SOCIAL DISTANCING AMPHIBIAN FAILURE
My previous entry was from the car, on our return from a socially-distanced weekend excursion, a small vacation to make up for the fact that WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE IN SCOTLAND NOW. Ahem. On to the story of how a FROG FELL ON MY HEAD.
In what has to be a stroke of terrible timing for them a vintage trailer “glamping” spot opened up about an hour or so out of town this June. I heard about it in May and booked us a weekend since, as I said, WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE IN SCOTLAND. The place has 6 vintage Airstream trailers permanently parked on the property for rent and has spots to park other trailers...and allows only 25+ year old trailers from a specific set of manufacturers, or Airstreams of any age.
However, their setup is conducive to not actually contacting anyone in person-they’re only renting them from Thurs-Sun, they leave the camper empty for 24 hours, go in and disinfect everything in the next 48, then let the camper sit for another 24 hours before the next group arrives.
Also—hallelujah—our state governor, county judge, and mayor have all decided that things are finally bad enough that they won’t be voted out of office for imposing a mask ruling* so when we realized we forgot flip-flops and shorts** and had to head into town for a Walmart in order to pick them up, employees were handing masks out at the door and only about 25% of people had ripped them off as soon as they got inside. Down from the usual 75% maskless shoppers.
*Unless you’re in church. Yes, in an enclosed space full of people packed next to each other on pews talking and singing, you are not required to wear a mask, only “strongly encouraged.” Luckily most sensible ones have been doing online and radio services for weeks now, but the non-sensible ones aren’t.
**Brain fart. I cannot explain why I thought I only needed jeans for going outside IN TEXAS. IN SUMMER. I may have been thinking of bug bites, BUT STILL. Also the trailer bathroom was even tinier than other campers I’ve been in, but there’s a bath house on premises with a shower available for use, hence flip flops. I didn’t bother trying the shorts on, just grabbed what I thought was my size and they fit.
Anyway, so we spent Thursday afternoon to this morning out at the site with NO OTHER PEOPLE AROUND and it was mostly glorious except for the fact that the air conditioner made the trailer damp and it took us until Saturday to figure out how to set it to de-humidify.
Also, we have learned what it takes to get us outside to get our Vitamin D and that is a metal trailer that effectively closes off the WiFi signal.
This is the trailer we were in: https://therangevtr.com/accommodation/1953-boles-aero/
It was almost self-sufficient, but the bathroom was so tiny—it was difficult to be in there and the door shut on your knees, and also it was a wet room, which means you would pretty much be sitting on or leaning over the toilet to shower—we just drove to the bath house that had showers available. Could have walked, but neither of us felt like showering and then getting all sweaty again on the walk back, so we just felt vaguely guilty about driving and drove.
So far, no frogs, except for the MILLIONS of TREE FROGS in the TREES YELLING THEIR TINY LITTLE HEADS OFF ALL NIGHT. But the air conditioner drowned them out.
This morning we weren’t sure if we needed to check out in person (with masks!) so headed to the cabin with the main office and gift shop. Nobody was there, so![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
myrialux called and left a message (the return text said it was fine not to check out in person—I know you were all wondering about that).
And then we left the cabin, stepping out onto the porch.myriaulx went first, and as I stepped out behind him, shutting the door behind me, it felt like I got gently smacked with a small, dense water ballon on my forehead, and a dark mass fell off my head onto the ground. Once I got my glasses re-situated, I expected to see a giant bug or something.
Instead, I saw this handsome fellow, an American tree frog according to r/herpetology: https://twitter.com/telophase/status/1277288817293176832 (I’m on my iPad right now and don’t want to fuss with Imgur, so you have to go look at the tweet.)
Presumably he’d been sitting on the door frame and either jumped off, seeing my head as a stepping stone, or fell off and hit me on the way. I immediately took several photos, and then he hopped away.
So that was my wildlife encounter of the weekend. We spotted a few birds, mostly turkey vultures and a pair of cardinals, and a lot of bugs, but this guy was the most exciting.
