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Cabin Country
Dyke Hendrickson and Cabin Country have moved to Exploring Maine. He will continue to share his experiences there.

Blog Index
July 09, 2006
Bedding down at the cabin

Most cabins have multiple beds, often unmatched.

Your Scribe has just activated Bed No. 3, and I am happy to report I acquired it at considerable savings.

Bed No. 1 is the lower bunk of a set brought back from World War II by my father.

Some soldiers returned with medals, or bayonets, or perhaps even girlie pictures from liberated Paris.

My father returned with a set of bunk beds, stamped by a rugged "U.S." imprimatur on the base of each.

I shouldn't be taking this lightly.

Medals that were brought back by servicemen are likely lost, or at least tucked away where they don't have a practical use.

It's certain that the girlie pictures were destroyed during the upright '50s.

I do have a bed.

Note the singular.

Though they stand upright as two, the structure is so weak and brittle that only the bottom bed can be utilized.

But I slept on the bottom bunk as an energetic boy, and now turn to it as a mellowing, middle-aged Scribe.

Bed No. 2 comes from L.L. Bean.

To the urban eye just entering Cabin Country, the unit is a bright red chair.

When the sun sets, the foldout seat can be pulled out into a bed that covers the floor.

I did not realize it was a "floor unit."

I thought it rolled out to stand several feet above the floor, but it's clear I didn't investigate the product very closely.

The good news is that I arrived in Freeport (last summer) expecting to pay $399, and found that this model was reduced by 30 percent.

It is comfortable, and no one yet has been attacked by crawling ants or spiders.

Bed No. 3 has just made its debut.

It is a blowup unit from L.L. Bean, resembling an air mattress with fur.

It is a popular addition to night-time furnishings, because it is easy to use and much cheaper than options I had considered.

One inflates it by using a simple pump that draws power from the car, plugging into the aperture that looks like a cigarette lighter.

(Readers of this column know that my cabin does not have electricity.)

The cost was $69.

This is much less than furniture I considered for months: a daybed from L.L. Bean for $700 and a futon for B.J.s for $500 ($400 if you went through the hassle of joining the club).

So now the cabin has four beds, three of which are functional.

My favorite is the good-old lower bunk.

I wonder what my once-young (and now deceased) father would think if he knew a bunk bed from his Army days was still serving in the night - in the woods of Maine.

Posted by Dyke Hendrickson at 06:08 PM

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