Luxury Cabin in the Woods

When you are a member of a knitting group, it is always good to have a member who owns vacation property. When you are a member of a knitting group, it is always good to have a member who owns vacation property who doesn’t mind it being invaded by a group of knitters with copious amount of wine. I belong to such a group.

The weekend after Deliverance Cabin of Hocking Hills, I traveled with my knitting group to Vevey, Indiana to spend the weekend at E’s cabin. Please note that Vevey is pronounced Veevee and not the way it is spelled to avoid being laughed at and marked as someone who is “not from around here”.

As Hubby and I have been a one car family since we were married, I rented a car. I had a choice between a normal blue, Kia Rio or a school bus yellow, Chevy Cobalt coupe. I have driven a Kia Rio.

Personality quirk aside…. Hubby and I are completely different when it comes to evaluating cars. Hubby sees cars as modes of transportation. If he had his way, you would be able to put four wheels, an engine and automatic pilot on a La-Z-Boy. On the other hand, I prefer a little bit of zip, zing and power. The words “punch it” inspire constricted pupils, increased pulse and respiration, and that tingle in the tummy of excitement as I merge into traffic at better than Granny in a Buick speed.

Saturday morning, I drove the Cobalt to meet the others at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. I was barely awake and aware, so the possibilities of the Cobalt remained a mystery.

The five of us sat around the table drinking coffee and diet coke. I was tempted by the diet coke for breakfast, but like wearing white, you shouldn’t before Memorial Day. Of course, there the one virtuous member of the group that made the rest of us feel like walking heart attacks as we ate our breakfast of piggy product, cholesterol filled goodness and she with her lovely bowl of artery cleansing oatmeal.

After several cups of coffee to move the artery clogging country breakfast through the system, we set out for Vevey. I maneuvered the Cobalt onto the interstate. I had my iPod plugged in and was listening to the Eagles at a good decibel level. I was singing; the sky was blue; and life was good - Until I looked at the speedometer. I was hitting 80 in a 65 zone and didn’t even feel it. After determining that I didn’t need a clean pair of undies, although at first I thought it might go either way, I slowed down and engaged the cruise. The knitting deities were looking out for me, because not more than a mile or two down the road I saw the line of local sheriff deputies out for their morning speed watch. Ticket avoided, I took a deep breath and enjoyed the rest of the trip, remembering to keep an eye on the speed.

To get to Vevey from Northern Kentucky, you must cross the Ohio River. Fortunately for me, the directions took me through one of the more scenic crossings over Markland Dam. It was beautiful! The only part of the trip that wasn’t so beautiful was driving by the local power plant and breathing air that the good lord never intended the human lung to breathe.

I pulled up to the cabin and it crossed my mind that this was no Deliverance or Unabomber cabin. No, this was luxury cabin in the woods.

We got to E’s about 10 a.m. We unloaded our gear and got to work. I pulled out the Morehouse merino lace yarn I was going to knit into a shawl and started to work. Several people had brought their spinning wheels and were making yarn. The rest of us sat and knit.

By 10:30, several had opted to supplement their knitting with a little bit of wine. This led to the lace projects being put aside in favor of stockinette stitch socks as it is not reasonable to sing Motown, drink a bit of wine and expect your stitch count to be right at the end of a row. I abstained until 11:00 because someone had to represent propriety and remain sober enough to knit lace for at least an hour. It is also not reasonable to expect to finish your anniversary socks when people are telling stories that are so funny you are irrigating your sinuses with wine and water.

Our group is eminently talented – we knit, spin and cook. We ate like queens at a spa – which was a good thing since we had redneck breakfast to start the trip.

We ate lunch on the deck by the pond. I was reminded why I invest in a decent sunscreen and regret it when I forget to take it with me. I became a true redneck in the time it took to eat lunch and relax.

After lunch we went back to knitting, although with not as much fervor as before. Good food, good wine, and good company make for a lazy afternoon. A couple of us even took naps.

After dinner, we sat around a bonfire talking and laughing. Then, we celebrated a milestone birthday of one of our cohort. The flaming cake almost ignited the flag hanging on the front porch. We had to sing “Happy Birthday” more than once because half the candles went out on the trip to the bonfire circle. It is a miracle the cake was not encased in wax as we were laughing so hard about the near miss with the flag it was hard to relight the candles.

We all agreed before leaving Sunday morning that we had to have a repeat at Camp Luxury Cabin in Vevey.

I will admit, I didn’t get a whole lot of knitting done at the knitting retreat. Sometimes it is more about being there than what you accomplish.