Road trips and crawdads (Patreon)

My family spent this weekend on a road trip (only about four hours) so that my husband could go to a convention. While he did his thing, my daughter and I went to find a park. Now, when I write about Rouge, I'm often thinking of my daughter. She's only five, but she has Rouge's nearly boundless energy, intelligence, curiosity, and love of knowing every little detail about every random stranger she's ever met. 

We talked about Daddy Longlegs (did you know they're more closely related to scorpions than true spiders?) and crawdads, which are also known as a lot of things, but crawdads are what I called them when we snagged them out of the creek in the small Midwestern town where I spent the first nine years of my life. I tried to catch one to show her, but those little guys are fast! (And pinchy! I'm making that a word.)

Fortunately for my daughter's Growth Experience, she had made fast friends with another Random Child, and that child's mom was able to catch a crawdad, so we gently petted its tail (not the pinchy end) and then set it free.

I had so much fun reliving a little of the best parts of my childhood with my daughter, and I hope all of you have a Rouge in your life somewhere. They're pretty awesome.

(In case you were curious https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crayfish )