We Spent About A Week In A Caboose Last Night ...

.....or at least it seemed like a week before the night was over.

Sheila and I enjoy getting away together. We try to do it fairly often. Of late, we have taken to renting small, remote cabins in Southern and Southeastern Oklahoma for our getaways. I guess we have gotten spoiled by "The Little Cabin In The Woods" in Octavia, Oklahoma which I am quickly discovering to be the gold standard for this type of establishment. The Caboose was not in the same league or even close. The picture above shows where we stayed. You will notice that our luggage is placed by the steps. This picture was NOT taken as we were arriving. It WAS taken this morning as we were leaving after Sheila and I both decided we would rather leave, even if we had to forfeit the rental for the second night that we had booked and paid for in advance, than spend another night there.

Where to begin ... well, there was no bed, just a futon. If you are eighteen, futons may be OK. But, two people of our age do not tolerate a thin futon pad very well. And, the placement of the futon made it such that if the inside person had be get up in the middle of the night, there was no way to do it without waking the other. And of course, two people who are accustomed to sleeping in a king size bed are likely to pull the cover and uncover each in the night as well, which would have been OK if there was heat, but there wasn't. And, supposing that one person gave up on the torture rack called a futon and simply decided to let the other sleep and nap in a chair that couldn't be done because the futon was also the sofa and the ONLY place to sit in the whole place. Before dawn, I wound up going to the car, reclining a seat which made a much more comfortable bed than the cursed futon, and napping there for a while. Something about paying a hundred and a half a night to sleep in my car just did not sit right.

Come breakfast time, we noticed that there was no oven in the unit, just a two burner cook-top. There was a toaster oven stuffed under the cook-top with the pots and pans but be darned if I could figure out where to place it. I wound up cooking our biscuits on the stove-top. I didn't bring any regular bread, just a tiny can of biscuits. Ditto for the coffee maker. I am certainly glad I brought our French Press and could make coffee from water boiled on the stove top because again, there was just not enough room to prepare food and place the coffee maker on the miniscule counter space available.

By nine AM, I was analyzing my thoughts. Why was I so tired? Why was I so peeved? And most of all why was I ready to leave even if I did lose money on the deal? After a few moments, it came to me. There wasn't a single comfortable place to sit and relax in the whole unit. The futon as a couch was a torture device for a person with back or knee problems and the futon as a bed was even worse. There was a yard swing on the deck, but it was hung too high and required careful adjustment of bottom, knees and body to perch upon without falling flat on your *ss. And then, in the back of my mind other things came up as well. Little Cabin The Woods was always spotlessly clean. The Caboose wasn't exactly dirty but the weeping rust spots on the sides and condition of the deck, especially the grease spots near the barbecue, didn't exactly make a good impression. To other people, weeping rust and a dirty deck might not make as much of an impression but to an ex-sailor they are signs of a badly kept ship. That made me look closer at other areas and I wasn't impressed.

When we phoned the proprietress and told her we were leaving, I had hoped that she would volunteer a refund for the second night. We didn't ask for a refund. I am fully aware of the terms of the contract we signed. Most cabin rentals require a deposit in advance and a guaranteed rental of at least two nights. And, they do this for good reason. But, the good owners also know when to bend their own rules ... and those are the people that I continue to do business with. I have a list of two or three of these classy owners that I will always call first. No refund was offered at the Caboose.

These cabin rentals are not cheap. For what they charge, you can rent a nice room or even a small suite at the Doubletree or the Sheraton. Granted, you are paying for privacy and access to nature but the bare minimum should be a comfortable stay and adequate cooking facilities. This place had neither. Do I need to say that the Caboose is off my list of future destinations?