#128 - Indiana Dunes & ARACHNOCULTURE

It has been nearly two months since I wrote about personal demons and the end of my nomadic lifestyle. I expect both will always be with me. Some day I will be back "on the road." And mental health issues are like alcoholism, I suppose – a life long struggle. Thankfully, things have been better on that front of late.

Wednesday, I was to leave for Costa Rica. The global pandemic has indefinitely postponed that adventure. Joel and I were able to cancel our plane tickets with an eighteen-month window to use them, and our other reservations were canceled and refunded. 2020 will be without any travel that is more than a truck ride.

My 56th birthday is August 5, and I have been thinking about an overnighter somewhere where I can "herp" and "vert" and do some photography. If anyone has any suggestions within perhaps 300 miles of Chicagoland, please email me. I would love to have a chance to do some landscape photography, but I am more interested in finding subjects for reptile images and macrophotography. Maybe I'll even tent camp.

Photographing bugs & spiders on the trail. Photo by John Apple.

I had a recent "verting" adventure with John Apple and his partner Ashley. I had some spiders to deliver to John and, since the pandemic had also forced the cancellation of a tattoo appointment close to me, we agreed to meet halfway between Hoffman Estates, IL, and Battle Creek, MI. Indiana Dunes was the perfect place. After lunch at Five Guys burgers in Michigan City, IN, John and Ash followed me to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Heron Rookery, a trail that I had scouted out when I arrived earlier that morning. Along this wooded trail, we found some photography subjects and enjoyed the shade along the East Arm of the Little Calumet River branch that it follows. One highlight was my first snake of 2020, which John discovered under the bark of a fallen tree several feet above the ground. Yeah, I know. Usually, my snake count would be in the triple digits by then/now. But this is a very different year. Another highlight of our riverside stroll was seeing a Bumblebee Robber Fly preying on a bee. I only had a chance for one quick exposure (which is far from crisp), but I am so glad John found it. It was a remarkable observation for all of us.

Storeria dekayi (Dekay’s Northern Brown Snake), Porter County, Indiana

Anaxyrus americanus americanus (Eastern American Toad), Porter County, Indiana

Laphria thoracica (Bumblebee Robber Fly) with prey, Porter County, Indiana

The big news is that I have decided to relaunch my ARACHNOCULTURE magazine. The reboot will be via digital publishing as ARACHNOCULTURE – The Digital Magazine for the Arachnid World. Some readers will recall the print version, seven issues of which were published from 2005-2007. Printing, binding, and posting that magazine became cost-prohibitive, and I also ceased producing it due to moving to the Seattle area from Nashville after my divorce. The digital-only version optimized for the iPad also will allow me to present it at no cost except my time, so I am offering it free. Perhaps when distribution gets large enough, I can include paid advertisements to at least pay for my coffee fuel, but the only way to approach projects like this is to consider them a “labor of love.” You have to do it for yourself first and hope others appreciate your work. Positive feedback becomes the second method of affirmation, if not compensation. Click here to subscribe for FREE! To stimulate interest in the reboot, I released all four issues of the first volume (2005) as a single FREE (again!) PDF. That can be downloaded here.

Big shoutout and thanks to my mate Mark Pennell for designing the new magazine logo. See the cover image here for the magazine logo and the end of this blog for the circular “sticker” logo. I will have some stickers available soon.

Mentioning buying me a cup of coffee just reminded me that I created a LinkTree with all my weblinks and social media in one place. Yes, it includes Starbucks gifting (and my Amazon wishlist … wink, wink)! Click here to view ALL OF MY LINKS.

What else? Well, the photo of me above shows my Alex Goh macro diffuser in use. I will have an MK Diffuser soon! It is coming from Malaysia. That’s exciting news as it is similar (the Goh diffuser is a copy of the MK), but the MK 2.0 integrates USB LED lights, and I can’t wait to get more serious about macrophotography. I have experimented a bit with focus stacking (the jumping spider on the magazine cover above is a stack of four exposures), both with Photoshop alone and Zerene Stacker. Now I am demoing Helicon focus stacking software and plan to refine my skills.

For those unfamiliar with focus stacking, close-up photograph, and super macrophotography present the problem of a shallow depth of field. The fantastic jumping spider photos you see are often 50 or more exposures combined into one. That is, images with different areas of the subject in crisp focus are combined so that all parts are in focus. My photography has always been single exposure, and I liked to think of myself as a purist because of it, but I want to take my photography to the next level. Look again at the robber fly image. Imagine if both the fly and its bee prey were in perfect focus. That requires stacking images with different focus points. The same is often done with landscape photography even though it seems the opposite of close-up photography. For example, you can take an exposure with something in the foreground in perfect focus and then take another with the mountains or whatever is in the background crisply focused and combine them into one amazing photograph. Helicon seems more straightforward to use than Zerene and is less expensive, and I look forward to showing you the results.

Cheers, MJ

PS - Any new readers into arachnoculture (the hobby) may wish to dive into my old blog, Kiss My Big Hairy Spider (2008-2017). There are about 170 posts there! I guess I’m up to 300 entries from KMBHS to Pikey (first 68 posts of this blog) to the third incarnation here at mjacobi.com.

#127 - All things must come to end ...

“All things must come to end”

— Chaucer (1374-ish)

Part One

This old proverb is attributed to Chaucer. The word “good” was added much later and there are many variations. After exactly three years, my life on the road has come to end. I don’t need to use the added “good” as there is good and bad in everything. But, overall, there was much “good” and I fully intend to live a life on the road again. But it won’t be soon.

