We pulled out right on time Wednesday, amidst gusty (literally up to 50 mph) winds and grey skies.
Driving in the high winds was hard on Dave, but we got there right at the anticipated time, and loaded in before it rained.
They gave us cabin #12, the only lake view cabin that doesn't have a screened in front porch. They'd recently made changes to the cabins and the cabin area, and the old concrete picnic benches were gone, and replaced with resin ones.
Ours was placed at an odd, steep angle, making it uncomfortable and useless for most everything. Even placing a cup on it, the cup would slide away from you.
To sit on it, I had to sit sideways, so my hips weren't at an angle.
The firepit had also been relocated, and was also on a slope instead of on the flat ground, where it had previously been. These were not good changes.
They'd also done asphalt and curbing all around the cabin area, recently, from the look of it.
Inside, the shower had been re-done, and was REALLY nice, and the sinks had been replaced. There was much newer furniture, new fireplace screen and glass doors, and a new ceiling fan. All good improvements!
Dave went back to the little town and bought firewood and cheese for the casserole, because I had left the special cheese I got for it back at home. It's always something! HAHA!
While he was gone, I started to put stuff away, and get settled in for our stay. He came back with beautiful firewood bundles that included pine sticks for kindling. We had brought a bag of kindling paper and fat wood, so we were all set!
While I was continuing to "nest," Dave laid the first fire into the fireplace, and got it going.
The cabin immediately filled with thick smoke, so we closed the new glass doors to the fireplace, and the fire was out within a couple of minutes.
Dave thought he had done something wrong (I am the expert at fire building and maintenance, after all), but he had not. I had coached him through the set up, and he did it all perfectly.
I assured him he'd done nothing wrong, and we would try again shortly. It was chilly in the cabin, but not cold. There's a loud forced air heater, too, but we try to avoid using it because it's so noisy.
When I was finished getting the boxes emptied, and things organized, I sat down on the floor to investigate the fireplace. The first thing I noticed was that the bricks from the back of the hearth were collapsed.
Uh oh.
I wasn't going to lie down inside the fire place to look up the chimney, but I had a bad feeling....
I moved the scorched wood out of the way, and tried again. Same thing happened. I did it a third time, and the same thing happened..... The fireplace in this cabin was not usable.
This made me SO angry that I almost cried. Why didn't they tell us at check in??
Having the fireplace is one of the main reasons we do this every year. The office was closed, though, and the next day was Thanksgiving, so no one would be around.
But... I managed to calm and center myself by setting up my little altar on the beautiful stone slab of a mantel piece, and I lit my candles, and made dinner. At dusk, I stepped outside and saw two deer down the power pole line in the valley below the cabins. There is tall grass there, and they were almost invisible.
The wind was brisk, and there were tiny waves on the lake. The sky was a swirl of different greys, and was so pretty.
We turned the heater on, and the electric oven, to warm the cabin.
That night, the rain and thunder came, just as predicted, and I SO wished we could be sitting by a cozy, crackling fire, listening to the rain on the roof (which we can't hear when at home), but it was not to be.
The next morning dawned very cold and frosty. There was mist rising up off of the water, and I saw two more deer down in the valley.... I am pretty sure they were bucks this time, because they were facing each other, and standing stock still for the longest time. They were too far away, and the light was too low, to see antlers, so I was merely guessing based on their behavior.
Then, they lunged at one another, just once, and one of them turned and walked out of sight. I had hoped to see them fight, but that didn't happen.
There was frost and ice on the picnic bench out by the fire pit, so I went back inside and got a blanket, and my coffee, and sat outside watching the mist move over the water.
One of my favorite things to do on this trip is to go out around sunrise and just watch the light change, and the color of the water. At sunrise and sunset, it's silver. Any remaining color on the trees on the far side of the lake waxes and wanes, too, with the sunlight.
By the time Dave got up and discovered me gone, I was chilled to the bone, and needed to go back inside.
After breakfast, and clean up, I showered, and then started on my pumpkin pie. I make the crust from scratch, chopping pecans by hand, and making it into a bit of a ritual. I love it so!
