What IS that?!!

A couple of weeks ago, I saw what I thought looked like THE BIGGEST & strangest looking spider I had ever seen, but it didn't look like any of the spiders I had seen before back in the midwest & with all the strange new creatures I am finding out here, I wasn't exactly sure if what I saw was actually some kind of spider or some other kind of new creature. But it looked really weird. It was so strange looking that I found myself talking to it & asking it, "What the heck are you?" It never answered.

But it walked like a spider, had legs that looked like a spider's legs & I swear it had THE LONGEST legs I had ever seen on a spider - at least on the ones I've seen in Chicago anyway. The legs on this were REALLY long & thick. They looked like thick, long black wires & the body was HUGE!!! It wasn't fuzzy so I didn't think it was a tarantula.

I found out today that what I saw was a black widow. I had never seen a black widow in real life before - only in pictures. And I never knew a black widow could be THAT HUGE!!! I could swear the body was as big as my fist (I may have small hands, but I have never seen a spider with a body as big as my fist before!)

I never thought I would ever say this, but ....I really miss the small, boring spiders in Chicago! 

Yup, I now have a new appreciation for the small Chicago spiders! :) 

Another new discovery in a new place.