Cabin By the Pond

My husband and I found this rental while searching VRBO for a little hideaway in the Illinois countryside, sufficiently removed from the bustle of Chicago, where we could celebrate Valentine’s Day in seclusion, except for our dog.
We arrived far later than we expected and Tom, the owner of the property (three rental cabins, considerably well spaced from one another), graciously kept tabs on us as he knew the interstate was sufficiently icy. He helped navigate us through Carbondale and met us around midnight at our cabin to welcome us into our one-​bedroom abode, taking care to show us how the stereo and television speakers worked. He asked if we knew our way around a fireplace (we thought we did, however, our Southern upbringings never prepared us for the physics of a fireplace in the cold and requisite jockeying of the flu… we’d eventually have to call on him to help us sort it out during our stay after smoking the place considerably. Sorry Tom!), and let us settle in. The place is simple yet quite beautiful, and as Tom will assure you, built by his own two hands.
We spent three really wonderful evenings and four blissful days away from work and class, with me waking early to complete French translations at the little bistro table, coffee in hand, while my husband took our dog journeying around the surrounding woods and down to the pond. The cabin didn’t have WIFI so our usual suspects of Netflix and Apple TV were out of the question, but the fact that we had to pile into our little car to journey to the nearby Family Video (yes, indeed, Carbondale, Illinois is one of the few places that still enjoys its own brick and mortar video shop) to pick up some flicks and visit the nearby mom & pop grocer for bread and shampoo added to the simple charm of the place. The bedroom is just big enough for your luggage, the laundry, and the big elevated quilt-​covered bed with a nice cozy living room, modest kitchen (stocked with pots, pans, and the like), and bathroom to boot. All you need for a short comfortable stay.
The only complaint I can possibly muster is that Tom and his friends were a little more present in our romantic «secluded» stowaway than we’d have liked, admittedly largely because of our little fireplace emergency. Tom, as anyone who enjoys such a sizable piece of gorgeous Illinois countryside should, enjoys the company of friends, and those friends accompanied him to our little smoke-​induced housecall. I assume the friends weren’t exactly invited, but they did stop by and lingered a little longer than we felt comfortable, simply because we were out there, quite frankly, to be alone (I was on my third glass of red and slightly less… fit for public consumption than I’d care to be in front of strangers), given, um, the holiday and all.
Still, the vacation is still a lingering happy memory for us, and we look for to our next visit this year with great anticipation. Thanks, Tom, for a lovely vacation.