From the travel journal:
(CARA) - We made it to the check-in property around 6:45 PM after swift driving, slow traffic, and misty rain. Once we crossed the North Carolina border the entire car vibrated with the loud cheers and screams of excitement. The exit to Lake Lure was not far from the border and we got out our trusty Yahoo MapQuest directions and set to work to find our "unmanaged property" before the 7:00 PM deadline.
(KRISTA) -
Immediately the signs became scrambled. Which way do we turn? We stopped at a gas station and asked a man (Cara - women always need a man) for directions. I asked if there would be any grocery stores out our way or were we in the "boonies". His response, "Shop here, it's very country where you are going." Obviously, he didn't appreciate the "boonies" remark.
Description of the scenery:
Krista: "Long and winding roads."
Madison: "It looked like a normal town except the tree colors were different and the houses were up in the mountains."
Brianna: "Beautiful, tall mountains!"
Darcy: "Tall, pretty mountains with houses built into the sides. Where is the guardrail?"
Natalie: "Oh, my gosh, I'm in the mountains and I'm so excited. Where's the hotel?"
Kelly: "I feel as though Cara might drive off the road on this dark and windy road. The area is woodsy. It makes me want to get out of the car and take a walk in the woods."
(CARA) - The scenery began much like the middle of the film, Deliverance. Wooded areas with bare trees, dead leaves covering the barren ground and a dark overcast sky. The houses were either trailers or run-down shacks, and I was feeling apprehensive as we climbed and winded up the mountain road. The signage wasn't bad and we followed the directions okay. As we moved from one road to the next, the housing and scenery improved. There was the municipal golf course with dead grass (although the putting greens were green) and a new apartment complex. On 9 we passed a "brand new" (quote from the management company lady) grocery store, Ingles, and we finally arrived at our destination, the management company.
(KRISTA) - The management company was high on the mountain. It was a small building with a red brick patio and a soda machine. The unfriendly lady behind the counter gave us our packet, our keys and then pulled out a map and directed us around more winding mountain roads to the resort where we would be staying, and it would be "managed" as we would later discover.
(CARA) -
We are miles from the security shack and the main center. One must wind and wind and wind and wind (X10) the road to get to our townhouse. It is a duplex, but as of now, we don't have next door neighbors. The duplex next to us has occupants, but we haven't crossed paths (i.e. they didn't come out and offer to help us carry in our luggage or our $300 worth of Ingles groceries).
The townhouse is 3 stories. Through the main entrance was a 2-bed bedroom and bath.
From there, stairs led upstairs where we had a kitchen, a dining area, and the living room, complete with fireplace. The couch pulled out into a sofa bed.
Off the dining area was a sliding glass door that led to a balcony with chairs and a table. Our unit is very high in the mountains. The drop off from the balcony outside our dining area is approximate, by Kelly's estimates, "20 feet to reach earth, but it is so steep that by the time you finished tumbling and reached the creek, I'd say a good 200 feet."
We have issued parental vacation rule #1: No children on the balcony unless accompanied by an adult.
From the entrance, there are also stairs going down. Downstairs was the master suite with a king bed and a bathroom with a jacuzzi tub, and the laundry room. Another sliding glass door and balcony are off the master bedroom.
We unloaded, checked out the townhouse, perused the white packet, got back into the car and shopped at Ingles. We spent $300 on food and liquor, crossed our fingers and left our lives in Kelly's capable hands as she drove us back to the resort in the pitch black darkness. We ate dinner, showered and got ready for bed. Our first day of vacation was ending. OR SO WE THOUGHT.......
(Kelly) - Well, all I remember is that it had been a long day so far. I had started a fire in the fireplace (Duraflame only, per resort instructions). I had had 1 1/2 glasses of red wine, and I was sleepy and nodding on and off while Madison played her DS and sat at the end of the couch. I was watching Romancing the Stone on TV, but I kept falling asleep and waking up again.
I suddenly woke up and the only light in the room came from the remnants of the burning Duraflame and the light from the DS on Madison's face. "What happened?" I asked her. She just shrugged. Cara was soon up the stairs and eventually, everyone was aware.
Krista and Cara made valiant attempts, working on the breaker box, but no lights. I went outside to see if it was a wide-spread blackout. The duplex next to ours had lights. Krista and Cara speculated on the cause, from a jacuzzi that wouldn't turn on to wondering if the hair dryers we brought from home had somehow discombobulated the Appalachian electrical grid. Krista called the front desk and got a security guy to come over.
He was an older man, but quite attractive, or at least I thought so. Krista and Cara had found flashlights in the unit. The security guy had one too. I remained as helpful as ever in a crisis by sitting next to the fireplace and sipping wine in a comfy chair. I was more than willing to give sage advice to anyone who asked, but strangely no one did.
The security guy attempted to work the breakers, perhaps thinking to himself that a house full of ladies wouldn't have thought to try them. Or perhaps he just needed to check that off some mental to-do list.
He talked on the 2-way radio to some maintenance people and asked them to come over. Now I was feeling a little guilty about sitting under my warm blanket, so I asked the security guy where the trash cans were. We had earlier been unable to find them. I slipped my shoes on. I was still dressed. Cara was outside now talking to the security guy in her pajamas. She handed me the garbage and I followed the security guy out the walkway.
