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Vacation Part 3

I think it’s Part 3 . . this is the last part.  This contains the air conditioner story and why the owners were very happy to see us go!

First, I love roasted marshmallows.  I love them a whole lot and that’s really the only reason I go out into the wilderness with my family.  Huh?  Who said staying in an air conditioned cabin isn’t “wilderness”?  Wait til you hear the rest of the story.

Back to the marshmallows . . every night, I said “Can we build a fire tonight?”  The first three nights Vince was too tired to deal with building a fire.   I grumbled a bit but didn’t hold a grudge .  . not for long anyway.

On the fourth night, despite my best efforts to be a patient wife, I was about to become impatient.  Yes, I could have gone out and built a fire myself (or at least I like to think I could have) but I figured since Vince knew I wanted him to do it, he’d get aggravated if I did it and I was getting aggrvated that he wasn’t doing it so . . he built a fire.

We ended up with great coals for roasting marshmallows and I was very happy.  He actually built a fire the next night too so I was very, very happy!

While we were outside sitting around the fire, look who’s sitting on the back of the chair watching.

Can you see that little framed sign on the wall?  I have no idea what it said but it was obviously important enough to have been printed with ink jet ink, framed and screwed into the wall.  Why can’t I read it?  Because in May, 2008, there was a flood.

This bridge was down the road from our cabin and during the flood, the water was up over the bridge!  The locals told us the water rose 40′ which meant the water was about 7′ inside our cabin!  We didn’t know that when we made the reservations.  The ink on the sign on the wall ran during the flood but I find it strange that the owners didn’t take the sign down.   But . . I think that’s just one indication of how the owners of this cabin run their business.

About the air conditioner . . the cabin was advertised as “air conditioned”.  What would you think?  Something that actually puts out cold air??  Wrong!  According to them . . there’s an air conditioner in the window (upstairs I might add).  The fact that it doesn’t work doesn’t mean the cabin isn’t air conditioned . . according to Bubba!  There’s an air conditioner in the cabin so the cabin is air conditioned.

Remember, we had no screens on the windows.  We kept the windows open with no screens til about Wednesday and then we had an ivasion of red wasps.  And, the temps were about 85 degrees . . inside and outside.  I killed a few of the wasps; made sure my epi-pen was handy and then . . I’d had enough!  Vince and Chad were gone with the car so I walked down to the office and I explained to them that (1) the cabin was advertised as air conditioned; (2) we had no screens and wasps were coming in and (3) I was HOT and I wanted something done about it NOW!  The guy walked out; the girl just looked at me and I walked out.  I had decided that when Vince got back, we were leaving.  I didn’t know where we were going but we weren’t staying there, even though we’d already paid for the whole week.  I figured we’d take that up with the credit card company when we got home.

By the time I got back to the cabin, the guy was there with another window unit, which he stuck in the downstairs window (which in the pictures of the cabin on the internet, there is an a/c there already!)  I should have taken pictures.  It looked like something he’d found at the dump.  The little things you move to make the air blow one way or another fell out when he moved them; the knobs fell off when you touched them.  Off might be “high cool” one time and “low fan” the next time.  And, when he turned it on, it smelled like dead fish.  I looked at him and said “It smells like dead fish!”  He left.  He came back with Lysol and left it for me.  I was furious.

The air conditioner blew cool air for maybe 5 minutes, then it blew just plain air.  I went back to the office and I said “That one isn’t working either!”  That’s when they told me “it’s an air conditioner!”  At that point, I knew it was the best I was going to get.

Vince offered to go to Wal-Mart and buy our own window unit and stick in the window.  No way!  We had 2 nights left at that point and the last night, it was supposed to get cooler.

The cabin was not inexpensive!  I’m sorry they had a flood last year.  In fact, they had the first flood, which was considered the “100 year flood” and everyone started rebuilding, and before the month was over, the same exact thing happened again.  It was bad for that entire area . . everything along the river was flooded with lots and lots of water . . not just a little water.  But, dang it, if you’re open for business, you ought to be ready to offer what you say you offer.

We will not be going back to those cabins though I still love Mountain View, Arkansas.  VInce and Chad caught lots of fish and that’s what really matters, right?  Now . . where’s my “Good Wife Award”? 🙂

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I’m glad someone else has such vacation adventures as me. We booked a cabin once in Island Park, Idaho (outside of Yellowstone). When we got there, the cam had been burnt down over 2 months ago, but they forgot to let us know. They gave us a room with two beds (5 people) in their main lodge, that was very scary looking. The kids slept great, but hubby and I barely closed our eyes….

  2. Well…..your adventure made for a couple of really good blog posts, Judy……so I hope that makes you feel somewhat better! LOL I think you should get the Good Wife AND Mom Award…that’s for sure. (And I guess it’s safe to assume you are not going to provide any kind of recommendation for that “resort” when other guests are considering going there?)

  3. I retreated a couple of times with an online quilting group in Arkansas. I can’t for the life of me remember where. The cabins were pretty nice, but the couple that owned them were always renovating, but we would have never known. Breakfast and dinner was provided. They also had a large room for us to sew in.

    Family vacations are always an adventure!

  4. 85 degrees .. pure bliss. We’re months away from anything like that. We’re supposed to go up to 50 today, and I’m excited to get out for a walk this afternoon. *sigh* I was not meant to live in the north.

