Like Peter Parker, I was bitten by a spider. Unlike him though I developed no super spidey powers other than my elbow swelling up and becoming all warm around the bite mark area. Lucky for me my ace sidekick used her special Google powers to locate an Urgent Care just moments from the exit ramp in Idaho we were set to pass. Minutes later at an Urgent Care in Pocatello I completed an intake form which had a space for religion. The incredibly nice but stoic man at intake said it was in case someone had to be hospitalized. I asked, “you mean for last rites?” He solemnly nodded yes.

And with that thought I was shuttled to the next room where a nurse practitioner and her assistant took turns pointing at the nasty bite. They gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and an oral steroid which I was able to fill just another few minutes later at the Fred Myer Pharmacy which was embedded like a tick bite in the same parking lot hosting the pharmacy.

Before all that we packed up our tent then followed the Snake River out of Wyoming. Just out of Idaho Falls we saw an uptick in Trump and even DOGE flags. This in a state about to be devastated by the coming budget bill which will strip Medicaid away from approximately 49,000 Idaho residents. That means a lot fewer treated bug bites. And at a place heavily shaped by the federal channeling of the Snake River into the raw power that today powers most of Idaho Falls. It always depresses me when people vote against their self interests.