Full-time RV-ing is a wonderful thing. For those with the means, which includes not only financial stability, but access to doctors and friends and family, it can go on forever. For me, three years exhausted me in all ways, most importantly in terms of mental health. I have battled mental health issues and part of my choice to live free on the road was to find peace and happiness. In the short term, it was therapeutic; in the long term, the antithesis of happy and healthy.

So, I return to Chicago for the support and love of family, and the doctors and work I need. Even a self-proclaimed “loner” gets lonely, and for those with my brain chemistry, the bleakness of …

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I composed the above on January 16. As you can see, I abruptly ceased writing. Then I started to try to blog once again in April, and then stopped once more, as you will learn below. Then I resumed this week. And here you go …

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Part Two

Returning to blogging is more than just a smidgen intimidating. My recent writings focused on faunal wonders and grand adventures among the majesty of the Chiricahua Mountains. Photography, hiking, travel. Now I am in suburban Chicago and, like many, observing #stayathome. What stories do I have to share?

I began my second attempt at writing this entry back in April but, for a number of reasons, lost interest in sharing. One primary cause was my mental health. When I got to the discussion of mental health I felt I was getting “too personal.” That readers of my blog were mostly interested in my wildlife adventures or travel, and that perhaps this wasn't the audience for me to open up to about my own struggles. One of my battles is that I keep everything inside. I live in my own head and my own world. But in the interest of May being Mental Health Awareness Month, yesterday I posted “Break the Stigma graphics” on my social media, and publicly declared my own battles with mental health issues. I am diagnosed with Panic Anxiety Disorder and Acute Major Depression. I take medications. I first received treatment for mental health disorders over fifteen years ago. I saw a psychiatrist regularly and was on medications for years until my divorce and the resulting end of health insurance. Moving to the present, I am now in talk therapy. When I returned to Chicago over seven years ago after the loss of my mother, I went back on medications for anxiety and depression. I have been off and on them since, which I will explain later. One of the major problems with mental health problems, which 1 in 4 people will suffer from this year, is that stigma and breaking the silence. So, I will share.

I've been back on my home turf since January and haven't had fabulous tales to tell. I also have not felt well at all. However, I did travel to England and Scotland via Ireland in March with my stepdad Joel to visit my dear friends Mark, Kim, and Elli Pennell, as well as deliver the after-dinner presentation at the annual lectures of the British Tarantula Society. I do have some travel tales to tell. But we will come back to that.

First, an explanation of my abrupt end to my three-year odyssey as an RV-living nomad is in order. I don't wish to share everything, but I will say that I needed to address my psychological, physical, and financial health. I couldn't continue and at the end of my adventure I was mentally in a dangerously bleak place. Mental health is a private matter, but at the same time I am in favor of “breaking the stigma” and “ending the silence.” Speaking public about it can also be personally therapeutic, and beneficial to others who struggle and perhaps have the shame of talking openly about it. I wish there to be no shame in my game.

My life on the road was an escape. At first, it aided my mental health. Dramatically. As a self-professed “loner,” the lifestyle seemed perfect for me. I was in nature, camera in hand, and life was good. Even great. I was also medicated. Before I departed I got my doctor to put me back on a medication regimen similar to that my psychiatrist back in Nashville a decade earlier had me on. However, living on the road would mean I was away from care. Unfortunately, I didn't give that enough thought at the time. I returned to Chicagoland for six months during the first winter, and then again the following winter for a shorter time. I saw my general practitioner during that time, and he would prescribe anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications. I began to realize that I felt worse in Chicagoland than when I was elsewhere, something my current therapist has commented on several times. She believes my “home environment” harms my mental health. However, the joy of my road life, which became more of a live-mostly-stationary-in-an-RV in Cave Creek Canyon not-on-the-road life, dissipated when I returned to Arizona again in 2019. There were many reasons, some of which I won't divulge here.

I will say that the pressures of little income, isolation, the increasing need for long-overdue physical and dental care, not to mention reassessment of my mental health condition, became overwhelming, and that, coupled with some other matters, my idyllic life in my beloved mountain range lost its charm. I've made many abrupt changes in my life. Many complete and dramatic transformations that were perhaps hasty. I felt I had no choice but to make another, or you could say reverse the last one, I suppose. I went to Tucson to sell my RV and, that done, returned to my family in Chicagoland, somewhat defeated and needing care.

I lost my doctor during my three-year RV life. Somehow I had been able to acquire Medicaid health insurance and he was able to use that at first, but Centegra Healthcare became Northwestern, and that mega-network doesn't accept IlliniCare. I'll resist the temptation to go off on a tangent regarding the abysmal and shameful state of health care and health insurance in the United States. Unfortunately, that meant I could no longer get prescription refills, and I was forced to wean myself off of my mental health meds. That worked. Until it didn't. I felt good when I was still enjoying my life in Cave Creek Canyon and didn't have stressors or triggers that would negatively affect me. When I tired of my situation as the caretaker and a host of the Cave Creek Canyon Visitor Center, and thought about how my lifestyle wasn't sustainable financially or mentally or physically, I withered fast. As I stated, life on the road initially was partly about improving my mental health and it allowed me to get away from medication. But when the stressors returned, I began to take the leftover medication until it ran out. Without it, I was crippled and had to get back to Illinois to find a new doctor.

