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Bridge to Tickadia
Cross that bridge when you come to it, or… burn it before you get to it.
Tickadia? Wait, what? Yes, I’m calling it Tickadia instead of Arcadia. Why, you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you…
There’s a quaint little hand-bridge at the start of a hiking path which quietly meanders through the beautiful winter foliage of Rhode Island’s Arcadia State Park. A perfect place to capture colorful, yet serene photos of nature in all its seasonal glory.
Except looks can be deceiving. With camera in hand I crossed that bridge not knowing the peril that awaited. Immediately after traversing the wooden span I was attacked by a deadly swarm of rampaging ticks, biting and leaving red, swollen, and itchy bullseye targets all over my delicate skin — even in hard to reach places that I’d rather not mention.
While shooting a few soon-to-be, award-winning shots (and without dropping my camera) I was able to fend off the hordes of flesh-eating, blood-sucking, lyme-disease-leaving, vampiristic creepy-crawlies, and escape that infested and quite hellish nightmare.
Shortly thereafter I ended up in the Emergency Room where a smirking Doctor put me on a regiment of antibiotics and told me to wait and see if fever, headaches, hemorrhaging, and death would follow.
