A Weekend in the Catskills

Once upon a time, three months ago, I planned a weekend getaway just for Dave. He needed a break, but I knew he wasn’t going to take it unless I made him. So, I planned a weekend just for him. I rented him a tiny home in the Catskills and scheduled a guided fly-fishing trip. He would have loved it! But then his work scheduled a trip for him to London right after. Knowing that weekend was his last chance to spend time with me before leaving for two weeks, he asked me to crash his getaway. Now it was two in the tiny house. Then the forecast got crazy and it rained a ton and the rivers were flooded. Goodbye fly fishing! So, the gentleman’s getaway to the Catskills rapidly changed to a romantic weekend for two.

Guys, a tiny cabin without plumbing is not my idea of a weekend getaway. This destination is sort of advertised as “glamping” because there’s running water in a shared shower, “WIFI” (heavy quotes because I couldn’t get it to work all weekend), an outhouse, an outdoor kitchen shared with an onslaught of mosquitoes, etc. The word glamping really gets my goat sometimes because I think it’s used way too liberally. To me, glamping is like the Garden Village in Slovenia where you’re in a tent with electricity and WIFI and a comfy bed. There’s a luxury restaurant and spa on the premise, but the pool is natural and filled with tadpoles. You know…a little more glamorous because, well, that word is half the description. This wasn’t glamorous. There were spiders staring me down from the corner of the bed.

However, this is not meant as a complaint. This is meant to say that this experience was wonderful, but I would not label it as glamping. Maybe lamping? Like, light camping? We need a new word for the in between.

I digress. I haven’t said a word yet about our wonderful weekend, which was really was wonderful. The only downside was my inability to just check out. I’ve become so used to running Jute and the onslaught of work involved daily that I couldn’t just relax. When the WIFI didn’t work and I couldn’t check emails and post editorials and update social media I was losing my mind. I finished my book morning one and then was like…what the fuck do we do now? We’re supposed to just sit around a shoot the shit? Fuuuccckkk.

Eventually I gave in and it was, to my unwarranted surprise, good for the soul. I was so rested after the weekend was over. Who woulda thunk there was a reason people did this shit? I always thought camping was for boozing with friends. Curiously enough, there are other things to do on a camping trip.

Anyway, let me give you the low down on our Airbnb experience at The Outlier Inn. The place is very aesthetically pleasing. We got a little tour from the couple who run the place when we arrived and all I could think was how I wanted to do a photo shoot there. Turns out lots of other people have though the same thing because lots of big magazines have used this location, or so I found out via their Instagram. The property has several rentals ranging from our tiny home to a trailer to even a dome that has its own personal light show at night, which is goals for next time. There’s an outhouse, a communal shower and even an outdoor bathtub if you’re brave enough for that sort of thing. I got naked in it for picture purposes only. I wasn’t brave enough for a proper bath for fear of being seen. (Gotta work on that self-esteem thing, sheesh). Side note: I was fairly upset with myself for this because it would have been pretty cool to enjoy a bath in the woods. 2019 goals, I guess. They also farm a lot of produce there and sell local tid-bits like wine and honey and whatnot. No need to bring groceries because you can buy all the goodies on site and cook in their outdoor kitchen! You can also mingle with the livestock at will, which was my favorite afternoon activity. We even made friends with a local, rather Dave did because we had a sheep following him around and it was adorable! There is a lake as well with lots of fish that we took a swim in and in the evening, we roasted marshmallows and made smores at the fire pit with new friends we made that day at the lake. Guys, strangers liked us enough to hang out with us, so we were already improving on our typical weekend. It was quite a special weekend when all was said and done. I would like to add more LIGHT CAMPING to our weekend rotation.  😊