To make a short story long…

We had a tent, a great tent in fact, but one of the seams blew out on it so it stopped being great in a hurry.  Sent the tent back to Mountain Hardwear and they sent us a newer and even better tent (hooray!).  Ever since the replacement found itself to our doorstep, it’s been burning a hole in my pocket.  It must be used!

We chose last weekend to do just that.  Another couple, Meredith, and I rented a jon boat and headed up the Blackwater River for Saturday night.  The Blackwater has some nice sized sandbars to camp on so we just motored up the river, found one we liked and claimed it as our own.

Two pics for the day.  Huey UH-1, the long tongued beagle (our friends) and a huge, fist-sized spider.  Turns out it’s a golden silk spider and it’s harmless.  Since we didn’t have the luxury that all you armchair quarterbacks do, we took the picture from a distance and promptly chopped it in half with a hatchet.  Extreme you say? Well the spider was too big for a knife and its massive fangs surely would have punctured the sole of our sandals if we attempt to step on it.