Lake Erie

We had a race on Saturday and Nelson joined us. He's a bundle of strength & energy and it was great to have him onboard.


We wore our foul weather pants because everything was wet from the rainstorm the previous night.


Then the mayflies hatched.


Some interesting facts about mayflies that aren't listed on Wikipedia:

1. They make an audible *POP* when stepped on.

2. It is extremely difficult to scrub squashed mayflies off the bottom of your shoes.

3. They smell like dead fish.

4. A friend of ours (Hi Mark!) removed 50 pounds of them from his driveway last weekend. He used a snow shovel.

5. They hatch at night and will congregate where there are lights.

6. They can make road intersections slippery enough to cause accidents.

7. Sometimes road crews have break out their snowplows to clean the mayflies off the roads.

8. It's fun to watch them hatch. The water makes a little ripple (like when a raindrop hits the water's surface) and then a mayfly appears in the center of the ripple. It sits there for a few seconds and then flies off.

9. If you pick two of them up by their wings and hold them toe-to-toe they will kick at each other as if they are fighting. (Mayfly fights were big when the kids were little. Kept them entertained for hours.)

10. Did I mention they stink?