Kate and me in our cabin in the 80s.
I always wanted to live in a log cabin. In my twenties I came pretty close. For eight years I rented a 1920s cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains. It had one main room with a kitchenette corner and a slab stone fireplace. One bedroom, bathroom with a tin shower stall, and a tiny curtained-off sunroom. When I first moved in, I took the sunroom for $60/month. When my roommate moved out, I got the whole furnished cabin for $150. It had a deck shaded by redwoods, a stream at the bottom of the hill, and no lock on the door. It was rustic and funky and just my style. When Kate and I got together, we lived there together until we got tired of hoisting the baby, laundry, groceries, and dog food up and down the steep trail to the parking spot.
Beth and Don’s log “cabin.”
My sister and brother-in-law’s cabin is a real log cabin, and a hell of a lot nicer than what I lived in. I love visiting them there, and this time it offered a cozy respite from the coming storms. It’s on a hill, high over Lake LBJ, with huge windows that offered a lightshow of lightning flashes. With such a sturdy roof over our heads, far from the lake, we could ignore the flash flood alerts beeping on our phones and enjoy the show. Kate and I got to work on a puzzle that had been left out on the table. Beth and Don pulled out their ukuleles to serenade us.
Bedding Bessie
Wherever we stay, finding a comfortable place for Bessie is always an issue. The cabin’s driveway is windy, steep and narrow with a slanted parking area at the top. With both me and an eager-to-help neighbor shouting directions at her, Kate managed to back it up the hill where we crammed logs and stones under her wheels, just in case.
Backing Bessie in.
We could open up the slides to get out what we needed, but walking inside her was like navigating rooms in the Mystery Spot house. But we were proud of ourselves for getting her up there. And relieved, because if this didn’t work, we didn’t know what we were going to do with her.
(Note: After a day, we discovered that the refrigerator doesn’t work on propane on such a slant, and we brought all the cold food inside.)
Soggy Bluegrass
We were happy to realize that there was a bluegrass festival in nearby Llano and Saturday afternoon we drove to check it out. It was sputtering from the rain, but we still had fun exploring the cute little town. (See the next post for more on that.)
Boating on the Lake
Paddling on the lake.
Memorial Day Weekend is a busy time at this lake, but the weather was putting a damper on things until Sunday afternoon. When the sun came out, so did the partiers. We grabbed the opportunity to try out our inflatable canoe on the lake, and we went to Sandy Beach, normally a very quiet finger of the lake. Not today, though. There were crowds of boats, docked or anchored together, and jet skiers zooming up and down the canals. We managed to find a little peaceful area, but had to paddle through serious wakes to get there. It was nice have some sun and to be out doing something Memorial-Dayish.
Austin Outing
On Monday, more storms were predicted, but we decided to drive into Austin to have lunch with my niece and see some of the city. We had delicious Mexican food at Polvos and browsed stores in the SoCo District before battling lightning storms, flash floods and tornadoes all the way back to the cabin. (See Texas-Sized Weather.)
We stayed four nights in this wonderful cabin. Then Beth and Don headed back to Sugar Land to check on their house, and we headed down toward San Antonio.