In what has to be a stroke of terrible timing for them a vintage trailer “glamping” spot opened up about an hour or so out of town this June. I heard about it in May and booked us a weekend since, as I said, WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE IN SCOTLAND. The place has 6 vintage Airstream trailers permanently parked on the property for rent and has spots to park other trailers...and allows only 25+ year old trailers from a specific set of manufacturers, or Airstreams of any age.
However, their setup is conducive to not actually contacting anyone in person-they’re only renting them from Thurs-Sun, they leave the camper empty for 24 hours, go in and disinfect everything in the next 48, then let the camper sit for another 24 hours before the next group arrives.
Also—hallelujah—our state governor, county judge, and mayor have all decided that things are finally bad enough that they won’t be voted out of office for imposing a mask ruling* so when we realized we forgot flip-flops and shorts** and had to head into town for a Walmart in order to pick them up, employees were handing masks out at the door and only about 25% of people had ripped them off as soon as they got inside. Down from the usual 75% maskless shoppers.
*Unless you’re in church. Yes, in an enclosed space full of people packed next to each other on pews talking and singing, you are not required to wear a mask, only “strongly encouraged.” Luckily most sensible ones have been doing online and radio services for weeks now, but the non-sensible ones aren’t.
**Brain fart. I cannot explain why I thought I only needed jeans for going outside IN TEXAS. IN SUMMER. I may have been thinking of bug bites, BUT STILL. Also the trailer bathroom was even tinier than other campers I’ve been in, but there’s a bath house on premises with a shower available for use, hence flip flops. I didn’t bother trying the shorts on, just grabbed what I thought was my size and they fit.
Anyway, so we spent Thursday afternoon to this morning out at the site with NO OTHER PEOPLE AROUND and it was mostly glorious except for the fact that the air conditioner made the trailer damp and it took us until Saturday to figure out how to set it to de-humidify.
Also, we have learned what it takes to get us outside to get our Vitamin D and that is a metal trailer that effectively closes off the WiFi signal.
This is the trailer we were in: https://therangevtr.com/accommodation/1953-boles-aero/
It was almost self-sufficient, but the bathroom was so tiny—it was difficult to be in there and the door shut on your knees, and also it was a wet room, which means you would pretty much be sitting on or leaning over the toilet to shower—we just drove to the bath house that had showers available. Could have walked, but neither of us felt like showering and then getting all sweaty again on the walk back, so we just felt vaguely guilty about driving and drove.
So far, no frogs, except for the MILLIONS of TREE FROGS in the TREES YELLING THEIR TINY LITTLE HEADS OFF ALL NIGHT. But the air conditioner drowned them out.
This morning we weren’t sure if we needed to check out in person (with masks!) so headed to the cabin with the main office and gift shop. Nobody was there, so
myrialux called and left a message (the return text said it was fine not to check out in person—I know you were all wondering about that).And then we left the cabin, stepping out onto the porch.
myriaulx went first, and as I stepped out behind him, shutting the door behind me, it felt like I got gently smacked with a small, dense water ballon on my forehead, and a dark mass fell off my head onto the ground. Once I got my glasses re-situated, I expected to see a giant bug or something.Instead, I saw this handsome fellow, an American tree frog according to r/herpetology: https://twitter.com/telophase/status/1277288817293176832 (I’m on my iPad right now and don’t want to fuss with Imgur, so you have to go look at the tweet.)
Presumably he’d been sitting on the door frame and either jumped off, seeing my head as a stepping stone, or fell off and hit me on the way. I immediately took several photos, and then he hopped away.
So that was my wildlife encounter of the weekend. We spotted a few birds, mostly turkey vultures and a pair of cardinals, and a lot of bugs, but this guy was the most exciting.
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Sitting out in the woods, only one other trailer in view (and in a year the undergrowth will block the view), was a nice way to take a break.
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That sounds like a wonderful place to visit.