seasons of life, living it, loving it
and sharing it. We rode our bikes out to the parking lot of Ed Levin County Park, the largest park in Milpitas, where we began our
adventure. We took Old Calaveras Road for a traffic-free scenic hilly climb overlooking the the Calaveras Reservoir that continues to the Dam in Sunol in Alameda County. The entire area is surrounded by mountain ridges and valleys. The natural beauty of this region is amazing and brought us great solace and peace of mind. During the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project to replace an existing seismically unsafe dam, five thousand fossils were found including whale skulls, sharks and hippo-like specimens while moving enough dirt and rock to fill four Levi Stadiums. The 20 year project was finally completed in 2018.
On most rides we always see some wildlife and this ride was no different. I took a photo of Minorcan cows, an endangered breed of cattle from the Mediterranean island of Menorca. In addition, and to my surprise I spotted a tarantula in front and to the right of me and called out to Bill who was riding 15 feet ahead of me. When he circled back, I pointed to the hairy spider and he said: “Wow! How did you see that?” I have come across tarantulas in Oklahoma where I went to college for two years and during my travels in Costa Rica and Cambodia. As an animal Totem, tarantulas signify patience above everything. It is an invitation to put all your ideas in the physical universe and make them materialize. We took photos of and with the tarantula. Tarantulas are quite docile and rarely bite people. They do have venom, but only toxic to small animals and not life-threatening to people.
During a trip to South East Asia with Overseas Adventures Travels (OAT) Cecile and I and our group stopped in the Cambodian village of Kampong Cham Province to visit a widowed mother of four who supplements her income by capturing and selling tarantulas. She is called the “Spider Woman.” Fried spider is a regional delicacy. She showed us where tarantulas can be found during the day, how she catches them and removes the venomous fangs and how she prepares them for eating. She marinates them in sugar, salt, crushed garlic and whiskey and then fries them in oil until fragrant. The taste can only be described as a cross between chicken and cod. It has a crispy exterior and a soft center. Ask actress Angelina Jolie who cooked and ate tarantulas with her kids and talked about the experience during an interview with the BBC to promote her movie filmed in Cambodia called “First They Killed my Father” about the genocide of the Cambodian People by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot, when Cambodians turned to tarantulas to survive. Even today, fried tarantulas are eaten by local residents and adventurous tourists alike.
