There is something precious about a good night’s sleep. The kind of sleep where you fall asleep quickly and wake up refreshed. No middle-of-the-night trips to the bathroom. No tossing and turning. Just pure, sweet sleep. That was the sleep we got while staying at the Sugarsand Distillery, a Harvest Host.

I must admit, I am not a huge fan of rum. I think it tastes like plastic, but I was in for a treat. At Sugarsand Distillery, they grow all of their own sugarcane and process it on site. We signed up for the tour and were able to see the fields, drink fresh sugarcane juice (which tastes like sweet cut grass), and sample rum punch. After the tour, we purchased a bottle of Apple Shine and headed back to the Airstream to wait for the evening entertainment.

The distillery can’t sell drinks, but they can sell raffle tickets. The purchase of one raffle ticket gets you a free drink, and the raffle occurs at the end of each month (we didn’t win but did enjoy the several free drinks). Besides having a band, the distillery also invited a food truck that served BBQ. Being good Harvest Host guests, we purchased about $100 of food and drinks, including the bottle of Apple Shine.

Soon the rum, full bellies, and cool night air began to wear us out. We headed back to Dagny and got tucked in with all the windows open. I asked Jason to lower the stabilizers so the trailer wouldn’t bounce, and although the band was still playing, we were soon drifting off to sleep.

The next thing I remember was the sun shining in and the birds chirping. The Airstream was cold, but we were curled up under our blankets, so it didn’t matter. I got up and started the coffee. As we sipped our coffee, we couldn’t believe how well we slept. What a fabulous evening.

We hopped in the truck after tidying up when it was time to head out. We usually do a quick check around the trailer before we leave, but there was nothing in our way, and we didn’t unhitch. We began our drive down the dirt driveway.

Soon another Harvest Host member was waving us down. We stopped and got out of the truck to discover we had failed to raise the stabilizers. They were bent backward, and we had to reverse to bend them in the other direction. After hammering and feeling embarrassed, we were finally able to raise the stabilizers and get to our next spot. We ordered new stabilizers, installed them ourselves, and paid to have the old ones hauled away. And this is how a great night’s sleep cost us $1200.