A Tribe Called Whitlock

The couple’s ministry at our church went on a retreat at a beautiful, nature filled lakeside getaway. It was so nice and quiet. We looked over our itinerary and it was packed with activities like couples volley ball, nature trails, game nights and learning sessions. As we walked to our room I started getting the hi bi jibes as Maurice walked in front of me so he could pull down all the spider webs. When I looked up at the balcony overhang near our room there were (I’m not exaggerating) about 40 spiders. Ok, we were at a retreat in a nature preserve so of course there are spiders. No big. We get in our room and we let out a sigh of relief. It looked just like a hotel room. Nice and clean, no cobwebs that we could see. We left to meet the group for dinner at the dining hall (which was very nice by the way..full buffet and 3 courses)as we were walking we kept stepping into spider webs that were hanging from trees. We went down to the lake and there next to the rail was the biggest spider Maurice and I have ever seen.(pictured above) All of the activities took my mind off of the creepy little critters until that night when we went back to our room. No sooner had I stepped out of the bathroom ready to go to bed when a black, harry, size of my husbands palm spider crawled from under the bed. Ok…when a spider is big enough to make my 6’3, 250 lbs hubby scream like a girl you know it is way to big. I lost it. No more being optimistic. WE HAD TO GO! I reasoned with Maurice. I remembered seeing a hotel on our way to the retreat. We could check in and sleep there at night and none of the other couples would have to know. He was cracking up at me…I was very serious. Finally after brain storming with Tori over the phone we decided at 1:00 am to go to Wal-Mart and buy a tent. As long as I was zipped up I felt safe and could get a good night sleep. I was very careful each day about re zipping the tent before we left for activities. We never did see another spider in the room but that did not matter to me. Oh and besides the arachnoid’s…the retreat was fantastic and Maurice and I got some much needed couple time.