A Fear Relived

A few days ago my husband and I went on a bike ride. It was late morning and the weather was perfect so he got the bikes, I got the helmets, and we were on our way. There is a nice, scenic trail next to our house that we decided to go on. We grabbed the camera in the hopes of taking some pictures of fall and the changing trees.

All seemed to be going well as we hopped on our bikes and headed down the path. The cool breeze blowing through my hair, and the quietness of the ride made me smile and think of why I didn't ride my bike during that time of day every day. I began to notice some little insects fluttering away as we rode by them. As the bike ride continued, I started to really pay attention to those insects, and realized that they were getting bigger and bigger. It was only after we had been riding for about five minutes did I really comprehend what they were.

Grasshoppers.

Lots of them.

Big ones.

And they were getting bigger.

Once I recognized what the insects were, I began to panic a bit. You see, I had a really bad experience with grasshoppers when I was a kid. I had asked my mom if I could ride my bike around the block. She said I could, so I jumped on and began riding around. I didn't expect to be gone for very long. It was just around the block after all. About halfway around I noticed a dirt road that seemed to go on for miles. I remembered riding past that spot on numerous occassions, and never once had I seen that trail before. I decided I had some time so I would ride down it to see what I could see. I felt like an explorer who finds new land for the first time. It was thrilling!

That thrill was short lived, however, as not more than five minutes down the trail grasshoppers began jumping all over the place. Within seconds I had them all over me. It was a struggle to bat them away, maintain balance on my bike, and not crash. I kept riding thinking I must have just ridden into a small patch of them, but my thoughts were so completely wrong. They kept coming. More and more of them. I couldn't fight it. At one point I looked over my shoulder to try and turn around and came face to face with one of the largest grasshoppers I had ever seen. I screamed bloody murder, and I swear for a split second the grasshopper screamed too. I threw my bike down right where it was and ran back down the trail, back around the block, and straight back home. I was a complete mess when I got home. Dirty, shaking, crying. It was horrific. I managed to explain to my mom what happened and she had one of my brothers go get the bike and bring it back home. Looking back now I can imagine my mom telling my dad what happened to me that day and both of them quietly chuckling about it. I'm not sure if that's actually what they did or not, but I can imagine it.

Since that day I have been freaked out by grasshoppers, so the bike ride my husband and I were on was fast becoming a fear relived. Suddenly the "grasshopper trail" was becoming real again and I did not like where it was headed. I called to my husband that there were a lot of grasshoppers and he tried to scare them away as he rode in front so they would be gone while I rode behind him. That didn't really work as planned because he kept riding into the grass on the side of the trail and that just made more and more of them come out. It was terrifying!

The path winds down behind a middle and an elementary school (both right next to each other) and I realized there were a lot of kids on the playground for lunch time. We thought the trail would be better there, but found out that it wasn't. The grasshoppers just kept getting bigger and seemed to multiply. My screams could be heard by all within a five mile radius, but I tried so hard to stiffle them. It just wasn't working. Finally, through giggles of his own, my husband decided we should stick to the roads and sidewalks in the neighborhood rather than take the trail.

I'm happy to report that once we got onto the road and rode our bikes through the neighborhood, all was well. We had a nice lengthy bike ride and then stopped to take pictures at a little park we found, only to find out that we forgot to grab the memory card. I will still go on bike rides, but have learned that taking the trails during the fall is probably not the best of ideas for someone like me who has a fear of grasshoppers.