Photo Friday: Meet Monument Valley Resident, George
 Photo Credit: Rufus J. So-and-So Holding Flashlight From a Distance Credit: TheWordWire |
Delicious Baby is a blog that offers great articles and tips for people traveling with families. The author hosts a feature on Fridays inviting travelers of any kind to share a photo.
Since Halloween is creeping closer and closer, I thought I'd take the opportunity to introduce you to George. George visited our campsite at Utah's Monument Valley. He was so big I spotted him inching towards us by the light of the moon. In case you ever need to know: these things dislike large doses of mosquito repellent. Rufus successfully shooed him away.
We thought it was prudent to tell the neighbors he was creeping toward. I tip-toed over and introduced myself by saying that I didn't want to freak them out. It turns out that my announcement about the scary spider didn't phase them at all.
"Thaank you ver mooch," one of the men in the group said. He nodded politely with a blank smile.
It was clear. They did not speak English.
Note to self: Learn how to recognize the words for all creepy things in the language of any country you visit.
I motioned for them to follow me, so I could show them an important new vocabulary word. At that point they were sufficiently wigged out. The men circled the hairy spider with flashlights, while the women hopped from foot to foot behind them. Because we didn't know what else to do, we named him. The Europeans called him George.
Finally a burly Navajo local came along to rescue us from peril. He trapped George in a coffee can and drove him away to terrorize people somewhere else.
Since then, we don't tell ghost stories while camping. We talk about George. I've since learned that this time of year is mating season for tarantulas in the American Southwest. I can tell you first hand that you don't want to run into one of them. Guys like George are handsy.
Posted by TheWordWire at 10/23/2009 11:38 AM 
Categories: Photo Friday,Pearls of Wisdom
Tags: Tarantula Photo Friday Monument Valley
Categories: Photo Friday,Pearls of Wisdom
Tags: Tarantula Photo Friday Monument Valley
thought I would pop in to thank you for visiting my blog and for the comment. May I just say ewwwwww I don't like spiders :) I've taken pictures of them plenty of times but I don't know if I could handle taking this guys picture.
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Thanks for stopping by. I don't have any other photos of spiders... I think this one is enough.
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AAAAAACK!! THIS is why I DON'T camp.
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Aw, it wouldn't be any fun without a little danger.
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That's a perfect Halloween picture with the black spider against the orange background! I would have been completely creeped out by seeing such a thing.
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It was pretty upsetting at the time... afterward we had to try and get some sleep! Thanks for your comment.
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AIGHHHHHHHHHH! OK- any type of creepy crawler totally wigs me out, but I think I might not have been able to sleep (let alone enjoy the scenery) for the remainder of my camping trip, if George had visited me. I'm SO impressed with your bravery. Rufus' picture is pretty good too, but a little too close up for comfort. All I can say is now I officially have the heeby jeebies.
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Mwa-ha-ha. I think he was just trick-or-treating.
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What a big Spider!! But that wouldn't stop me from camping
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Oh, the place is too beautiful to be scared away by this guy. Thanks for your comment -- I checked out your blog, and it looks like you've seen plenty of exotic places. Look forward to reading about your adventures in Costa Rica.
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