Lagoon of Doom

I went out for a drive the other night and ended up in the Blue Lakes area above Lake Tahoe. I saw this lovely little pond with lily pads and frogs and everything. So, I hopped out of the car, grabbed my gear and tripod and headed for a good spot. I blissfully imagined myself spending at least an hour admiring and photographing this wonderful find.

"I wonder why there aren't any campers in this lovely area?" I queried myself. "How lucky I am to find this place."

Ha!

No sooner had I set up my tripod for the first shot when the clarion call of "fresh blood" roused at least 1 billion mosquitoes. I am not kidding.

At first I thought I could ignore them, but my arms became a veritable landing strip and my ears were buzzing with the little buggers. I could barely see through my lens because the camera kept focusing on all the bugs swarming around me.

"MY EYES! I CAN'T SEE! MY EARS...I CAN ONLY HEAR LOUD BUZZING. SOMEBODY HELP ME!" I screamed most pathetically...

Not really. But, I did grab my tripod and gear and ran for my car.

"my keys...my keys...my kingdom for my keys." I said out loud most pathetically.

I began slapping my pockets for my keys, while also slapping my arms and forehead to try and kill the army of mosquitoes, who had now called in the reserves.

I not only understood why nobody else was foolish enough to stop at a pond at sundown, but I was glad nobody was there to see some crazy lady slapping herself silly while packing camera gear and a tripod and trying to remember which pocket of my gear bag I had oh-so carelessly dropped my keys. What a sight I must have been.

When I finally found my keys and jumped in the car, two hundred mosquitoes joined me so I spent the next 10 minutes slapping the inside of my car trying to kill the little devils.

I should have learned from my trip to Echo Lake when I vowed to bring some OFF with me. At least I got one fairly decent shot...but without my tripod, so it's not as sharp as I would have liked.

Sigh. The OFF is now in my bag.