It sure would have been nice to have a fire crackling away in the fireplace.... ugh. The heater and the oven made the cabin cozy, though.
The pie was made and baked before it was warm enough to get outside (above freezing). The wind was still gusty, though, and we hadn't thought we'd need heavy winter coats this time, so we waited a bit longer.
I went ahead and assembled the casserole. Dave got the turkey breast unwrapped, rinsed, and placed into the roasting pan. I'd discovered at breakfast that the oven temperature was very unpredictable, being below the set temp is set at 350, and above the set temp if set at 375. Add to list for cabin camping box: oven thermometer! But, I took my chances, draped the breast with raw bacon, and we got it into the oven.
(One of the burners on the stove didn't work, either. Another thing to report to management..... as well as the WASP NEST above the false ceiling in the bedroom area!! Yikes!)
We usually like to go for a hike while the turkey bakes, and this year was no exception. Up the ridge behind the cabins we went, along an unmarked trail where we'd never seen other humans before.
We noticed a huge flock of turkey buzzards circling, and as we stood silently up the ridge, we heard some strange sounds, and turned to find that many of the flock had come to roost in a huge bare tree up behind us. It was them making their weird chuffing noise!
We walked on, and enjoyed the view from high above the lake....until we heard voices. Loud, teenage voices.
My "secret" path was no longer secret, and along came a group of kids, and a dad....
They expected US to move off of the trail out of their way (as is the case with most Okies we encounter while hiking...no respect or regard for others). The dad brought up the rear, and said nothing to the kids to move aside for us on the very narrow path.
This totally ruined the vibe for us, so we turned back, went past the cabin area, and walked down the road toward the campground, where we also usually walk.
Even though it's less peaceful, and there are always campers down there, this is usually part of what we do while the turkey bakes.
During other parts of this day, we saw HUGE flocks of turkey buzzards, forming unimaginably huge "tornadoes" as they flew in circles, reaching very high up into the sky. It was pretty cool.
It was a pretty day, but still cold, so we headed on back and laid out a tray of crackers, apples, olives, and cheese for our light "snacky" lunch.
Then, I took a nap, because had had not slept at all, literally, on Wednesday night. That heater was so loud, it kept me awake.
The feast turned out perfectly, and I lit my candles again, and put them in front of the fireplace doors. Sigh. The cranberries that I got from the farm bag made the most exquisite compote I think I have EVER made, and the impromptu cheese in the casserole was great!
We played dominoes, and drank really good wine, and had a lovely holiday....as usual.
I slept MUCH better on Thursday night (we left the heater off, and just left the oven on all night), but slept past sunrise, so I missed my morning meditation. Oh well.... no sunrise deer spotting.
Friday was much warmer, and bright and sunny, so after breakfast, we cleaned up, and went by car to the other side of the park, where there's another rustic hiking trail.
We used to walk over there, but we are no longer as spry as we once were, in the years before. Especially me, with all of the various joint and tendon pains my hormone blockers have caused over 7 years of treatment.
This trail is marked, and much used, unlike the one behind the cabins which is actually a deer trail through the woods.
There was another car at the trail head when we got there, but we didn't see any other hikers-- until we were coming back.
Once again, a group of loud mouthed teens, who forced us off of the trail, walking abreast and heedless of the fact that we were there first.
The very last one, stepped aside for us, and I looked him in the eye, and said THANK YOU. He said "Yes, ma'am."
At least one of them was raised right, HAHA!
Back at the cabin, it was time to build the fire in the fire pit. Dave went into town to get some beer, while I moved all of the firewood, three legged camp stool, and fireplace tools outside.
By the time he got back, I had a good blaze going, and he watched it while I heated up our left over Wednesday night dinner for lunch.
I kept that fire going all afternoon and into the night.... we had 5 bundles of beautiful hardwood to burn, after all... we'd purchased it in anticipation of having a fire going in the fireplace all day on Thanksgiving, because we knew it was supposed to be cold. Again...Sigh.
