We left Alamosa late, we only had to do 200km, and we had been up till 2am talking to the dog surgeon back in Australia about our dog Zima's (Zeema) sore leg.
She had been in to see the specialist surgeon, who told us he was 95% sure she would need immediate surgery on her knee to correct the dog equivalent of a blown ACL, but she would have to come in for xrays, meaning sedation and a day admittance as soon as possible.
Feeling pretty low, we headed out of Alamosa and saw thunderclouds over the mountains where we were headed. They perfectly reflected my mood, and pretty soon we were stopped in a side road off the highway to put on out rain gear.
It was bloody hot, and I was expecting us to get dumped on mid-change. There was lightning and thunder going on all around us, and I was glad to get moving again once we had our rain jacket and pants on over our riding gear.
In the end we only got a little bit of rain, which would have been quite refreshing rather than soaking, but you can never pick what's going to happen and I'd rather be hot, dry and happy, then cold wet and miserable.
We soon made a turn, and ended up skirting around the worst of the storm. we were riding in 36 degree sunny hot weather with no airflow under our wet weather gear, and I was starting to prickle all over, but especially down my left side. Thinking something was rubbing/cutting into me, we made a stop at the next exit and took off our rain gear.
The rest of the trip was un-eventful, and arriving at our hotel in Raton, I investigated my still prickling left side and felt what I thought was a heat rash on my left shoulder and down my side. It was really itchy, and it wasn't until I had a hot shower later on, that I looked in the mirror and saw a line of bite marks running the whole length on my body. They basically ran in a complete line from my shoulder all the way down to my hip, thigh and to my ankle, and on top of my foot.
Thinking that this wasn't heat rash (who gets heat rash on their fucking ankle and on top of their foot?) I had a terrible thought of what it could be and googled what bed bug bites look like.
Bingo. FUCKING BED BUGS.
I kept them quiet till morning, as I didn't want to disturb Megan's sleep for no reason, but she had noticed that I was scratching a bit, and had hung up all my riding hear that I had put on a fabric chair.
Next morning I broke the news to Megan, but miraculously, she did not have one mark on her, so not sure how that can happen, but it did. I must just be extra tasty. After a little more looking, I had bites all down my right leg and hip as well.
Reading up on how they don't live on you, but can catch a ride in your clothes, I took every piece of clothing I had brought into the last three hotels and put them in very hot water in the sink and let them soak. This kills the bugs straight away. Luckily all of the actual luggage we bring inside are waterproof plastic bags which they are not interested in living in, so we don't have to throw our luggage away.
After a bit more investigation and, I found out that bed bugs are a huge issue in the states, and there is actually a whole site dedicated to reporting hotels that have bed bug problems. (bedbugregistry.com)
Feeling completely grossed out and filthy, I had another shower, scrubbing myself all over.
We also couldn't work out where the hell they had come from, as all of the places we had stayed didn't seem un-clean or dirty. We had stayed in places a million times worse in Russia and had never seen so much as a flea bite, let alone a fucking human chow-fest!
With my steaming wet clothes in a plastic bag strapped to the top of my bike, we headed out to Texas, and a place called Amarillo.
She had been in to see the specialist surgeon, who told us he was 95% sure she would need immediate surgery on her knee to correct the dog equivalent of a blown ACL, but she would have to come in for xrays, meaning sedation and a day admittance as soon as possible.
Feeling pretty low, we headed out of Alamosa and saw thunderclouds over the mountains where we were headed. They perfectly reflected my mood, and pretty soon we were stopped in a side road off the highway to put on out rain gear.
It was bloody hot, and I was expecting us to get dumped on mid-change. There was lightning and thunder going on all around us, and I was glad to get moving again once we had our rain jacket and pants on over our riding gear.
In the end we only got a little bit of rain, which would have been quite refreshing rather than soaking, but you can never pick what's going to happen and I'd rather be hot, dry and happy, then cold wet and miserable.
We soon made a turn, and ended up skirting around the worst of the storm. we were riding in 36 degree sunny hot weather with no airflow under our wet weather gear, and I was starting to prickle all over, but especially down my left side. Thinking something was rubbing/cutting into me, we made a stop at the next exit and took off our rain gear.
The rest of the trip was un-eventful, and arriving at our hotel in Raton, I investigated my still prickling left side and felt what I thought was a heat rash on my left shoulder and down my side. It was really itchy, and it wasn't until I had a hot shower later on, that I looked in the mirror and saw a line of bite marks running the whole length on my body. They basically ran in a complete line from my shoulder all the way down to my hip, thigh and to my ankle, and on top of my foot.
Thinking that this wasn't heat rash (who gets heat rash on their fucking ankle and on top of their foot?) I had a terrible thought of what it could be and googled what bed bug bites look like.
Bingo. FUCKING BED BUGS.
I kept them quiet till morning, as I didn't want to disturb Megan's sleep for no reason, but she had noticed that I was scratching a bit, and had hung up all my riding hear that I had put on a fabric chair.
Next morning I broke the news to Megan, but miraculously, she did not have one mark on her, so not sure how that can happen, but it did. I must just be extra tasty. After a little more looking, I had bites all down my right leg and hip as well.
Reading up on how they don't live on you, but can catch a ride in your clothes, I took every piece of clothing I had brought into the last three hotels and put them in very hot water in the sink and let them soak. This kills the bugs straight away. Luckily all of the actual luggage we bring inside are waterproof plastic bags which they are not interested in living in, so we don't have to throw our luggage away.
After a bit more investigation and, I found out that bed bugs are a huge issue in the states, and there is actually a whole site dedicated to reporting hotels that have bed bug problems. (bedbugregistry.com)
Feeling completely grossed out and filthy, I had another shower, scrubbing myself all over.
We also couldn't work out where the hell they had come from, as all of the places we had stayed didn't seem un-clean or dirty. We had stayed in places a million times worse in Russia and had never seen so much as a flea bite, let alone a fucking human chow-fest!
With my steaming wet clothes in a plastic bag strapped to the top of my bike, we headed out to Texas, and a place called Amarillo.
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| oh cool - look at those clouds! |
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| AWW SHIT... look at those clouds!! |
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| YUP - Were getting pissed on... |
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| I put all my rain gear on just for this?? |
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