Last week I was on vacation with my wife in the Smoky Mountains.
My ideal vacation (and thankfully my wife’s as well) is a cabin, woods, a hot tub, and seclusion. I’m not a beach guy.
Last year was probably our best year ever for this, in French Lick, Indiana. We had a great little cabin out in the middle of nowhere, but still close enough to the town that we could go antiquing, go to any of a number of great restaurants, or even a winery.
Bryson City on the other hand…
Everything looked better online, including the Amazon Local deal for the cabin. We were in the “lovers” historic cabin. Usually a pretty good sign.
The key word we should have noticed was historic. The cabin was built in the 1920s (ironically about the same time as my house). It even had the same door knobs and frames as my house. And one other thing…
From the front of the cabin to the back there was a 3-5 degree grade. In other words, the cabin sloped downward.
I meant to go to the hardware store so I could actually show you this with a level, but trust me, it makes a difference. On our first day my wife and I stood facing each other and rotated in a small circle in the living room. My wife is 5’10” and I’m 6’4″ so about a six inch difference. In this small circle that difference oscillated from 5 inches to 7 inches (doesn’t sound like much but trust me it’s kind of weird).
This is essentially meant that every time I got off the couch I would stumble into the kitchen counter. Or my wife would slide backward from our scrabble game. And none of the doors would stay open. Walking to the front of the cabin was like climbing a small hill, not a steep one, but enough that you brace yourself and notice ever so imperceptibly.
I don’t want to give anyone the impression we had a bad time. Sure it wasn’t French Lick, but there were still a number of good restaurants and especially good breweries in the area (I brought back a growler I’m intending to open up for the Ohio State game on Saturday). But most of all, it’s time alone with the little red haired girl, which I can’t get enough of. She’s leaving to visit friends next week so time together is especially desirable.
A cabin, even one tilted by tree roots growing under the foundation, is still the best place on earth if it’s with her (and away from work 🙂 ).
[BTW] : Ben Trube, Writer 