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Snakes in the Cabin – Our VRBO Experience

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How was your Labor Day weekend? I thought it was only polite to ask about your weekend first before I laid a crazy, scary VRBO story on you today!

Let me just say that I had a completely different vision of how this past weekend was supposed to go for us. A few weeks ago, we decided that since summer was over and Labor Day weekend was to be our last weekend free of sporting events for at least the next 2 1/2 months, we would go away as a family.  Our first idea was to rent an RV and hit the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. We have never rented an RV with the kids so we thought this would be the perfect time to try it out. Our kids are 6, 8 and 10 and we thought a three-day RV trip would make the perfect long weekend getaway.

Unfortunately, we didn’t start planning soon enough to grab an RV. All the rental companies in a 150 mile radius were booked solid and there wasn’t an RV to be found.

So, we moved on to Plan B. We didn’t necessarily want to do a tent camping trip but we still wanted to take a low-key, “unplugged” type of trip and the mountains were still on the list. We decided to look for a rental cabin and give VRBO a try. We’d never used VRBO to book a rental, but my brother had many times before and usually had great experiences.

We found what I thought would be a good rental in the mountains of Western North Carolina that had two bedrooms and plenty of room for our family 5. Lucky for us, it was available. We booked the cabin and looked forward to our weekend away.

I made all my typical lists of things to bring from swimsuits to s’mores because I had this idea that we’d take a float trip down the river during the day and sit by the outdoor fire roasting marshmallows at night. Another day, we’d go gem mining. It was all planned. Everything was going to be great and we were all going to get a much needed technology-free, nature-filled weekend away.

Yeah, everything was going to be great. Until we actually got there.

You know that we travel all the time and cover all types of family-friendly destinations. Most of the time we have the best experiences and share them all with you here! This wasn’t going to be a trip I covered for you guys but just a family weekend away. No phones. No cameras. No videoing. A stress-free, work-free weekend. But it wouldn’t be fair if we left out the bad trips. Not every trip can be fabulous, right? This was THAT trip.

We arrived on Friday night and the nightmare, or shall I say, horror show began.

Snakes in the cabin. Yes, IN the cabin. Yes, you read that right, SNAKES – as in more than one. There were three to be exact and they were COMING OUT OF THE WALLS at 1:30 IN THE MORNING.

Black mold on the mattress box spring. Not just a little but pretty much covered the box spring.

A room that smelled like death. Yes, death.

All in a cabin secluded in the woods on a mountain top.

Good times.

While I thought that we would stay “unplugged” most of the weekend, once the craziness began, I couldn’t help but to bring the camera out to document it all. You wouldn’t believe me if I didn’t get it on video, I assure you.

I felt like I was transported into the Blair Witch Project.

Sure, after the weekend was all said and done and I was cuddled up in my own bed in my own house, I started thinking how much WORSE it could have all been. Arriving in a remote cabin that you rent from someone you don’t know. They know you are coming with kids. I’ve seen enough episodes of Criminal Minds to know that things could have been so much worse, but snakes coming from the walls certainly does top my list for some scary sh*t.

Since the memory is still too fresh and raw to really retell it to you right now, so just watch our video. You’ll see.

Needless to say, this will probably be our last experience with VRBO in a while.

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