Anyway, I spent almost the entire day on Friday outside, hiking, and then working that fire until well past 9.
My feet got cold, but the rest of me was warm and happy, in my dirty jeans, my work gloves, and my hiking boots. I really felt like myself again...for the first time in a very long time.
Dave sat inside much of the day, reading.
Around dusk, I poked my head into the cabin and told him I was going up the ridge. I had a feeling that it was just time for me to be in the woods with the deer.
The instant I came around the end of the cabin, I saw two up the pole line, in the tall grass behind the cabins, toward the ridge. I stood still and watched them forage before I moved off to the trail. Up there, I met two more pretty ladies, and we all eventually moved back toward the cabin area.
There was no one else around. Most of the cabins were empty, and no one else was outside. It was like it was supposed to be my special time. I walked along the upper road, and the deer were behind the top row of cabins, and we just walked along and stood together....they seemed completely comfortable with my being so close.
It got darker and darker, though, and eventually, I thought I'd figured out that they were going to come down from above, and cut through in front of our cabin area, basically making a big circle, so I headed back to my fire.
Just then Dave was coming outside, wondering why I wasn't back yet (I'd been off on my own for quite a while).
Just as we settled (uncomfortably) on the picnic bench, the pretty ladies stepped out of the brush, and headed toward our area, foraging on the abundance of acorns on the ground. Just as I had predicted.
We watched them come closer, and closer, and the sky got darker and darker.....and suddenly, white tails high, the deer bolted out of sight.
There was a man, walking noisily and quickly, down the side road that leads from the cabins to the camp ground.
Once again, our moment of peace was ruined by another person.
As night fell, more people came to the cabins. Bright pick up truck lights were shined in our faces, and noisy campers yelled, and made a general ruckus, as they loaded in. Ugh.
Clearly, the secret of our Thanksgiving get away has gotten out, and there are far more people there every year now.... Rude, noisy people, with noisy vehicles, and no respect. We even saw a guy come from one cabin, and steal the firewood that had been collected and laid next to the firepit of another cabin. UNBELIEVABLE.
It used to be that the other folks in the cabins were basically well behaved, and quiet....not so this year.
Part of the day on Friday, there was even a back hoe and a crew working nearby on a big hole in the ground, and the maintenance people zipping around, even into the valley below the cabins, in their noisy golf cart.
Again.... sigh.....
BUT, all in all, it was what I needed it to be, and we had a lovely time. The time spent by the fire on Friday made up, at least in part, for the lack of the fireplace. I sat and sang songs, and watched the light change, and welcomed the vast array of stars, mostly in solitude.
At check out on Saturday, we lodged our list of complaints, and asked that they REALLY BE passed on to managers. The broken fireplace is a BIG DEAL this time of year, when it's cold, and people pay the price to come stay in a cabin with a FIREPLACE. The lady behind the counter seemed to understand that this was a big deal, and promised to pass the complaint on to managers.
The wasps were also a major big deal, as Dave is allergic to bee stings.
We are hoping that we will hear from someone next week, and that maybe we might even get a partial refund. Not likely, but hoped for.
The wasps weren't bad until Friday night, probably because it was a warmer day on Friday. They gave Dave a lot of anxiety. Once we shut off all of the lights, though, they stopped emerging from behind the ugly white drywall on the ceiling.
If the management plans to continue to improve the cabins, that ugly ceiling needs to come down, the wasps removed, and a nicer fix applied. (Our guess is that the roof must have leaked at one point, and the pretty wood ceiling that we have seen in other cabins was ruined. One of the cabins we've had over the years also has the ugly drywall false ceiling. Yuck.)
Got home yesterday afternoon, unpacked, did laundry, and that was about all there was time for before crawling into our hot tub, and then going to bed.
Today, there will be grocery shopping, and list making of the things we should add to our cabin camping kit, now that NOTHING is provided in the kitchen except the appliances.
I hope that my gentle readers enjoyed a wonderful holiday, if they celebrate Thanksgiving, and I pray, most earnestly, that I will continue to respond well to treatment, and will enjoy many more cabin trips to come.
