“Those are cool-looking insects,” my friend proclaimed.

We were unpacking our vehicles at the Airbnb we were going to be staying at that week. On the front porch were two benches. The cicada was chilling on the leg of one of the benches. It’s red eyes aglow.

“That is a cicada,” was my response.

“Nevermind,” she responded to me.

That EPIC trip was going to have memories of the buzzing and pinging of the cicadas and visions of them EVERYWHERE.

On my drive to West Virginia, I drove Interstate 70 to 71 and then Interstate 68 across the mountainous region of Maryland. There are two scenic rest stops along the way. One is at the Sideling Hill road cut. You can cross a pedestrian bridge, which allows you to have an excellent vantage point to see the geological patterns in Sideling Hill.

My camera battery died, so I couldn’t get a good photo of the cicadas in the trees lining the path to the pedestrian bridge. They covered the trees. Their buzzing welcomed the visitor to the area. Carcasses littered the path. “Crunch, crunch,” was heard with each step you took.

Once I was finished at Sideling Hill, I continued on my journey. In the Frostburg, Maryland area, cicadas were hitting my car so much that it was a continuous pinging noise. Instead of a “Why did the chicken cross the road?’ situation, I was in a “Why did the cicada cross the road?” They emerged from their 17-year slumber to be hit by cars as they tried to dodge them.

I didn’t know those two experiences were only the beginning.

My friend and I had a challenge on that trip. We were going to eat salads in random places as we explored. I can only remember two of the places we ate them. Both were random. One was in the parking lot of Harpers Ferry. My friend had brought chairs, so we used them to sit in the grassy part of the parking lot. Well, the grassy part was also under trees. Do you see where I’m going with this story?

As we were enjoying our parking lot salad, my friend screamed. A cicada had fallen out of the tree. I don’t remember if it got into her salad or had landed on her lap. The cicada wanted to be part of the parking lot salad experience.

Then, when it was time to leave, my car was littered with cicada carcasses. They were in the area where the windshield wipers are located and in my trunk area. It was a mess. So not only were we getting ready to say goodbye, packing up, and cleaning the Airbnb, we were getting rid of those pesky cicadas.

These are things we now laugh at and reminisce about. Those red eyes and buzzing sounds will always remind us of when the cicada tried to crash our lunch or the pinging as they hit my car.