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Part Three

OK, that's enough heaviness for now. It certainly is enough sharing. However, I wanted to state publicly that I have severe symptoms of anxiety and depression that manifest themselves physically, especially in the form of a constant indescribably odd feeling in my head, and this incapacitates me much of the time. Being in lockdown here back in Illinois has been very rough on me, and it's tough to get through most days. My talk therapy is helping and my therapist is wonderful. My daily brisk morning three-mile walks were helping before I badly strained my knee and had to stop for now. The medications really aren't doing much, and keep getting changed and adjusted. The one that works is a “benzo” but the current trend is to consider these taboo and lump their use in with opioids and worse. It’s difficult to get Xanax or even the Clonazepam I have been given instead prescribed. My therapist is convinced that living in Chicagoland isn't healthy for me, and certainly not having my own place and not working and many other present factors are combining and conspiring to make me not really want to wake up most mornings. I came back to Chicagoland to get better, not have it make me worse.

But, on I forge. Just know that many people suffer from mental illness and it is not about being “depressed” or unhappy. It is a chemical imbalance and physical disease, and a psychological result of many years of unhealthy relationships or family life or unhealthy coping mechanisms or whatever, combined into a daunting illness that requires treatment just like anything else. What I can’t explain to doctors or family or anyone is how mental illness affects me physically. My head feels weird constantly. I am tired of doctors looking at me like I’m crazy while telling the same story, again and again, to have it diagnosed as “non-specific” this or that. It feels like I have brain cancer or something and it doesn’t go away. And the doctors - or now nurse practitioners since that is who I see instead at the clinic I ended up selecting - barely listen.

OK, time to push on. Let's return to the trip to the UK, which put me somewhere in the double digits for trips to Blighty since 2007. I think somewhere around 14, including one year when I visited the UK four times!

Kim & Mark Pennell, with me and Joel at the Oban Distillery in Oban, Scotland

After Mark had visited me in Arizona in August to celebrate my 55th birthday along with John Apple and his gal Ashley, I began to think about when I would see him again and whether I could make it back to Bristol, England in the near future. It all worked out when, courtesy of the British Tarantula Society (BTS), I was invited to present at their 18th Lectures and Dinner. This annual event is hosted by Mark and his wife Kim at the Aztec Hotel & Spa in a suburb of their Bristol hometown. My first trip to the UK was when the BTS first invited me to speak in 2007. It was just after my trip to Costa Rica with then BTS Chairman Andrew Smith. I had become the North American Representative of the society. That 2007 edition of the lectures were also attended by Scott and Debby Scher who own Arachnoboards.com, with whom I had organized the Arachnocon events that were held in San Antonio, Texas in 2006 and 2007. Scott and Debby would later also be asked to become BTS North American Representatives. In 2007, they traveled to the UK with Tom Patterson, who like his friends Scott and Debby are from the New York City area. Readers of this blog, and those who either saw my live lecture this year or have seen the “studio version” I will mention shortly, will recall that Tom visited me in Arizona this past late October to be part of our six-man “Team Sky Island Tarantulas 2019.”

As plans for this March's trip to Bristol developed, my stepdad Joel decided to join me. We didn't realize at the time that I would be staying with him again by the time the trip departed, but he had traveled to the lectures with me four years earlier and was interested in seeing England again. As we discussed things with Mark and Kim the idea to visit Scotland for the first time was born. My lecture topic would be obvious as this all occurred just before my “Team Sky Island Tarantulas 2019” would assemble at my camp in the Chiricahuas and further search for new species of high elevation tarantulas would commence. Everything fell into place quite naturally, but in the weeks leading up to the trip COVID-19 became a concern.

Joel watches CNN daily and things were changing daily as I had already begun packing my suitcase. The day before our departure, and even the morning we were to leave, I was genuinely worried that Joel would want to cancel the trip. That would have meant me canceling as well. But that afternoon we were on our way to O'Hare International Airport for an overnight flight to Dublin and on to a Bristol, England arrival the following morning. This was before social distancing became a thing. All of the warnings were centered around washing your hands for twenty seconds or more as often as possible. We also had our own hand sanitizer. However, that was about it for precautions when we boarded our plane. People congregated as usual.

When we arrived in Dublin, we noticed much more signage about COVID-19 and many changes. Restaurants were mostly closed. The shops that remained open weren't taking cash and electronic payment was required. We only had a short layover and then boarded our prop plane for the less than one hour flight to Bristol. That plane, which holds maybe 80, was about half full. Soon we were on the ground in England, collected our luggage, and met Kim who so graciously was waiting to transport us to Mark's Serious Ink Tattoo Studio. Our friend from France, legendary tarantula breeder and explorer Jean-Michel Verdez (“JMV”), was due to get another tattoo from Mark that morning so we expected him to be there when we arrived. As we pulled up, I saw the French license plates on a car in front and found JMV in the chair, and our friend and his traveling companion and fellow French tarantula breeder/explorer Benoît Ménart sitting on the sofa.

After saying our hellos to Mark and Elli, as well as JMV and Benoît, Joel and I had a trip planned into the Clifton area of Bristol for a full English breakfast. On past visits to Bristol I have stayed at a motel in this area, which is where BBC Bristol is located. It’s only two train stops from the station about a ten-minute walk from Mark’s studio in Shirehampton. I haven’t used public transportation in the U.S. since my days at the University of Illinois-Chicago over thirty-five years ago, but it is fun to get yourself around in foreign lands via buses and trains. In fact, later in the week I would figure out how to catch a series of two buses from the Aztec Hotel & Spa where we stayed to get to Shirehampton and then walk on down to Mark’s Serious Ink Tattoo Studio. It’s fun to experience the locals and people watch. Using a taxi would be much less adventurous.

