Wooly Bully

I'm either a very observant or very easily distracted driver, I haven't decided which one yet. While I've never been in an accident, well, except for that one when “a deer ran out in front of me” and I turned my dads car over in a ditch full of water to avoid it. Honest, it just came out of nowhere just as I was approaching that really sharp corner on a gravel road!

What's that? Why were there skid marks approaching the corner when I should have already been slowed down by the time I got to the corner where the deer suddenly appeared?

Come on, that was over 13 years ago, who can remember all the details? That's not what the whole point of this post was about anyway. Let's get back to where we were before we got distracted on this side story.

Like I was saying, I'm either very observant or very easily distracted while driving. When I should probably be paying closer attention to other cars, semi trucks, and deer(!) I seem to notice any little creepy crawly thing on the road directly in front of me. Lots of turtles, frogs, salamanders, mice, and, particularly at this time of year, caterpillars.

And not just any caterpillars, but the cute little fuzzy black and brown Wooly Bear caterpillars which will later turn into a very common and pretty unimpressive Isabella Tiger Moth. Still though, I've always liked these little fellas and used to find them all the time when I was a kid.

This time of year they're pretty much done eating and are searching out a safe place to hibernate for the winter before waking up in the spring, spinning a little cocoon, and emerging a few weeks later fully transformed from a lowly land lubber to a winged tiger of the skies. Pretty amazing stuff when you think about it.

Anyway, I'm getting distracted again. The whole point of this post was to bring this annual “migration” to your attention. You see, it often involves them crossing our busy highways and not so busy 2 lane black top roads. Every fall, all day long while driving, I see them slowly crawling their way across the gauntlet of our road systems. I can't help but notice them and am constantly weaving this way and that to avoid squishing the little bears. I'd surely be pulled over for suspicion of drunk driving if the po-po ever saw me doing this.

I pulled over the other day on a nearly deserted road when I saw this one so I could take a couple pictures and escort him the rest of the way across what must seem to them a vast expanse of burning hot blacktop. He seemed a bit confused when he reached the end of my finger, wondering just where the rest of the world went.

So please keep your eyes open while driving this fall season and save a few lives. There's a lot of little critters running around on our road ways and it takes a keen eye to spot them before it's too late.