Breaking and Entering

Here's another story from my recent trip to Tennessee. The purpose of the trip was to see my mom for her birthday. We had rented a cabin (selected by my mom's husband) and had planned to spend time kayaking, hiking, and swimming (which we did). The place was in a secluded area - no wi-fi connections anywhere. I think the nearest store was about 40 minutes away.

As we drove down a narrow dirt and gravel road, my kids and I wondered what the heck we were getting ourselves into. Dilapidated shacks  that had to be at least seventy years old, rested at the edge of cliffs among fallen down trees. I strained my eyes trying to see the addresses.

Meanwhile, in the back seat, my daughter was complaining that she had to use the bathroom.

"Okay," I said. "Hang on. We're almost there." 

I found a few addresses and noticed they were going up in number. We had passed our destination. Somehow, I managed to turn around, and retraced our path. I couldn't see the addresses, but I took a wild guess as to which house it was. I pulled up the steep gravel driveway, hoping not to get a flat tire  or do other serious damage to my car.

"Okay, kids," I said. "You can get out now."

"Is this the place?" my daughter asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't see an address, but I'm going to guess this is it."

We walked up some poorly made wooden steps.

"This looks like one of my really bad Minecraft houses," my son said.

"Um hmmm," I mumbled after stumbling on a step that had to be ten inches tall (after one that was four inches tall).

We got up to the front porch, which was more like a covered deck. I knocked on the sliding glass doors. Nobody was home. So I opened the doors.

"Mom!" my daughter said. "What are you doing? You don't even know if this is the right place!"

"Okay," I said. "You have a choice. Since you have to go to the bathroom, you can either find a bush, or use the bathroom here."

She chose the poorly constructed Minecraft bathroom. (The floors were slanted, so the toilet was actually tipped to the side. I kid you not!)

While she was in the bathroom, I wandered around and found my Mom's stuff. I knew we were in the right place.

So ladies and gentlemen, that's the story of me breaking and entering, and of the first class accommodations we had on our adventure to Tennessee.