For a moment he seemed unable to locate the trash cans himself. "Now they should be here," he said pointing to a barren plot of land by the parked Caravan. "No, that's not it," he said as he looked around, and then, "Oh, here they are!" He pointed to 4 white metallic circles that appeared to be trashcan lids lying in the dirt by a lamp.
Cara was now there by me. He told us, "We put 'em like that so the animals don't get to them. Mostly skunks." I put the garbage in an empty buried can. The can was buried in the dirt to the rim and then the lid was hinged onto it. As Cara and I walked back to the front door, Card said that the security guy had told her he hit a skunk with his car. Right when we walked past his security car, our nostrils were assailed with pure nasty skunk odor.
The security guy then surprised us by leaving us. We didn't feel very secure. He assured us that the maintenance guys would be there soon. A few minutes (or 10 or 15) went by and there was a knock at the door. Cara opened it and there on the threshold stood a very young and very handsome man with a uniform. My eyes were blurry with wine and exhaustion so at least he seemed good-looking. The moment Cara opened the door and we looked at him, the lights came on. It was like he was the devil or David Copperfield. Several of us applauded and hooted.
Cara, I believe, said to the guy, "Wow, you're good!"
He told us he had flipped the main breaker outside. He investigated the jacuzzi and the hair dryer outlets and looked around. We were happy the electricity was on. All we had worried about were the almost $300 worth of groceries in the refrigerator. This would hopefully be the last time we would have to worry about an electrical problem in the unit (or would it?)
.
After Cara convinced me to wash my face and brush my teeth before going to bed, everyone was finally in bed by 12:30 or 1:00 AM. Our goal was to sleep late the next morning, secure in the knowledge that our perishables were once again safe.
(CARA) - Kelly has asked me to talk a bit about our electrical problem as she doesn't feel like she did it justice in the above entry. I feel she did just fine, and I shall only tweak a couple of her observations - a couple on inconsistencies.
** "Cara was soon up the stairs....." - Actually, I had just gotten out of the shower and was wrapped in a towel brushing my teeth when the lights went off in the bathroom. I assumed it was one of those timers that hotels install in their shower area along with the exhaust fan, so I calmly continued brushing. I usually shower, dress, put on make-up, remove and insert contacts, etc. by nightlight so being in the dark (I look amazing in the dark) was normal for me. Only when I heard the commotion outside the bathroom door did I realize it was unit wide. I suggested someone call security from the number in our welcome packet, and I continued brushing.
** "He was an older man......" - I decided to dress once I heard security was on the way. Lucky for me I had brought my black and white Chaps pajamas that I purchased in November for my Colorado vacation. They are SO NOT what I wear in my normal life, but they are decent looking and keep me covered, although in the dark who knew what was covered.
I was hot as hell having just taken a hot shower. Add my fat body and having to dress hurriedly and I was miserable. So, I stood outside to cool off and to wait for security. The NC weather, which we haven't mentioned, is damn cold. It is in the lower 40's. It took a while for security and frost was at the ends of my hair when he pulled up.
He was very tall, over 6 feet, with a medium build, blond curly hair beneath a security cap, and beautiful blue eyes that peered into mine with longing as soon as he spied me standing under the lamp of the boardwalk in my Chaps pajamas.......oh, sorry, that was a different time in my life......no, he was tall, young, with a medium build and he had curly hair beneath a security cap. He was dressed in a uniform and carried a flashlight.
** "....and perhaps thinking to himself that a house full of women would have tried them." - For the most part, the man was clueless. He came into the front door and literally turned around in a circle. Then he walked toward my bedroom, stopped, turned in another circle, headed halfway up the stairs, stopped, came back down and then headed downstairs.
Once he got downstairs he stood, rotating his head from side to side. "I'm not familiar with these units," he muttered to me. "The fuse box....."
"Is to your right," I said from behind him.
He opened the box, shone his light and sighed. "Well," he said, "I might have to just test every one of these fuses first before I call maintenance. That is what they will ask me." He turned around and looked at me as if I could offer him some encouragement on that idea.
Instead, I chose to impart my wisdom on electrical matters (learned at the knee of my father). "The main breaker is the large one on the top right there," I said leaning in and pointing.
"It doesn't look like the main," he replied.
(Picture a box. Open the box and there are two sides. On the left side is the printing of which room goes with which fuse. On the left is a big black lever with the word MAIN printed on it. Below that are the fuses)
He did trip it despite my explaining that I had done this already. He then tripped every fuse in the entire fuse box as if I had not said one word. Nothing happened. He checked the bathroom outlets and wandered in circles. He seemed nervous about calling in maintenance.
** "He talked on the 2-way radio to some maintenance people" - He called the main security hub on his radio and told them to contact maintenance. Maintenance was off duty and not on the property. I got the feeling that this had happened in the past and that maintenance hadn't been too happy with the way security had handled things. This security guy was running through things he was concerned that maintenance would ask him. On what he had or hadn't checked. By the time he left us alone in the dark, he was a twitter about how maintenance was going to react to his handling of the situation.
** "....and there on the threshold stood a very young and very handsome man with a uniform" -Granted Kelly did mention her blurry eyes and wine consumption, but seriously that description is SO the opposite of the maintenance man that appeared first at our door. He was older with gray hair and gray facial hair, but he did have pretty blue eyes. There was a second maintenance man who appeared later and he was young and cute so perhaps she is confusing the two.
