The warm and sunny day of Sunday, July 7, 2019 is a day that I will remember forever.
I was caching in North Conway in the area near Humphrey’s Ledge Hotel cache just off West Side Rd. I was in the woods and off trail a bit when a bug flew into my left ear. It didn’t land on the ear and crawl in; it flew directly into my ear. The bug was trying to get out but apparently couldn’t back up. To try to get out, the bug would buzz for 2-3 seconds and then go quiet. After a few seconds of being quiet, it would buzz again. Bzzz! I was caching by myself so there was no one who could look at it and give me some help. Of course, my finger could not get in far enough and even if it could would have only pushed the bug in further. Bzzz! I tilted my left ear down and was somewhat forcefully hitting the right side of my head to try to pop the bug out. Bzzz! That was not going to work; the bug was clearly stuck deep in my ear.
What to do??? About every 3rd or 4th bzzz, the bug made an extra strong effort to get out that lasted what seemed like an eternity. BZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! I almost ran out of the woods to my truck and decided I needed to go to the hospital emergency room. Bzzz! I drove back to the main drag and saw the blue H sign. Ah! Bzzz! After a short distance I was at the hospital and quickly parked and hurried into the emergency room. Bzzz! Now, keep in mind that it’s a beautiful afternoon in July, the weekend after the 4th. It’s the type of day when people are getting injured as they recreate on the water or in backyards. My heart sank as I walked in. The place was packed! BZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! I think there was one empty seat in the entire waiting room. There was even a line just to check in. Bzzz! I waited the 10 minutes to check in and took a seat. BZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! Knowing that a bug in the ear would be treated after everyone in front of me, plus after any true emergencies that came in after me, I figured my wait time would be at least 2-3 hours. Bzzz!
I decided to leave. There is a hospital in my town of Rochester about an hour and a half away. Certainly I could drive there before I would be seen in North Conway. BZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! I called my wife and asked her to check the internet for any urgent care facilities located on the Rt. 16 corridor from North Conway to Rochester. Once she stopped laughing, she started doing the query. Bzzz! At this point, I was stopped at a traffic light still in Conway. While sitting there, I noticed an urgent care facility right there! Perfect! Bzzz! I pulled in and noticed the parking area was empty. It was 1:45 and the place closed at 1pm. BZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! My wife was in stitches on the other end of the phone. She continued to search the internet but couldn’t find anything on or near Rt. 16. She noted that there was a hospital in Wolfeboro, but that didn’t appeal to me. It was way out of the way and not anywhere near home. So I continued on my trip down Rt. 16. Bzzz!
The bug had somewhat settled into its new environment. The Bzzz wasn’t happening quite so often. I would say that it had slowed to about 4 times per minute with the predictable BZZZZZZZZZ every so often. Still, that’s about 240 Bzzz’s per hour. From my point of view, I was getting used to it if that was possible. The bug wasn’t hurting me; it was just very uncomfortable with it in there, and it was mentally challenging to keep my focus on the road at the BZZZZZZZZZ moments. Bzzz! At this point, things were going as well as could be expected. Traffic was moving along at a good clip. Then I got to Wakefield. Wakefield is only about 20 minutes from Rochester and I was feeling better about my decision to leave the hospital in North Conway. That’s when traffic came to a complete stop on Rt. 16 in the middle of nowhere. BZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! No one was moving and no one was coming by going north. A few people were turning around. I decided to join that parade and turned around myself. I followed the crowd as we turned down a little side road. Bzzz! It wasn’t long before we were stopped in traffic once again. We poked along in stop-and-go traffic on a back road for almost ½ hour. We finally arrived at Rt 153 and then it was stop-and-go again to the traffic light at Rt 16. BZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!
Finally I was back on Rt 16 and moving along once again. I arrived in Rochester about 2 hours after I left North Conway. When I got to the emergency room at the hospital, I knew I had made the right decision. Bzzz! There was one person in the waiting room and I guessed that person was waiting for someone who was already being treated. They ushered me right in and attempted to extract the bug with some long tweezers. The nurse could see the bug but was not able to get it out. The bug continued to attempt escape without success. BZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! A different plan of attack was called for. They had me lay on my side so they could pour some water into my ear to drown the bug so that it would stop wiggling. Bzzz! After 15 long minutes, the bug made it’s last attempt at escape, and then was still.
The nurse removed the bug with some long tweezers, and finally the ordeal was over. The bug was a small moth that felt absolutely huge. I was sitting on the edge of the bed while the nurse finalized the paperwork when she came in and said, “I have to ask. Do you want it?” “Why yes, I believe that I do!” I said. So she put the moth into a specimen container and gave it to me.
I put the container on my desk at home and looked at it for half a year. After a while, I decided it’s gotta go. What do you do with a specimen bottle? You put a logsheet in it and hide it somewhere! You are looking for that very specimen container. Yes, I took the moth out and no, it was never used for its intended purpose. Please be sure to replace the container EXACTLY AS you found it, and EXACTLY WHERE you found it so that others may enjoy the same experience.
This is my 100th hide, including the few that I adopted from PulmonaryHip. The cache is a little over a half mile from parking. Hunting is allowed so make sure to wear orange during hunting season.
It would be much appreciated if you do not copy and paste the same log for your day of caching.
As always when Geocaching, have fun, be safe and leave no trace.
Congratulations to jimandjoanne for FTF!