5 brave WWC members braved the tick-infested Squirrel Hills on Tuesday.  Di, of course brought Scotty, and Robert brought his bull--but only Scotty accompanied us on the walk.

 

  Judy, Di, Joanne, Robert and Marg followed the twisty-turny trails, with Robert and Joanne navigating with the help of frequently posted billboards with maps.  The problem was that each map was placed in a different orientation, and many of the trail lines had peeled. Nevertheless, we found our way back to the parking lot, and were all amazed to find that an hour and a half had passed in what felt like a short "walk in the park".

 

Ticks were the only wildlife spotted on the trail, and veteran club members were pleased to have new recruit and tick magnet Joanne along.  We stopped before getting into the car to do a tick inventory.  We all picked off a couple, then went over to help Joanne.  Ticks were climbing out of her boots and scrambling up her back.  We picked off 10 in a clump on one pant leg and intercepted legions as they scurried up her arms to reach that nice spot along the hairline.

 

We finally stopped picking ticks, and Robert headed off to Kelwood with his bull while the girls went to Chipperfields for coffee.  Things seem to have taken a turn for the worse there.  Di asked if they had lactose free ice-cream, and was told "yes, but we have to use these up first", pointing to the regular ice-cream in the freezer. Judy wanted an Iced latte, but was told, "no, we don't serve those".  She suggested that they could just make a latte and pour it over ice, but again was told that they only served latte's hot--however, she could have a flavoured iced coffee. When she said she didn't like them sweet, she was told they had syrups with artificial sweetener.  She settled for a hot latte.  Then Di went up to get a treat for Scotty.  A small bowl of soft ice-cream was listed on the menu board as $2.20, but the clerk insisted that "this small bowl was $3.30".  We never did figure out what the difference was.   But I'd still recommend the place--while the coffee may not be quite what you want and you never know what you'll be charged, it makes for a good laugh!

 

Meanwhile, Joanne kept rolling up her pantlegs to pick off ticks to the amusement of other patrons, and finally had to repair to the bathroom to attend to creeping sensations in less accessible areas.  She was still pulling off ticks as we arrived in Brandon.  Hopefully, a good shower has solved the problem by now.