My daughter and I took a hike up Crowder Mountain this week-end. The weather report was all rain, so when it turned out to be nice instead, we took the advice of the guy at the Whole Foods deli counter and headed for the hills.

It was a spectacular day with only one minor hiccup.

When we picked up the trail map at the visitor’s center, I noticed they were selling these really awesome walking sticks. But they ran about $20 each which I thought was outrageous  for a chunk of wood, so we decided we’d look for our own as we hiked.

About 2/3rds of the way up the mountain, my daughter thought she spied a pile of potentially useful  sticks so she veered off the path to grab one and scratched her leg pretty good. Once we got back down to the car, we stopped at the ladies room and gave it a good wash.  It looked fine except for one little black piece that seemed stuck. We tried again at home to clean it out and then even more aggressively the next morning- no dice.  We had the flashlight and the tweezers out doing our level best, but it was a no go.  I began  to worry that it might be a tick…and a rather large one.

I went online..big mistake. 😖

We reluctantly showed up at an Express Clinic a few hours later. The PA gave my daughter a shot to numb the area and removed what turned out to be a decent sized wood chunk that was embedded deep in her leg. The office co-pay was $20..I’m sure the actual bill will be a tad more.. 😐

So yeah, those $20 walking sticks?  What a deal.