Cicada hunt....

We had been hearing and reading about it for months.  "This year is it!!  The cicadas are coming!!  Seventeen years have past.They will be everywhere.  Your yard will  be  crawling with them!! etc. and etc" Truthfully...I was not that excited about it.  I am not a big bug fan.  Actually I have always said that I would not want to live in Florida...because there are more bugs AND they are much bigger.  So the thought of thousands of cicadas descending on my yard did not make me happy.  Actually I was a tiny bit creeped out about it.  As the temperatures warmed I wondered if the ground had yet reached 64 degrees...the magical temperature....when the cicadas would crawl up through the dirt and into our lives.  I waited...and waited.. Then I learned...they were ...not here in my backyard but "here' as in pretty close.  Scott and I went to the Drs. one day and stopped at a nursery nearby.   I heard what I thought was an alarm going off in the distance...but Scott turned to me and said  "Do you hear them......the cicadas?"  So I waited some more.  A friend of mine, who lives not too far away, posted photos and videos of the cicadas that had overtaken her yard...hundreds climbing on anything over a foot high.  I knew they would soon be here.  And even though I was still a little bothered by the thought..I realized that Sierra was anxiously awaiting their arrival.  She was soaking up any information she heard and told me she really couldn't wait to see if they really  had red eyes.   I knew they were close by but I didn't want to ruin Sierra's surprise when she woke up one morning to the sound of hundreds of cicadas out her window.  So it was somewhat surprising to me when a friend asked me the other day whether or not I had taken Sierra to New Paltz to hear or see the cicadas.  "No I replied...I am waiting for them to come here."  "Kathie" she said,  I don't think they are coming.  They are close by but not right here."  Oh..........and I have to admit.....I felt a tiny bit disappointed.  I mean.... even though I was a little bit nervous...an act of nature that only occurs every 17 years is something to behold.  And it never occurred me that we wouldn't be experiencing it in our very own backyard.  Sooo...... tonight at dinner I got to thinking about the rest of the evening..rainy....maybe a little "boring".  Suddenly I got an idea!!!  Sierra and I would go cicada hunting.  We would drive the 10 or 15 miles to the nearby town that I knew had cicadas.  Her brothers had played a softball game there last night and the bugs were flying all over the place.  I was afraid to wait.. what if we missed it!  How foolish would that be??  So we jumped in the car...in the pouring rain and drove ten miles down the road..  The first couple of places we stopped...nothing...no sound except the rain...no visible bugs.  We drove a few more miles up the road and stopped in a pull off.  I got out and spotted something I knew Sierra would love...especially since it was dead and she could bring it home.  I called her out of the car and she spotted a big, winged cicada with bright red eyes.  She picked it up and put it in the baggy we had brought and then found another one..  A little farther up the road we found dozens of wings...the perfect thing to view under her microscope.  Her "Oh Mom this is an awesome adventure made it all, the rain the mud, the coldness, worthwhile!!" I am sorry I waited a little too long...I am sorry we didn't get to experience this wonder of nature  in our own backyard.  I am sorry that we will have to wait another 17 years to see it again...but I am not sorry that I got to spend an awesome evening with an awesome girl who is the perfect partner for any adventure!!