A romantic gesture gone wrong in Huntingdon PA.
In January 2019 my romantic and spontaneous then-boyfriend (now husband) surprised me with a wintry airbnb cabin getaway in nearby Pennsylvania. Close enough for a quick easy vacay, far enough to feel like we escaped for a little while. The airbnb photos are beautiful. Idyllic cabin on a peaceful river with a hot tub and a balcony. The reality was…a trailer park. They put it in the middle of an abandoned trailer park. Behold, the neighbors on all sides:
Abandoned homes to the left and right, boarded up windows, piles of tires, definitely some meth across the river. Complete with a disco ball in the bedroom and leopard sheets, hey hey hey! We checked out some nearby real estate because why not. The home 2 doors down was for sale at $26,000. The most memorable part was how cold it was inside. The heat didn’t work and the wood stove wasn’t near enough for even the living area (although I love a good wood stove!). You can tell by my face that I’m thrilled to be wearing 6 layers inside.
The charm continued at the local diner. Oh my. Everything was carpeted. The woman seated to our left had an eye patch, which you just don’t see every day. The one to our right had an infant in her lap and was slinging beers before “our long drive home”. Yep. Everyone else had walkers. I ordered fish that tasted like a towel. The waitress was very nice so I lied and said I just wasn’t as hungry as I thought.
Overall rating: 0/10 spuds.
Lets just say we didn’t find the charm we were looking for. We were cold, we were hungry. But we had a disco ball and some framed show dog portraits to keep us company, and you just had to laugh at that point. Best part of the trip was a cozy camp fire outside and the hot tub. Worst part was….everything else. The killer was, this place wasn’t cheap!! At no point did the price raise a red flag that this wouldn’t be a charming, beautiful cabin getaway. And the advertising photos are…technically…accurate. They just happen not to show the dilapidated surroundings. The lesson learned was that if you can manage to have a nice time with someone during a truly terrible vacation…you should probably marry them.
