Glad you survived the black widow! I've always worried most about the Brown Recluse spider. They are prevalent in our area.

We used to have a dock spider growing up. It was the full size of an adult hand. Frickin' huge! Interestingly, we named him Eddie. It's amazing how that took away my fear of him. With a name he became more like a pet or a friend. I never laid out on the dock though. Kept my distance and checked the corners everytime. I'm pretty sure he ate full size bass at night. LOL.

One time I was camping. As every experienced camper knows, the last thing you do after zippering up and bedding in for the night is you kill all the mosquitoes so they don't feast on you while you sleep. I did the regular routine and shut my lamp off.

As I was falling asleep I felt a mosquito on my cheek. I of course slapped my cheek to kill it. Only problem was, I cupped something big instead of splatting the mosquito!

I cupped whatever it was and threw it in the corner. Grabbed my lamp and shined it in the corner. It was a big bellied spider!

I was so pissed off I grabbed my lighter and burned that bitch to ash. I also burned a hole in my tent but I didn't care. It was worth it!