After our “breaky,” as the Brits like to call it, Joel and I walked around a bit before catching the train back to “the Shire” and returning to the tattoo studio. Later we would meet up with another friend, Mark & Kim’s best friend Haidee, who drove us to check-in at the Aztec Hotel & Spa. It was time to get ready for the Friday evening meet & greet with British Tarantula Society Lectures & Dinner attendees, which would take place right at our hotel. About one-third of those registered for the lectures take advantage of this wonderful social evening that includes a group dinner for those staying the full weekend at the Aztec. However, it is pricey lodging so many people choose to stay elsewhere, and don’t arrive until the next day’s lectures. That evening I spent a good deal of time with my dear mate, arachnohistorian and tarantula filmmaker and author Andrew Smith, plus JMV and Benoît and many more friends, old and new.

The morning of the lectures Joel and I met Mark & Kim as well as Peter and Connie Kirk for the first of many breakfasts at the Aztec. The pandemic was beginning to change things, and the usual buffet-style full English breakfast plus continental options were only available that weekend before it quickly changed to ordering exactly what you wanted.

Your after-dinner featured presenter, the bald tattooed American in black. #seriousink

Later, after breakfast, I helped Mark prepare a short presentation that would include the group photos from each of the previous seventeen years of the BTS Lectures & Dinner. People began to arrive and were filling the lobby outside the lectures room, which the hotel had well-stocked with beverages and snacks. However, the room itself was closed to everyone except the BTS committee and lecturers. Mark was loading everyones PowerPoint or Keynote presentations on his laptop, while I created slides for the historical group shots.

It was great to finally see Guy Tansley, Paul Carpenter, and others as the lobby outside the room continued to fill with excited attendees. Because my lecture wouldn’t be until after the banquet dinner, I was relaxed and just enjoying talking with friends I hadn’t seen in several years and meeting some new ones. Ray Hale and his wife Angela, who hadn’t made it the previous evening, finally arrived and I was happy to see these dear friends.

My mate Ray Hale (BTS Vice-Chairman and Exhibition Organizer), me, and Joel

Mark and I getting things read just before the lectures.

Then the lectures began. First up was Mark’s short introduction and the slideshow of previous lectures we had worked on.

Then the stage belonged to Emma Lawlor, a lovely Irish lass who gave a fascinating presentation titled Barcoding: A Useful Tool in Taxonomy. I was told afterward that it was her first real lecture and she was very nervous, but I couldn’t tell. She did a fabulous job.

Emma was followed by a lovely English bloke, Paul Carpenter, my mate with whom I have traveled to Costa Rica in 2006, Suriname in 2012, and Sri Lanka in 2014. His topic was Somewhere in the Gulf of Guinea, a tale of the tarantulas from two islands, a field trip that included another mate and traveling companion of mine, Guy Tansley, who was a part of the aforementioned Suriname and Sri Lanka trips, plus Paul’s brother Mark who joined us in Costa Rica and Sri Lanka, and Richard Gallon and Rolf Könen.

Paul was then followed by Ray Hale. Ray and Angela have been doing cruises in Indonesia with SeaTrek where Ray lectures on local fauna and evolution and other topics. A devotee of natural selection co-discoverer Alfred Russel Wallace, Ray’s topic was the Crossing the Wallace Line, and he covered the flora and fauna of the world’s largest island country with an emphasis on the faunal boundary (Wallace Line) that separates the biogeographical realms of Asia and Wallacea, a transitional zone between Asia and Australia, which Wallace discovered and created in 1859. I should mention that Ray and Angela joined our group led by Mark and Kim on Langkawi Island, Malaysia in 2017, as did my friend JMV and his wife Monique, so the theme of my world spider-hunting traveling companions being featured in the lectures was continuing.

And it didn’t stop there. The man who led my Costa Rica and Suriname adventures, legendary lecturer Andrew Smith, would close out the afternoon’s lectures. Poecilotheria – Carter’s Railway Spiders was a preview of his upcoming two-part documentary on his recent field trip to India with Guy Tansley and Stuart Longhorn. Andrew, who was the long-time Chairman of the BTS, usually has had the honor of being the after-dinner presenter, and it was truly an honor for me to be put in that coveted spot this year. As the afternoon’s lectures wound down and dinner was soon to come, all that would be left would be my presentation, The Tarantulas of the USA with a Focus on the Sky Islands of Arizona and New Species.

We all sat down to what the Brits call a “hot fork buffet,” where fortunately the forks are cool and it is the food that is hot. The room had been laid out wedding-style, with assigned tables and seats. At our primary table were Peter and Connie Kirk, Ray and Angela Hale, Mark and Kim Pennell, Mark’s sister Chris and her husband Alan, friends who I have spent three Malaysia trips with, not to mention my many visits to Bristol, and then Martin Nicholas, Joel, and me. As dinner wound down, I took the podium. After a fabulous introduction by Mark, which was preceded by my own announcement that bathroom breaks and bar stock-ups would be in order before my lengthy talk, I launched what would be an over 90-minute lecture detailing all American tarantula species.

I’m gonna leap ahead in time here before returning to Bristol and the trip Mark, Kim, Joel, and I took to Scotland for three days and two nights. Rolf Könen was kind enough to record my presentation for me, but after returning home and thinking about it for some time I decided I would produce a scripted and narrated version for YouTube release. There were things I left out of my live lecture and things I wanted to explain better, plus I hoped I could make it more concise. I failed with the latter because my voiceover version is actually almost two hours, but I did produce something that was more complete and also would be an HD full-screen version of my Keynote presentation rather than what was captured by a camera in a dark room with background noise. For those who haven’t seen it here you go. Please view the film on YouTube in HD and full screen for the best result.

