Blog 7 - Welcome to Spider City

Welcome to Spider City. 

That's what the sign at the Lake Arrowhead State Park entrance should read. This park was crawling with them, but more on that later. 

Our trip began with a multi-hour road trip, which when you live in the middle of nowhere, it's a multi-hour trip to get anywhere. The plan was to spend the night at Lake Arrowhead SP, and then make our way to Fort Richardson SP, which was only a few miles away. 2 more State Parks checked off the list.  We entered the first park mid-afternoon and pulled into the front office to grab a sticker for the teardrop. I was excited to finally get my hands on a Texas State Park Passport too, as the other parks had been sold out. I thought this would be cool to collect stamps in, as we slowly check off all the state parks in the state. Sticker and Passport secured, we made our way out of the office. As we rounded the corner, something yellow caught my eye down next to the building. I initially thought it was a lighter or maybe some sort of candy bar wrapper, discarded off the sidewalk. NOPE! It was a humongous spider! I'm talking huge! We stopped in our tracks, gawking at this new species of spider that was definitely not native to what we had back home. We pointed and took some pictures before scrambling off to the safety of the truck. Now I’m not normally wigged out by spiders, but this place can change a man. 

We pulled into our campsite, which was super nice. Long, double-wide cement pad, with a kept lawn surrounding a canopy with a table, and a fire ring. We quickly got the trailer plugged in to get the AC going, as this was late July and this Texas Summer was in full effect. This would also be our first time using a portable swamp cooler AC. Just add water and plug into the 110 outlet and viola. Cold, moist air. With the room attachment connected to the awning, and the swamp cooler humming along, we pulled out our chairs, put on some music, and relaxed. Lucy rode her scooter up and down the cement, while we waited for the sun to dip down, and cooler temps before getting dinner started. 

After a few hours, and a few cold drinks, I opened the galley and fired up the stove. Chicken tacos were on the menu for tonight, and they were delicious. We enjoyed our meal, sitting under the awning, with the Sirius radio serenading us with 90 alternative rock. Some would call this the good life, and we soaked it up. After dinner, my daughter was complaining that she didn't feel well. She hadn't eaten much, so we worried she might be getting sick. My wife took her to lie down and rest inside the teardrop with the AC, and I decided to head down to the lake and try to rip some lips. With only about 45 min of daylight left, I cruised down to the dock and got my line wet. No bites. 

I came back to the trailer to find Lucy asleep, and my wife relaxing next to her, scrolling on her phone. Even tho it was dark, the outside temps were still in the 90’s, so she stayed inside the trailer, while I pulled up a chair and kicked back with the music. After a couple of hours of vibing to the music in the hot night air, I decided to go have a shower before going to bed. The bathrooms were just a short walk from our campsite, down a beaten path through the scrub. I grabbed my bag, put on my headlamp, and flipped it on. That's when I saw it. All around me. Hundreds of little green, glowing specs scattered throughout the land surrounding my camp. Eyes. Spider eyes! They were everywhere. I looked down at my feet, sitting comfortably in a pair of Crocs, as I considered putting on boots before attempting the walk through this arachnid gauntlet. I persevered and began stomping my way down the path, headlight illuminating the way, trying my best to ignore the green glitter that lay on both sides of the trail. I made it to the bathrooms and encountered another huge wolf spider, who judging by its size, was their king. I carefully made my way around his majesty and entered the bathrooms which thankfully, were very clean and spider-free. A cool shower, and a renewed sense of courage, I hastily made my way back to the trailer.