Mr Tinkles

Mr. Tinkles said...
I grew up in southeastern Illinois and was a student at SIU in the early to mid 70's. I like to think that I was a pretty good student and tried to make the most of my college experience. That's not to say that I didn't get a little crazy at times.

Since my college days, I've had this recurring memory of a particular late night cruise in my roommate's car on some unknown remote back roads in the Carbondale area. In this memory, my roommate was driving the car with 3 passengers including me. I should mention that alcohol was involved. (Who ever said college students are always smart and responsible?) Through all of the following years, I have always wondered where this particular cruise through the country happened.

In this memory, we're driving down a hilly road, thoroughly enjoying going up and down the hills at a pretty good rate of speed. Then all at once, the road abruptly ends. My roommate couldn't get stopped in time and we kept going straight. Someone was watching out for us because there was a narrow dirt road straight ahead instead of trees. However, the dirt road had some really deep ruts, and when we hit it, the car bottomed out hard and we came to a quick stop. We thought it was the funniest thing ever at the moment. All of us were laughing and got out of the car so my roommate could try to back out to the road. A nice lady came out of a house that was to the left of the dirt road to ask if we were okay, which we were. I don't remember much about the lady except that I felt bad that we had probably scared her with our very abrupt and unintentional entrance into her peaceful country existence, but I do remember what the house looked like.

As I said earlier, I've wondered for years where that incident happened. Then, we're staying at Oak Grove Cabins last week and I ride my bicycle down Rowland Road for the first time towards the cemetery. It was a challenging ride because of several rolling hills. Then, all at once, there it was straight ahead, the same setting as from the 70's road trip. There was the dirt road straight ahead, past the 90 degree turn towards the cemetery (minus the ruts from the 70's), and the house next to the dirt lane.

I just thought it was really weird coming onto that scene after all of these years of wondering where it was. Finding that spot was just another interesting part of my visit to Oak Grove Cabins.

Perfect Place for our Honeymoon

Dear Dorothy and Ron,

Thank you for providing us such a perfect destination for our Honeymoon. We could not have been more pleased. We thought of traveling to Gatlinburg, but found everything that we were looking for much closer to home and at a better price. Maybe next time we will get a chance to meet you, but we did love the privacy! We absolutely love your cabin and plan to spend every anniversary at Oak Grove Cabin 3. Thanks again!

Thank you note

Hi Dorothy!

I just wanted to follow up in writing what I told you over the phone. Maybe
you'll want to print this out and fit it into your Guess Comment scrapbooks
on the end table. I am delighted with your place! You seem to have spared
no expense in constructing, decorating and outfitting the cabin. I'll be
surprised if you tell me you don't hold a PhD in Hospitality Management. I
say this, in part, because of the time and effort you took in compiling that
massive fount of tourist information in the binder on the coffee table. You
left nothing out, thinking to include even Google maps to help locate
stores, etc.

Although the cabin and everything in it is attractive, what I like best is
the location. It is quiet and peaceful, especially at night, which is
something I always hope for when looking forward to spending some vacation
time in a cabin setting. That isn't always guaranteed, but I quickly found
out that Oak Grove Cabins would not disappoint me in this regard. It's nice
you're able to offer your guests a quiet setting, while at the same time
allowing them to be conveniently close to the "big city" for all its goods
and services.

Thanks for an enjoyable and memorable stay!