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Part Four

Back to our timeline … The day after the Lectures we met for breakfast with everyone again and then made plans to see Mark and Kim later in the day. In England the meal they refer to as “dinner” (not “tea” or supper or “evening meal”) is traditionally on Sunday and is a “Sunday roast.” So, the four of us went to the White Lion, in Bristol’s suburb of Westbury on Trym for our roast.

White Lion, Westbury on Trym, at sunset

Kim, me, and Mark with pre-dinner drinks at White Lion, Westbury on Trym

Mark and I at the bar of Cuan Mor in Oban, Scotland. The name is Gaelic for “Big Ocean” and its street just around the corner from Oban Distillery has wonderful views of Oban Bay. But, as is usually the case in Scotland, it was blustery and rainy.

After dinner we had a nightcap back at the Aztec, and then Joel and I prepared for the following morning’s trip to Scotland. We would be checking out of the Aztec for two nights and had brought a smaller carry-on bag to use for Scotland. We stored our larger luggage at the Aztec during our absence. Haidee was once again kind enough to chauffeur us, and Mark and Kim picked us early at the hotel and then we met Haidee at their house for the trip to Bristol’s small international airport. After a one-hour flight to Edinburgh we were soon picking out a rental car so we could drive west and tour the Scottish Highlands. I had yet to discover just how magical a place it is.

Our plan was to take the back roads and scenic routes and enjoy the countryside and its castles and villages before visiting Oban distillery and then driving on to Glencoe, where we would spend the first night. The next day we would continue to stay off the beaten path and take in the small villages of the highlands before spending the night in Stirling and visiting Stirling Castle the last morning. Our flight back to England wouldn’t be until mid-afternoon.

We stopped at a number of places as we drove, but the weather was wet and windy and we were prevented from the strolls we would have liked to take in some of these beautiful and charming villages. But as the saying on shirts and mugs in gift shops throughout Scotland declares, “In Scotland there’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.” Of course, another common quip you don’t find on souvenirs much is “which day in June is Scottish summer?”

Balloch Castle

Since 1794 … One of my favorite Scotch whiskies. We were served and sampled some cask strength, and I left with a bottle of “The Distiller’s Edition”, double matured Oban Single Malt Scotch Whisky aged 12 years in a normal cask before maturing another almost two years in a Montilla Fino “sherry” cask. I am still enjoying this distilled in 2005 and bottled in 2019 nectar.

Joel in front of the Chachaig Inn in Glencoe Village, Scotland where we spent the first night. This area is famous for so many productions being filmed in the area from Harry Potter to Highlander to James Bond’s Skyfall and many more.

The view from Clachaig Inn. Now you see why medieval and fantasy movies are filmed here. And why I fell in love with the Scottish Highlands.

On the trails that surrounded the Clachaig Inn

Our second day found us meandering on more backcountry roads, visiting the nature reserves in the Ballachulish-Glencoe and Glen Nevis areas, and having lunch at an incredibly quaint little village pub in Pitlochry, Scotland. We passed the Dalwhinnie Distillery but it had already been shut down due to COVID-19. That was a trend that we would see for the rest of our UK trip. In fact, our tour of Oban Distillery the previous day was the last they would offer before closing to the public. We checked on Stirling Castle where we planned to spend the following morning and discovered that we could go, but it would be the last tour they gave before their own shutdown. Once we returned to Bristol, we went out to dinner two nights in a row at places with no other diners and the establishments closing as soon as we left. We began to wonder if we would be able to get back to America! Eventually, we headed east and made our way to Stirling, and Hotel Colessio where we would spend our second night in Scotland.

Dalwhinnie Distillery in Dalwhinnie. There are five different types of Scotch whisky depending on region, and this distillery on the western edge of Cairngorms National Park actually can legally claim either Highland or Speyside.

Dunstaffnage Castle (Scottish Gaelic: Caisteal Dhùn Stadhainis) is a partially ruined castle in Argyll and Bute, western Scotland.

Drummond’s Restaurant & Public House in Pitlochry, Scotland

Hotel Colessio, Stirling, Scotland

After we got settled into our hotel, I found a pub within walking distance to spend the evening. Nicky-Tams Bar & Bothy was a very interesting place with colorful characters, to say the least. A “bothy” is a basic shelter, usually left unlocked and available for anyone. It also refers to basic accommodations for gardeners or other workers on an estate. It had two floors and the small bar area on the entry level was crowded so we took our drinks to the upstairs where we had the place to ourselves except for people who came up for the restrooms. We had drinks and food, me drinking fine Scotch, of course, at unbelievable prices. Afterward, we stopped at a convenience store for some chocolates and snacks and returned for a nightcap at the bar in the Colessio. The barman recommended a 14-year-old Speyside Single Malt called Inchgower that was wonderful.

The next morning we walked up the road to Stirling Castle for their final tour before closing due to the pandemic. I’m not much on history so I bored of it quickly despite the delightful Scottish accent of our young lady guide, but I do enjoy architecture and the walk to the beautiful castle passed many interesting buildings and a cemetery.

Church of the Holy Rude and Old Town Cemetery, Stirling, Scotland

Old Town Cemetery, Stirling, Scotland

Stirling Castle

A godless ape preaching the gospel inside Stirling Castle

Stirling Castle and Stirling, Scotland

After our visit to Stirling Castle, our foursome checked out of Hotel Colessio and had some time for a leisurely drive back to Edinburgh, where we drove into the city center and saw Edinburgh Castle. I am not much for cities either, but I loved Edinburgh and was sorry we would just catch a glimpse of it. We returned our rental car at the airport and had lunch in the terminal while awaiting our flight back to Bristol.

Edinburgh Castle from the road. No tour.

