How I managed to get swimmers itch without going swimming

I know from years of experience what the critters in the water of beautiful Glen Lake can do to me. I read "The Good Earth" in one night while trying not to scratch when I was too young to fully comprehend it. I have scars still from where I did scratch.

So I no longer swim in Glen Lake. Much as I want to, I just don't. I will kayak on a beautiful calm morning and that is exactly what I did on my last day there. All the way to the cove and back but never leaving the vessel. Sure, a little water splashed on my legs - it's a tiny kayak.

Didn't make the connection when I started itching on the long drive back to Texas. There were mosquitos in my cheap room in Hayti, MO. Didn't make the connection when I woke up in the middle of my first night home, skin burning from the hole I had scratched into my right ankle in my sleep. Texas mosquitos love me and find me when they don't find anyone else. Didn't make the connection until today, when I noticed that the bites were still angry red and itching in all the same places they had been for days now.

Duh.

Yes, you can get swimmers itch even if you don't swim. If you are me, anyway.