I’ve left this so long I’m actually on my next trip now. More on that later.

So it’s now Sunday the 14th and I’m still at Rainbow Mountain. It had been unclear whether they served breakfast, but it turned out that they laid out a continental breakfast in the bistro after 800.

I wanted to start with a nature walk, and after morning coffee, headed up the road to Mt. Nebo Park. (note to self: even though it is not a long walk at all, it’s not a safe walk on that road. Take the car next time. Luckily, there was very little traffic.) Walked the yellow (longer) loop, which was very pleasant, but definitely a hike, not a stroll. Sneakers were almost inadequate to the task. I see that it lists 2 scenic overlooks, I must have missed them. But it was a really nice hike. I’ll do the blue loop next time.

Planned to get breakfast on the way back, and stopped in to the bistro about 8:20. They were just starting to get set up. I toasted a bagel, and took some cream cheese with it, but the cream cheese was hard and sticky enough that the sad little plastic knife wasn’t up to the task. The bagel was pretty miserable too, just white bread.

This may be the place to stop and say that I looked at some online reviews of Rainbow Mountain after I got home and some of them were vicious. The general impression I got is that it used to better, but has gone downhill. My own observations were that they were understaffed and trying very hard to do everything as cheaply as possible. I noticed when I got into my room that there was a coffeemaker, but no ‘makings’. I asked about it at the desk, and she said they’d send someone down. By dinner time, that still had not happened, and I reminded the lady at the front desk, who was in fact on top of it, it just hadn’t happened yet. And they had to borrow my key while I was at dinner – but they did get the job done. (and then I spent a lot of energy at dinner trying to get a glass of water) Another weird thing about the coffee – I just grabbed the first packet I saw the next morning and opened it – and spewed coffee grounds all over the place – they weren’t in a filter packet, and there were no filters. But I looked more closely, realized the one I’d grabbed was decaf, and the regular ones were your standard ‘in a filter packet’ thingies, and the coffee was fine for what it was. But wasn’t that weird. I think if I return (and I probably will), I might try dinner out elsewhere, and try one of the different types of rooms – but again, my room was fine, just very dimly lit. (when I was packing, I ended up opening the front door just so I could get some light in) But I would definitely give it another shot at some point, I had a really nice time and certainly the problems I saw wouldn’t be hard to fix, if they wanted to.

I’d figured out I had enough time to get to the antique mall and back before checkout, particularly since I tend not to get hung up in that kind of place, so set out at 9:30 for a place that opened at ten. It was three buildings all connected, and it was a nice wander through, although I didn’t see anything I really wanted to get. This sign made me (and my FB friends) snicker, though.

Got ‘lost’ on the drive back – I think the phone lost signal at a crucial turn – found myself at the Delaware Water Gap and had to turn around – but not a big deal Once I got back, I had time to get changed and take another swim. Soaked for a bit, realized I was pretty much done and wanted to get home. Packed up, checked out, headed out.

Decided to pick up lunch on the road and actually had McDonalds for the first time in forever – a quarter pounder, fries, shake. Yum, but don’t need to do that more often than every decade or so. The drive back was uneventful and I managed to find parking on my block, so unpacked (much easier than packing, because I’d left so much stuff at the K’s) and decided to play it by ear whether to return the car a little later on, or wait until morning. (I usually book it so the return time is one hour earlier than the pickup time was, so I have maximum time planned. They don’t care if you drop it off early, but they’ll charge you another day or hour or whatever if it’s late.) And opened up the storm windows and went through the mail and started the unpacking process and just chilled, happy to be home.

It was a really nice trip, and went very well, and I’ll probably do much the same whenever Sam and her family come in for a visit. And I did return the car the next morning and Avis hasn’t said a word about the little ding in the fender, so…