Back in Bristol on Wednesday evening, Joel and I checked back into the Aztec Hotel & Spa in the Bristol suburb of Almondsbury. It was an odd time as things were rapidly progressing with the global pandemic and we were a long way from home. As I mentioned above, we would find our next nights’ meals to be the last served at each restaurant we went to. But on Wednesday we had Mark and Kim return to the Aztec and have dinner with us in its nice restaurant. Thursday morning I figured out how to walk to the bus stop on the other side of the huge roundabout beside the Aztec and take two buses to Shirehampton to walk ten minutes more to Serious Ink Tattoo Studio where I would hang out with the Pennells. Joel would enjoy the hotel spa and pool. On Friday, Mark finished my sleeves. My right arm is my tribute to my late mother and also my beloved dog Taylor, and there was just enough space on the wrist to add “Jesse” and a feather in memorial of my parrot that passed away in September 2019 a week after turning 29. My left arm had more space around the elbow and Mark did an amazing job of filling that gap as well.

Aztec Hotel & Spa, Almondsbury, Bristol, UK

Early Saturday morning, Mark and Kim picked Joel and I up to take us to Bristol airport for our journey back to Chicago. The night before we had our final dinner at the Bengal Raj, one of our fabulous hosts’ favorite restaurants. Elli and her boyfriend Laurence joined us. The previous day at midnight was the “deadline” to return from abroad for U.S. citizens. We found the airport mostly deserted and our prop-plane flight from Bristol to Dublin only had about 20 people on it (one-third capacity). One of the reasons I fly Aer Lingus through Dublin is that there is a U.S. Customs Pre-clearance Facility at Dublin Airport so you arrive back in the U.S. as a domestic passenger. We breezed through that process and waited for the flight from Ireland to O’Hare. The airport was mostly shut down. Our flight was on a plane that holds more than 310 passengers, but there were only about 125 on the flight. Joel was able to spread out on a center row of four seats alone. Unfortunately, Aer Lingus planes have armrests that don’t go completely vertical so laying across them is next to impossible. Arriving at O’Hare I usually can go straight down to baggage claim from the international terminal, bypassing the customs area. However, CDC-operated personnel was awaiting our flight so we were ushered by an officer through the customs area without any checks and then into a very brief wait to give a questionnaire we were provided on the flight to the CDC staff. They asked additional questions and then directed us to a table where we would turn in the form to paramedics and other “volunteers” who took our temperature with a non-contact forehead thermometer, asked more questions, and then sent us to baggage claim. We got out of the airport very quickly as it was already becoming a ghost town.

***

Part Five

I’ll wrap this long blog up now. It’s the first of 2020 and took all five months so far to write. In closing, I just want to add that I do have some more narrated Keynote presentation ideas in mind. I have already begun working on one that will cover the rattlesnakes of southeastern Arizona. I hope you all will enjoy some photographic slideshows that are supplemented by learning more about the wildlife I was fortunate to capture by camera during my three-year odyssey. With the tarantulas covered in depth by my BTS lecture and its two-hour narrated version, we will start with rattlesnakes and see what you think. I am finding it hard to focus (hell, I’m finding it difficult to “life”) and often cannot do much more than lay and Netflix and YouTube binge, but I’ll do my best to work a little on these projects each day.

Happy Memorial Day and Happy Mental Health Awareness Month!

All the best, MJ

#111 - Langkawi, Malaysia - Thursday, 17 January 2019

Writing at sunrise at Beach Brassiere restaurant on Burau Bay at Berjaya Langkawi Beach Resort. It is our second morning on Langkawi Island and I am sitting at the same table where I sat yesterday after a predawn beach walk among the crabs out to a natural rock breakwater at the eastern end of the white sand Berjaya beach. I set up my tripod and did some long exposure photography as the sun rose over some early fishing boats.

Yesterday we arrived on the island after a thirty minute flight from Penang and were greeted after baggage claim by two drivers from Berjaya. Twenty minutes later we were receiving a VIP welcome in the resort lobby with cold Tiger beer. This is Mark’s second home, but even on only my third visit there was something familiar and comforting. I was assigned chalet #2112, which is very fitting for a lifelong Rush fan. After getting settled into our lodging we donned our swimwear and I was first to arrive in the sunken pool par, set up to my waist and drinking another Tiger.

Our resort is on the southwestern shore of the island, away from the population center of Kuah Town in the northeast. The climate immediately seemed a bit warmer and muggier than on Penang, and the two lane road running along the coast a contrast to the busy roads near our Penang hotel. The roadside was populated by macaques, who even sit on the pavement oblivious to the vehicles crossing the center line to avoid them. Langkawi is actually an archipelago made up of 99 islands off peninsular Malaysia's west coast straddling its northern border with Thailand. Surrounded by turquoise sea, the interior of the main island that we visit is a mixture of picturesque paddy fields and jungle-clad hills.

After yesterday’s breakfast I spotted a colugo on a tree trunk during the short walk from the pool and beach to my chalet. I set up my camera on a tripod and while I was photographing it I noticed a larger colugo closer to me and only about eight feet up the trunk of its tree. Popularly and incorrectly called “flying lemur”, the Sunda Colugo is certainly not a lemur and does not fly like a bat. It is an arboreal and nocturnal mammal that belongs to its own Order and glides from tree to tree at night searching for soft plant food like tender young leaves, shoots, flowers and fruits. The resort has a large population of these amazing mammals, which by day can be seen still and camouflaged on palm and other tree trunks, and also hosts large populations of long-tailed macaques and dusky leaf monkeys, the latter also called spectacled langurs. In truth, the dusky leaf monkey is not a true langur, but rather a lutung—but I’ve never heard anyone use that term. The macaques are pesky and rowdy and will go after your food and drink and require some caution, whereas the “langurs” are peaceful and gentle leaf-eaters that always seem contemplative or meditating.

