I had been dating my GF (now my wife) for about a year when I took her down to my lease in Live Oak County for the first time. It was one of the first cool weekends of the fall and before deer season, so I knew nobody else would be up there. Just us. I think we went to a party in Austin Friday night, so we didn't head down until mid-day Saturday. It was one of those perfect South Texas fall days. Clear skies and highs in the 80s. We got there right before the evening hunt, so we dropped our bags on the porch and headed for the blind. It was a bad ass hunt at a blind we called Sleepy Hollow tucked back in a big Mesquite thicket along the banks of the creek. TONS of activity for the duration of the hunt. Whitetail, turkey, javelina, and hogs. I ended up shooting a little sow about 30 min before dusk, so we loaded her up and headed back. Picture perfect day, right? She was loving it.
On the way back to camp, shit took a turn for the worse. In this tight little sendero, about 20 ft in front of my truck, a massive blue indigo decided to pass across the road. She lost her mind. I have only seen three blue indigos in the wild, and this one was a big ass snake. Had to be at least 7' and as big around as a softball. She chills out a bit by the time we're back at camp. As we pull up to the old pier & beam cabin, she says "hey, check out those birds leaving the attic!." They were bats. Before going in the cabin, we walk around to the back to turn on the water. I open up the cover to the valve and have her shine a flashlight for me. It was standard fare for me, but she flipped out again when the entire valve box was pulsating full of daddy long legs. We get our stuff off the patio and walk inside, and immediately to the right was the old gas range. Well, a coachwhip had decided to shed his skin in the range and it was threaded through the burners of the stove. At that point, I didn't even bother to warn her that she'd probably hear the mouse traps go off a few times during the night. Needless to say, the rest of my hunting trips to that lease were solo.