IF: Neighbor

Need a back story for this one.  Many moons ago (1986, according to the original sketch, below), I used to do a LOT of bicycle touring.  The kind where you carried all your gear with you (“self-contained” is what they call it).  In this instance it was 1986, early June, and I was doing a short week-long tour in the Texas Hill Country with a gal pal of mine.  The first day off we took a road that wasn’t accurately marked on our map as being a dead-end so, it being too late in the day for us to back-track, we ended up pitching camp in a vacant shooting range north of San Antonio called Kreutzburg Hall.  My friend opted to pitch her tent in the grass while I simply rolled out my sleeping bag on the big, covered porch attached to the hall.  After the sun set, I laid in my sleeping bag trying to sleep.  I don’t know if I was hearing noises or what, but I took my flashlight and shined it around the porch area.  Low and behold, EVERYwhere there were these big, spindly spiders (Daddy Long Legs)–on the wall, on the beams, on the floor–and walking…Walking  towards ME!  The idea of spiders crawling on me while I slept was unnerving–Gross, gross, gross!  It being so long ago, I don’t remember exactly what I did, but I think I ended up pitching my tent in the grass after all.  Oh…I guess you’re wondering how this fits the “neighbor” theme.  Well, you know…The spiders were our ”neighbors” at our impromptu campsite.

And I took a sketchbook with me on my bike tours, doing mostly interprative sketches of the day’s events.  In this case (the original, below) was probably drawn and painted the next morning, before we hit the road on our bikes.