Our Texas Spider, Carlota!

This is the story that I know all y'all have been waiting to here!  My encounter with a  TEXAS SPIDER!!!!!!

 

So, it all started Wednesday morning.  my companion and I went out for our daily morning run.  It was still dark, and the full moon was out - hope you're getting the picture in your mind.  We ran down the street and then came back to the house to stretch before setting out for our long run.  We got back.  I walked through the grass under the tree that is in our front yard. My companion walked on the cement over toward the cars. 

 

While we were stretching, I started thinking about that one time a few years ago when we all decided to go tubing down the creek at Grandma and Grandpa's house and how there were spiders in the trees.  The thought came to me - what if there is a spider in this tree?  I shook off that beyond creepy thought and continued stretching.

 

Then - something caught my eye.  There was this long string not too far away hanging from the tree.  My first thought was silly string, but then I remembered spiders like to hide in trees.  I slowly and carefully walked around the string to see the biggest spider web EVER!  And right in the center was the biggest spider I've seen since being in Texas!  It was hanging from the lowest branch of a tree that is big enough for me to walk under and extended all the way down to the ground.  On top of that, it was in a spot that I almost walked in to while crossing the grass.  I probably walked within inches of that spider!!!

 

I screamed and ran over to my companion.  It scared me so bad.  We started our run after that.  We were super careful not to go near any trees.  When we came back, it was gone - web and all!  That night, though, it was back in the same spot.  So we had fun taking pictures of it.  We decided it was going to be our pet.  We named it Carlota (It's Charlotte in Spanish)