After a day in the pool, our first evening we all convened for dinner in the same Beach Brassiere where we have our daily breakfast and then it was off to the resort’s lobby bar where there is live entertainment. The hotel in Penang also had the standard Malaysia evening bar experience - Muzak version of Western songs performed most often by a guy with a laptop playing backing tracks while he adds guitar or keyboard while two or three women in matching skintight dresses sing and move to some limited choreography. Rock and roll it ain’t.

As I wrote, I rose before the sun and did some landscape photography yesterday before breakfast and my after meal colugo photography. Later Mark, Norm and I walked around the expansive jungle grounds of the hotel looking for spiders and such. I had my entire 30 pound camera pack on so I suffered even more than them and they were quite hot and sweaty by the time we completed our walk up the steep network of paved roads that access the almost 500 rainforest chalets. We grabbed our trunks and hit the pool and spent midday drinking Tiger and enjoying some scenery. Later Mark and I went to Oriental Village, a complex of shops, restaurants and tourist recreation on the road into Berjaya. You can walk ten minutes (we did on the return) or take one of the Berjaya open air shuttles (as we did for the ride down). With a resort so huge and steep, there is a fleet of these shuttle buses that take you between lobby and chalet, but they also go down the road to Oriental Village.

Our evening meal was at Perdana Quay, known informally as “Harbor Park”. It’s about ten or fifteen minutes by taxi from Berjaya and has a handful of restaurants with Malay imitations of Western food and other cuisine. It is where many yachts are moored and ferries launch for Thailand and nearby islands. Half our group including me took a van taxi back towards the airport to visit a “supermarket” that is the only place you can buy takeaway liquor. The duty free shops in Oriental Village used to sell it, but there was a strict licensing change here in this liberal yet largely Muslim country. Our group ate at Mare Blue, an “Italian” restaurant and the other half of our group of fourteen chose Tapas.

After returning to the hotel I believe that everyone went straight back to the room for a good nights rest. I sure did. And after sleeping in a little past sunrise this morning, I have not had my breakfast, photographed another colugo, and am planning what to do with the day. I know that some of our party plan to go to Oriental Village, where you can the Sky Cab take a half of the mountain as I did two years ago. I don’t think I need to do it again, but the views are incredible. I’ll probably rest and do a little riding, and then walk the grounds again looking for bugs and reptiles.

#110 - Penang, Malaysia - Tuesday, 15 January 2019

This morning we are off to Langkawi. Our group of fourteen, which will later be joined on Langkawi Island by two more, will board a 78-seater prop plane (ATR 72-500) for a thirty minute puddle jump north to the Thailand/Malaysia border. I type this from my final pre-dawn breakfast feast at the Hotel Equatorial Penang.

Yesteday our entire herd visited Penang Botanical Garden and then Penang Hill. We had the same driver with his large van and his service over two days was excellent. Today at 10 a.m. he’ll pick us up along with a smaller van that will transport our luggage. Our flight leaves Penang at 12:25. One of the advantages of a larger group is splitting costs. We paid 80RM per hour to have a private driver take us where we chose and wait as we explored our destinations. Yesterday’s 6.5 hours was 520 ringgits or $127, which split among 14 becomes a very reasonable 9 bucks for a day’s chauffeur service.

A thirty minute Monday morning traffic ride from Hotel Equatorial ended at the gates for Penang Botanical Garden, a free park that appeared popular with both locals and tourists. It was our first encounter with monkeys of the trip as long-tailed macaques were seen immediately. On Langkawi you see macaques everywhere and they are even along the road from the airport to our resort. The resort itself has both macaques and dusky leaf monkeys or langurs in abundance. Here on Penang they aren’t seen in the heavily populated area we are staying or in the even more urban George Town.

The Penang Botanic Gardens, also known as the "Waterfall Gardens" because of the cascading waterfall nearby, is a public park situated on Jalan Air Terjun in George Town, Penang, Malaysia. Unfortunately, it’s fenced greenhouses are closed on Monday. I mostly wandered the grounds alone looking for macro photography subjects and was able to photograph a land planarian (“hammerhead worm”), dragonfly, etc. See Instagram/Facebook feed. The park was a bit less interesting than I had hoped and about an hour after arrival we paid for the “Jeep” ride up to Penang Hill. There is a funicular that also climbs the mountain, but the extremely steep private road (“Jeep track”) starts right at the botanic garden gate. 160RM per vehicle of 4 gets you a round trip to the highest peaks on the island. The three mile or so road was one of the steeper I’ve ever been up and among the most windy. The drivers don’t really have jeeps, but rather small pickup trucks that most have tricked out with some off-road gear even though the road is paved. They drive up as quickly as possible, whipping around the hairpin turns while blaring their horns to warn oncoming traffic.

As soon as we arrived at the touristy Upper Station we sought cold beers and I ordered a dozen chicken satay to share with Mark and Kim. We were surprised that even though it is a tourist complex the food choices were inexpensive. The stalls were much nicer looking than those at the hawkers centers we had visited the previous two days, but you could still get laksa or Char kway teow for about two bucks. A dozen skewers of satay was $4.

