New Year's Eve At The Shack

As of Thursday evening, Mark and I had no plans for New Year's Eve. We received a call from our friends, the Glovers (James and Angie), asking if we wanted to join them at the hunting cabin to ring in the new year. Since my husband is a hunter, I automatically knew we'd be going. Now I've never been to a hunting cabin, but I thought I had a decent idea of what to expect. I wasn't surprised when James warned me that the hunting cabin was "no cabin up in the mountains at Gatlinburg." But I was not quite prepared for the Pine Ridge Hunting Cabin (PRHC), which I affectionately named "The Shack."

After a long drive down a long, bumpy road, we arrived at the PRHC. Apparently James has the impression that I'm a city girl (little does he know!) because he kept asking if I was sure I wanted to spend the night there. Granted...I had envisioned drinking hot chocolate around a campfire while shooting fireworks. But that wasn't quite the way things turned out.

The shack, for lack of a better description, looked like it had not been cleaned in a really long time. The funny thing about it was that James' brother stopped in before leaving his hunt to tell Angie that he'd cleaned up for us before we got there! (Insert laughter so hard it makes my tummy hurt!...I learned how men would live if not for us women!!) I'm telling you, friends, I'm quite sure the shack has never seen a vacuum, mop or dust brush! James claimed that the dishes were clean, and would be fine to cook with. Thank goodness, Angie had the foresight to bring her own skillets! I'm pretty sure Angie scrubbed every utensil and dish in sight. Not to mention, she wiped down the table with some cleaning solution, but it never got quite clean. She and I determined not to eat any food that accidentally fell on the table!

The rain...um, deluge...started not long after we arrived, so we were pretty much banned to the inside of the cabin. The guys grilled our steaks in the rain. There was no campfire. Neither was there any hot chocolate...I blame that on two reasons: the weather was warm, and the water came from a well...and James warned us that it didn't taste good because there was iron in it. (Thankfully, once again, Angie had the foresight to bring a couple of gallons of bottled water to brush our teeth with.)

With all that said (and I hope I've given you a lovely mental image of the shack), we had a GREAT evening. We ate steak, salad, and baked potatoes. Angie baked chocolate chip cookies in the ancient oven. We shot fireworks between rain showers. We sat with all  the girls and watched Dick Clark count down the new year. We played our favorite card game, Phase 10, until 1:30 am (which, by the way, I kicked booty and won!). Angie cooked a fabulous breakfast for us this morning. Then we headed back to our sanitary homes. The funny thing about it was...we all could've stayed a while longer and escaped reality.

Maybe there's something to be learned from this adventure: good friends are great to be with wherever you are...cobwebs and all! Enjoy checking out the photos from our New Year's Eve at The Shack...um, I mean...Pine Ridge Hunting Club.

The Shack...aka Pine Ridge Hunting Club

The Master Suite (insert laughter!!!!)

James SWORE the toilet was clean...it only looked like this from the iron in the well water. Hmmm...still not sure I believe him!

A Chef's Kitchen

Check out the zipties holding together the broken chair!

I told you that cabin had not ever seen a vacuum!

My dorky husband holding my "fru-fru" salad in Angie's clean skillet

The guys running away from the fireworks they were shooting

All the girls...they had a blast!

This makes us more attractive to our husbands!

The Glovers

Mark and me

Thanks, James and Angie, for a fun and entertaining New Year's Eve!!!!