My husband and I have been looking on and off at buying some undeveloped land, partly as an investment, partly for the possibility of building a cabin on it, partly for hunting and fishing. We're not looking too seriously, but every month or two, our real estate agent will send over a packet of possibilities. We generally look through them, decide they're too expensive/not what we're looking for/too far away/etc., but every once in a while, one strikes our interest and we visit it.
Mistake #1: Visiting a possible land purchase yesterday, on the spur of the moment.
In and of itself, this isn't really a mistake. We had a free evening, the land was only about an hour away, and we wanted to visit it sooner rather than later. The mistake was that we did it without really thinking too much about what we would find when we got there, or what we should wear.
Mistake #2: Not turning back when we saw that it was raining intermittently.
This is probably the biggest mistake we made. We wanted to take a few pictures of the land for reference purposes, and rain makes that nearly impossible. Land that's wet and soggy is also a lot less fun to tramp through. When we had to pull over to the side of the road because it was raining so hard that we couldn't see, that probably should have been a sign to turn around and go home. But we kept on.
Mistake #3: Not running for our lives when we were swarmed by mosquitoes the instant we stepped out of the car.
At this point, I'm sure you're thinking, "Well, it can't have been that bad." It was that bad. It was probably worse than you're imagining, unless you've lived in a state that claims the mosquito as the state bird. We got out of the car to get the camera and our shoes from the trunk and were instantly covered in 10 mosquitoes each. We sort of stood there, in shock, for about 30 seconds, not really willing to open the hatchback and let all these bugs into the car. We frantically opened our doors, jumped in, and struggled to slap all of the pesky things that had followed us back into the car. It was unbelievable. In the 30 seconds I had been outside, not only had I managed to kill 5 mosquitoes, but I somehow had picked up a wood tick as well.
At this point, it was really a lose/lose situation, so anything we chose to do wasn't going to be great. We could drive home, and not even see the land we'd come to see, or we could venture on and have a lousy time of it.
We chose the latter. And we had a very lousy time. The land was heavily wooded, but there was a light track into the trees that had been made by a car. We decided to head in there, saying to ourselves that we'd walk fast, but not run.
Ha. Yeah, right. We started walking, and after about a minute, were running about as fast as we could in the mud and wet leaves. We followed the track in to find the pond that had been in the land description. Part of the idea of the trip was to see if there was anything in the pond that we could fish for, but by the time we got to the pond, we were both so surrounded by mosquitoes that stopping for more than 5 seconds to snap a quick picture would have been suicide.
You see, they were following us. The ones from the edge of the woods were joined by those further in, until it seemed that every freaking mosquito on that plot of land had us surrounded. "Give us your blood!" they demanded. And since we'd already killed several of their friends, they weren't about to show us any mercy.
Which is why, after only 5 minutes in our potential northwoods paradise, we fled back to the safety of the car, my husband desperately trying to keep the camera dry and me trying to avoid the rain-drop laden branches that he was (unintentionally, I hope) letting spring back in my face.
Somehow, in the midst of the chaos, we got three fairly decent pictures, including this one:
And we did learn this important lesson: If we buy this land, spending time there during the summer, particularly when it's damp, is the worst idea ever. And if not the absolute worst idea, it's at least as bad as all the fashion choices of the late 80s and early 90s, such as the tall-bangs craze, Zubaz, and rolling the bottoms of your jeans.
4 comments:
... unless you've lived in a state that claims the mosquito as the state bird...
Awesome. Glad to hear you survived to blog about it! As bad as it sounds, it also sounds like it was a fun thing you'll have to laugh about for days. :)
Hehe yeah :) It was bad at the time, but in retrospect, it would have been hilarious if someone had been videotaping us, running through the woods with our arms flailing. Like a bad Blair Witch remake :)
L O L.
Sounds like my childhood camping trips to the U.P., eh!
Best ever Tera, you made me laugh very hard!
Rolling up my jeans isn't a good idea? Really?
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