The Cabin...

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We were all very excited to reach our cabin once we got to Gatlinburg.  We were right in the middle of the Smoky Mountains and after the cabin we stayed at last time, I was ready for a daily view of the mountains and a nice place to relax.  We stayed at the Silver Creek cabin.  We quickly learned that what you see online isn't always what you get...  Take a quick look at the cabin in the top picture.  It's very evident now that the cabin was photoshopped into that background.  This was our view...

 There were no mountain views whatsoever.  None.  It almost looks like our own backyard!  But that was small, and I even enjoyed rocking out on the deck one afternoon only to wake up with my mouth wide open, so that must mean that it was pretty relaxing!  But the lack of view was only our first of many issues.

When we got there, the A/C was off, so we turned it on before we headed out for dinner and groceries.  When we got back, the main level felt nice, but downstairs, it was FREEZING!  It was close to 60 degrees!  And of course, that's where our bedroom was.  The guys tinkered with the thermostat and tried to fix the problem but that didn't work.  On the 2nd day, we closed all of the vents and put pillows over them and that didn't help.  We had 3 extra blankets on our bed and we still froze all night.  On the third day, it got down to 58 degrees with the vents closed and we were about to call management when Christopher fixed the issuse.  When the main level cooled to it's temp, the heat would turn on in the basement and warm it back up.  What a blessing!!!!!  The rest of the week felt quite nice downstairs and we even spent a lot of time there playing pool!

We weren't the only guests in the cabin, though.  Right away we started seeing centipedes downstairs.  Most were little, but every one of them made me want to vomit (weak stomach).  But there were two that were big.  This one Christopher took a picture of next to his hairspray bottle for reference.  NASTY!

We also had mice.  We noticed when we were unpacking that there was mouse poop in our bathroom cabinets and we found a lovely poop-covered glue trap underneath the sink.  But we soon found out that we had a nightly visitor when we woke up each morning to poop in the kitchen sink.  One night it got into a plate of cookies and ate through the plastic wrap!  We did call management with that issue and they sent over an exterminator one afternoon and he replaced a poison trap under the stove.

Then I found a brown recluse spider in our bathroom.  I'm sure I scared everyone there when I screamed, "Christopher, get down here NOW!"  It was immediately squashed with a glass, and it officially creeped us all out and we were afraid we'd meet one in our bed, the couches, etc.  Thankfully, we didn't.

The cabin was also not clean at all.  The first night, Preston went to take a bath in our tub and when he turned on the jets, tons of mold came out.  Of course, he's allergic to mold, so he had to get out and then take a shower.  The carpet was stained badly.  Walking across it turned your socks/feet black in minutes. 

Overall, we were pretty disappointed with the quality of the cabin.  Every other place we've rented has been nice.  But really, we were just glad to have a cabin to ourselves as opposed to a condo, and a place to all enjoy our vacation together.  We had lots of fun times and made many more great memories.  We're thankful to have family that gathers and has a great time!