Meet my new NIGHTMARE...

While we were at the river, we (a few of Chad's sisters and I) decided to have a little obstacle course/race. Two of us had to jump off the rocks about 20 yards up river from the dock. Then we had to swim down river to catch one of the two ski ropes hanging off the boat (which was secured to the dock). We then had to pull ourselves up river along the ski rope and be the first one on the back deck of the boat. This can get pretty tiring because the river is pretty fast in the middle of the afternoon. So Chad's little sister decided to go against me first. Chad's mom, Alexis and his sister's Alissa and KT stayed on the boat to watch. When I finished I pulled myself up onto the back wood deck of the boat and laid on my back with my hair in the water. I was shocked how exhausted I was and definitely need to rest before standing up. I started to get up to let Emily onto the deck when Alissa started screaming bloody murder pointing next to my head on the deck. I looked to my left and this is what I saw SIX INCHES from my face. So picture that view...and this one...

...now picture that on the palm of your hand...cause it would cover the whole thing! No joke at least 3 inches big...these pictures aren't magnified people. The hair on it's legs were seriously spiky...and all I could think of was...it's not a tarantula...more like a deadly spider because it was freaky looking!

So we all started screaming and jumped in the back of the boat. Alexis was there and saw the whole thing screaming...."someone get my daddy!" However, Daddy, Jake and Grandpa were in town. So we are literally screaming there for 45 seconds unsure what to do. Would it attack us if we moved? Kt's husband was in the front yard asking how many legs it had cause we were afraid it was a brown recluse spider. (Something I have been deathly afraid of for the last two years---if you don't know about those...whew...I won't even go there since it necrosis your skin faster than the doctors treat it!) Patrick was holding their baby so he wasn't really going to run to the dock to help us. So the spider is frozen from our screaming...for 45 seconds! Then we decide to move because we were sure it wasn't going to leap on us since it was scared too!

So we move...the boat rocks from our shift in weight and the spider leaps onto the river and gracefully jumps up river 4 bounces like a rock skipping on the surface. It jumps around in a large circle and then onto the side of the boat. It definitely knew what it was doing. There was no hesitation...no "oh, what's this...water...I'm going to drown." NOPE...it leaped like it was laughing at us! So we check the side of the boat and it's crawling under the boat...into a void in the back of the boat where it isn't in the water. It just waited there hiding.

We started rocking the boat to get the water to touch where it was hiding. It peaks on us through the boat and the back deck where we originally encountered it. Seriously, it checked on us...eyes and all! So Alissa starts jabbing it with the flag..which didn't touch it because it had already gone back into hiding. And KT yells, "Alissa it's on the flag!" So Alissa (who is deathly afraid of even little spiders) throws the flag in the river and KT says, "I was just kidding!" So Alissa reacts quick and jumps in the river to retrieve the flag! But she just hung on the ski rope because she was afraid to go near the deck (the only way back on without floating down river.)

So we never saw the spider again. For all we know it could still be in/on the boat! And I think it's a fishing spider after many days of research...here's some freaky information on them:

-they rush across the surface of water to attack
-they can also dip their legs underwater and grab swimming tadpoles and small fish
-they are usually around 3 INCHES BIG
-For them, the surface of the water is like a dance floor
-or they can ROW with the middle two of its four pairs of legs. First it swings back its third pair, then the second pair, and when both pairs are extended as far back as they can go, the spider raises them from the water and brings them forward again
-or they can GALLOP, which can propel fishing spiders at three feet per second, it's hard work. Spiders probably use it only when they need to reach top speeds to chase fast prey or to avoid becoming prey themselves. At less urgent times
-the spiders may rely on a third and more efficient form of locomotion: SAILING. When a breeze blows, fishing spiders sometimes wave their two front legs into the wind (smaller spiders raise their entire bodies) and let the breeze push them across the water like sailboats.

SO, WELCOME TO MY NEW NIGHTMARE! (let me know what they do to you in your dream)