K & I decided to rent a big 'ol cabin away from it all. We found one a couple hours outside of STL that overlooked a river and *BONUS* had a hot tub (foreshadowing).
The pics on the website looked splendid. We were stoked.
With the car loaded up with supplies, we headed out to our holiday getaway.
We took a short detour on the way down and stopped in for lunch at my fave diner, Wimpy's. Pulled up tight to the counter and enjoyed a cheeseburger, fries and Sundrop. Delish.
Once at the cabin, we unloaded and decided to go out to explore the surrounding countryside. We picked up a couple bottles of vino at a winery and headed to a state park to take in the loveliness.
K got some fish food and had fun watching the trout swarm, much like pirhana in the movies...
We then stopped at a few country stores on the way back for firewood and accoutrements. In this particular neck of the woods, they keep their Civil War hats right next to the Jolly Ranchers near the register. Tasty boom.
Once back at the cabin, we met the owner and Teddy, one of his many dogs. She was very chummy (Teddy the dog, not the owner) and ended up spending the night on our couch. This is us, snuggling up in the morning.
When we got back from the park, we went out back to check on the hot tub. It was turned on, cleaned, and the bubbles were going. Seems that it was ready for use, and who were we to say no? It looked so inviting. Little did we know....evil lurked just beneath the surface.
It was freezing out, but with the bubbles in and out of the tub, we didn't feel it. We turned the music up, kept the beverages coming and hung out for hours.
After a while I got out to get another bottle of something, and once inside the cabin my skin started to prickle with pain. I immediately thought I was having an allergic reaction to the chlorine. But then I started to notice that I was only feeling the pain in the areas that came in direct contact with the interior surface of the hot tub.
The longer I was out of the hot tub, the worse it felt. I ran outside and told K to get out of the tub. He did, and started to experience the same thing I did.
When we had first gotten in, we noticed that the surface of the hot tub under the water didn't feel as smooth as the part above the water line, and we chalked it up to the owners using some sort of non-slip treatment.
Yeah. Right.
When you're really looking forward to something, you tend to make inane excuses or look past the obvious.
We were up for most of the night. Think of the pain you felt from your worst sunburn ever. That's what this felt like. Good thing I had packed individual baggies of ice to fill up the cooler, because we used them to help numb the areas that hurt the worst.
It was beyond ridiculous. It was almost comical.
The next morning it was better - no more pain, just tenderness. We laughed about it and ended up taking a short walk down to the river to explore, and then up to the tracks. Teddy went with us - she was a very polite hostess.
We packed up, headed out and decided last minute to try the local flavor for breakfast and had pancakes and french toast at the new truck stop outside of town. Kind of a greezy, good reward for the suffering we went through.
I called my best guy friend, Bri, who's a smarty when it comes to anything electric, wooden or mechanical. He laughed when I told him of our travails, and had the answer immediately. The hot tub's epoxy coating had worn down, and what we were sitting on was unprotected fiberglass.
We had thousands of tiny cuts from tiny shards of fiberglass.
Oy.
It was good to know, but also disturbing.
It was nice to get away...already planning a "do over" excursion. This time, there will be no hot tub.
Nope. No way.
But it is on my wish list for owning one someday.
