daisy the dog had used for a water bowl! To her, this was hilarious entertainment. She knew Daisy had drunk water out of my coffee cup because she gave that water to the dog! Did I mention Judy has a mean streak? I should have.

We were ridin’ two up on this trip. Headed for Topeka from the Rocky Mountains. We had picked the worst possible conditions for the trip. In the flats of western Kansas, temperatures were hitting 110 to 115 degrees. It was more than hot! We were drinking water by the jug, refilling it with ice every 50 miles or so.

It was a thirsty business crossing the state on this day. During the hottest part of the day, when we could go no further without a break, we pulled into a roadside park near Kingman, Kansas to rest and cool off. The water pump at this park had a sign that advised travelers not to partake. Serious gastric disturbances may result, the sign read.

“Well,” Judy said. “I’ll have a few little chunks of ice from the jug and I think I can make it on in to Wichita.”

Dutifully, I removed the lid from our water jug and poured out some water with a few little ice chunks. And a few pieces of a SPIDER! Judy shrieked! Remaining calm, I industriously rearranged the pieces and brilliantly deduced that all the spider parts were not here. Since we had been drinking from this jug all day, we had no doubt consumed at least some of the missin’ sections!

Judy shuddered and said, “That’s it! No more water for me till we get this jug washed out!”
I tried to reassure her that it probably wasn’t that harmful and pointed out that we still had a ways to go before we could get fresh water and ice. Nope! She adamantly refused to drink any more water.

As for me, having been raised in the great Southwest American Desert of West Texas, I had no such high minded notions and drank enough water to get me to the next stop in comfort. I did filter out the remaining spider parts.

As we rode away, she said, “You don’t think it will hurt to drink that water?”

“Nope.” I said. “The little spider died a long time ago. He didn’t feel a thing!