A.B.T.S. (African Barking Tree Spiders) Rest Stop history
This was a collaboration of minds in our family for one of our first hides. Hubby built the geocache container, Jay provided the concept, and CpVz put it all together. It's not meant to a difficult hide, or level 5 terrain. It's meant to make you laugh out loud.
My father, Bobby Phillips, used to tell us about African Barking Tree Spiders convincing us that they were vile creatures, invisible to the naked eye, which attack quickly often causing eye watering, discomfort, and rendering victims breathless or incapacitated. The African Barking Tree Spiders are indigenous to all corners of the world and prefer to reside in the company of humans but animals are not immune to their presence.
He had us convinced that the ABTS could be trained to attack on command by someone skilled enough to wield such power, of course, like himself. The attack would be over quickly as the ABTS left the scene of the crime quickly like a jet.
This cover story was my Daddy's excuse for bad behavior throughout our entire childhood. It became source of great amusement to us watching him jump up and swear that a giant African Barking Tree Spider almost dumped him out of his chair asking, "Did you hear that?".
This a tribute to a traumatic childhood memories of being held down, sat on, held underneath the covers, and laughing hysterically through it all and to remembering the 12 year old in all of us but especially to the man my kids called Granddaddy.