Photo: tarantula, Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, TX

Everything’s bigger in Texas. Many mornings, I’ve woken up with insects taking refuge on the screened walls or ceiling of my tent. Once, after a rainstorm, I counted thirteen daddy-long-legs (and those were only the ones I could see). The first morning I woke up in Texas, I saw the silhouette of this spider resting on the outside of my tent. I took a picture before chasing it off with a stick.