  7. Oh dear, I can just see you all packed for your next vacation: oven racks, window screens, a/c, etc.! Some sort of combination of screens, window fans or A/C should have been there for sure. I am in the hospitality business myself and one thing I do – I don’t always say everything that we provide… then when guests are here they are pleasantly surprised. Always better to have a happy customer! I guess you can be happy that you didn’t book a 2 week get-away! At least your got your campfire 2X though. Cheers! Evelyn

  8. Judy, you get the award from me.
    I’m a hotel girl too, but the hubby hates that kind of traveling. I’ll never get to Hawaii with him.
    We started with a pop up trailer, parked near restrooms – 3 daughters-
    Than went to a trailer with restroom included 🙂 (hubby realized us 4 girls like real bathrooms)
    Than to a 5th wheel more my style — we did get the girls to go to Disneyland 6-7 years ago as family vacation — Oregon to California
    Now a motorhome — my way of “Camping” lol

    Love reading all your posts.

  9. the flood was no excuse for their cabin to be in poor condition. If they hadn’t had time to buy new air conditioners and make sure everything was working properly then they shouldn’t have advertised open for business. In my opinion if a person is going to rent cabins for a business then they need to make sure everything is working all the time. How much you want to bet that when you needed a rack in your oven that day they took it out of another cabin! same with the air conditioner that he brought up to you. No screens! wow, I would be in poor shape, I love the windows open but hate the bugs. I hope you have better luck the next time you rent a cabin.
    Karen
    http://karensquilting.com/blog/

  10. YOU definitely should have an award! You are more patient than I would have been. Once many years ago when my kids were little, we went to Branson and had reserved a motel room in Indian Point that looked nice on the internet. BAD choice. When we got there late in the evening, the room smelled like bug spray big time. Never saw a bug but oh my goodness, must have been a lot of them before the spraying. To make matters even worse, the swimming pool (this was in July) had black fungi water in it. Nastiest stuff I ever saw. The building right next to our room has recently burned down and you could still smell the burnt wood, plastic stuff. Totally gross. I threw a fit and hubby went and demanded our money back that we paid for the entire week. We were out of there in a flash. Oh, the memories you will have!

  11. Lovely! I just had my own run-in with two nests of wasps in my travel cabin. Who would have thought that would happen to two quilters in one week?

  12. What a story! You have to wonder how many return visits they get from their guests. I think I would have been so mad that I’d have packed up the car & when the boys got back from fishing it would have been, “Hop in, cause this chick’s leavin’. “

  13. they don’t happen to have a Better Business Bureau around Mountain View do they? might be a good idea to let those people know of your experience.

  15. When our kids were little we went to Gatlinburg for a family vacation. A lady in Baton Rouge owned the cabin and we picked up the keys from her, but she had a rental agency in Gatlinburg who took care of the rentals most of the time. We arrived late in the afternoon, got settled in and went to bed. Up early the next day to Dollywood, where my husband lost the cabin key on a ride. We had to break into an upstairs window to get back into the cabin. Shortly after that a police car and a very irate woman arrived. Seems the cleaning lady had showed up that day and told the agency that someone was in the cabin. We gave her our story, that we rented the place from the owner and picked up the keys there, but I couldn’t locate the rental agreement or anything. I kept telling them to call the owner, I knew the phone number by heart because I had to call her so many times. No papers, no stay – ee. Well, after about one and a half hours the agency woman reached the owner in BR. Seems she had forgotten to notify the company that she had rented the place to us. The next day Dollywood called the local police to tell them they had found the missing cabin key. (After we begged the police to request same if anyone found a lost key.) My children just knew we would have to spend the night in jail. It wasn’t fun then, but now, 20 years later it’s one of our favorite vacation stories. The tale grows bigger every time it’s repeated!
    Norma in BR

  16. 85 degrees and no A/C? Yep, you get the Good Wife Award from me! Of course, that’s coming from someone who thinks camping is staying at the Four Seasons! You did good, Judy! Kudos!

  17. Only once have we rented a place, with nowhere near a similar adventure, but certainly not exactly what was advertised! It was in summer in Pismo Beach, a fairly newish condo, but when we got to the rental place, the lady couldn’t find our rental agreement, even though I had the reservation for about six months! It took her nearly 20 minutes to locate it and we were lucky she found it because I hadn’t brought a copy and she would just have turned me away! The condo was clean and airy, but the furniture in it looked as though hordes of people had been sitting on it, the master bedroom’s mattress had a crazy dip in the middle and the TV didn’t work, the kitchen had a list of things that were supposed to be supplied but weren’t, AND it was on a really busy corner just opposite the coast highway’s onramp so traffic was constant. The rental agency listened to my complaints about the TV and furniture but did nothing. However, it was a fun vacation as we let the kids each bring a friend and there was lots for them to do in the little town, even though the walk to the beach was quite a trek of about 5 city blocks!

  18. I live in AR and we love visiting the Mountain View area. I have contact with the owner of the cabins and he seems to want to please his customers. I’m sorry you had a bad cabin experience there.

  19. Yes, but through it all you DID GET ROASTED MARSHMALLOWS!!! They (marshmallows) are my FAVORITE candy, any way any time, but Roasted, ahhh….

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