Love your writing Shelly and the pictures always paint the picture.
My wife was saying to me just yesterday that she doesn't care what we do for New Years as long as we get back to nature a bit. Getting some proper camp gear has been bumped up the wish list for 2018 ;)
I actually don't mind the cicadas. It's kind of white noise and while it's loud it can be hypnotic at times. It also reminds me of my childhood. We haven't had a lot of them around the last few years but I remember growing up and being unable to hold a conversation in the street they were so loud.