It’s funny how one little thing can make the difference between a “fabulous adventure” and “the vacation from hell.”
My husband and I decided to just take off. I mean, we started driving west with no particular destination in mind, no itinerary, no reservations. We thought it would be a great adventure.
When we would see a sign like “Lost Canyon Road,” we would go down it just to see where it went. We discovered all sorts of neat stuff. We collected brochures and met lots of nice people at the local cafés.
We were in one such café pretty late one night and we asked our waitress if there were any hotels in this small town. She said that her dad had a real nice cabin he rented out. We thought it was meant to be.
Her mom came to the restaurant so that we could follow her out to the cabin. She was in her nightgown, a cigarette hanging from her lips. This was not going to be the million-dollar ranch we had envisioned, was it?
As the road turned from asphalt to dirt, I began to get a little queasy. We traveled down this road for what seemed like an eternity. It dawned on both of us that we could possibly be setting ourselves up for the perfect murder. They take us out to the middle of nowhere, kill both of us, and they wouldn’t ever find our bodies.
I felt a little better when a cabin finally came into sight. Then it dawned on us that a café waitress’ idea of a “really nice cabin” and ours could be miles apart. If there were roaches in the cabin, I was gonna scream and run. Visions of the “vacation from hell” began to creep into my mind.
Like I said, it was really late, there were no lights on, so my husband volunteered to be the one to go turn on the first light.
It was nice. Really.
The next morning as we sat on the front porch overlooking the creek babbling by, watching the deer feed in the meadow beyond, we pondered the good fortune of finding such a treasure.
Victor, the owner, came to visit a spell. His daughter, Mary, our waitress, is working on a Master’s degree in paleontology. Turns out her idea of “nice” and ours was very near the same.
We stayed all week. It was a fabulous adventure.