Mark and his brother-in-law Alan and I left our group after our refreshments. Our goal was to look for the two species of tarantula - the terrestrial Coremiocnemis cunicularia and the arboreal Omothymus schioedtei. We walked up a steep perimeter road looking for one of the three trail routes you can take on top the hill. There are “by paths” that are paved trails that lead into the tropical forest. We stopped at a scenic overlook and continued away from the crowd until we found a path. Not long after our walk away from the road began Mark spied the first tarantula burrow on the hill embankment. Rather than having its tunnel entrance covered with silk, he immediately saw the spider visible at the opening. We quickly found other burrows, all also open and with their resident spiders in partial view. Mark moved up the path a short distance and found a larger spider while I tried to extract the first. It ended up deep within the trail side almost vertical embankment and I dug at the very wet clay/dirt. I exposed about two feet of silk lined tunnel, but lost track of the burrow while Mark worked at extracting the other spider and Alan found a few others. We ended up getting the largest spider out for photographs, tickling smaller spiders into view and, later, walked back up the path to try digging the one I had been working on out of its lair to no avail. We were unsuccessful in locating the arboreal tarantula, but saw at least six of the terrestrial species. The path ended up at another road below the Upper Station and we faced a brutally steep walk up the hillside in oppressive heat and humidity. I had expected the temperature to be cooler on Penang Hill but it’s only an elevation of 2500 feet. The Botanic Garden below is 200 feet above sea level and after descending the crazy road and seeing one driver coming up have a tire blowout, our driver took us back through George Town to the hotel. Ten minutes after our return the Pennels and I were in the cool water of the hotel pool and were soon joined by the rest of the party.

i enjoyed a couple of Singapore Slings with Mark and ordered a steak sandwich for an early dinner. Many of our group planned to go into George Town again for dinner, but the rest of us stayed behind and my poolside dinner ended with a vodka and tonic at the pool bar with Mark before I retired to my room to pack and kick back and watch a movie in the air conditioned comfort. Now with breakfast complete I am waiting for the sun to rise a bit before taking a swim.

#109 - Penang, Malaysia - Monday, 14 January 2019

Once again I am up before the dawn and typing. This time because at dinner time when I went up to my room to prepare for the evening I crashed all night. During the day our entire group had traveled to northwest Penang Island to visit Entopia Butterfly Garden. It was well worth the trip and on the return our driver took us to a food court close to the hotel in Bayan Lepas. Super Tanker, a large covered open-air building, was bustling on a Sunday afternoon and about two dozen individual stalls offered Malay, Chinese and Pan-Asian food. One was even called “Frozen Frogs Westeen Food”, which one member of our party enjoyed Black Pepper Steak from. The rest of us all opted to sample the local cuisine. Like our previous day’s adventure at New Lane Market in George Town, here you grab yourself a numbered table and then cold beers from the drinks vendor before touring the varied offerings cooked fresh upon order. I enjoyed the Char Kway Teow so much at New Lane and headed straight to a vendor stir-frying the flat rice strips in a big wok. I asked for a big plate prepared with duck egg and prawns that I asked be made spicy and five minutes later was satiating my butterfly garden walk hunger with the delicious dish. It didn’t contain the lovely flat bits of sausage that the cook added at New Lane, but I enjoyed this spicier version even more. Mark and Elli had chosen Curry Mee from a different stall and it Looks so good that after I finished my plate I had a second entrée. The Curry Mee was a brothy bowl of both fine white rice noodles and thicker spaghetti-like yellow noodles and contained both tofu and these gelatinous “pork” cubes. On top was a spoon of chili paste and adding the entire thing made it an amazing spicy “ramen”. The first plate was 7RM - less than $2 x and the bowl was 4RM, just under $1! Two cans of Tiger washed down the delicious meal and they were 8RM each so I spent a total of 27RM, currently $6.59. Yep, two entrees and two beers for less than $7. By contrast, the burger and one beer at the hotel is almost 80RM, about 20 bucks. Chicago prices. Local fare is so superior both in flavor and experience and the price amazing. It’s the way to enjoy culture and holiday and not eat substandard and overpriced fascimiles of Western food.

Before our 10 am departure for Entopia yesterday, I practiced using my Macro Diffuser on the hotel’s nature trail with excellent results. Then I took a quick cold shower as any movement in this hot and humid climate makes me a sweaty mess, and met the group in the lobby. When we returned to the lobby five and a half hours later after our outing we all quickly changed to pool attire and cooled off in the refreshing pool. Pools aren’t heated in hot tropical climates as the sun does all the work, but it has been mostly overcast during our stay so the initial leap into our pool’s waters is a bit of a shock. But then it the cool water soothes. Of course, after 8 ringgits for a beer paying four times the price is another shock. The entire beer and cocktail menu is basically 30-35RM so Mark and I opted for two rounds of Singapore Slings (34 ringgits each, $8.31). Then the skies finally broke. As I sipped my cocktails I had been watching the dark skies moving in and a drizzle quickly shifted to torrential downpour with poolside umbrellas being knocked down and displaced. We moved out of the rain for a couple more drinks before everyone went to shower for dinner. That’s when I crashed and didn’t join the group for the evening. Next thing I knew it was 2 a.m. 😴

Our same Indian driver and his van that fits thirteen crazy Brits and one mad American will be picking us up this morning at 9 a.m. I am about to head to breakfast — I’ve been the first one in when it opens at 6 a.m. each morning — and then will visit the hotel nature trail again. I collected a beautiful metallic green male jumping spider yesterday that I haven’t been able to photograph yet. I may have to slow him down with an hour or so in my hotel room mini bar as he frustrated me during yesterday’s photo shoot attempts. Then I’ll shower and meet the group at nine. I’m really looking forward to visiting Penang Botanical Garden and Penang Hill today. Penang Hill is also known as Bukit Bendera, although that technically refers specifically to Flagstaff Hill, it’s highest peak. I’ll describe both destinations in detail during my next blog entry.