Every October my sister and I rent the same little cabin on the river
Every October my sister and I rent the same little cabin on the river. Last year was the first time I came home and wrote a letter about a bag.
Six things I noticed over one long weekend on the Guadalupe, in the order the weekend found them, from a woman who has packed for more river weekends than she can count and never once looked at her own bag twice.
Peggy Dalton · Customer · Austin, Texas · 5 min read
I should say who I am before I say anything else. I am Peggy, I am 63, and I live in Austin, Texas, with my husband Frank. Every October, once the heat finally lets go, my sister Sue and I rent the same little cabin on the Guadalupe River outside Hunt for a long weekend. No husbands, no grandchildren, a porch, two rockers and the river. We have done it for longer than either of us likes to admit, and I have packed for it in the same sad black duffel for most of those years.
The bag I am writing about is the Wildvana, from Iris and Nora, a small boutique here in Austin that has been quietly dressing women like us for a few years now. It is a quilted weekend bag with a camper van stitched across it, driving under an orange sunset. When the boutique asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
I first saw it last October, on the Friday afternoon. A pickup pulled in at the cabin next to ours, a husband dropping off his wife and two of her friends for a girls’ weekend of their own. He swung down a cooler, a sack of firewood, a box of groceries, and then this quilted bag with a camper van on it, peace sign on its nose, and his wife took it off him like it was a birthday cake. For three days it sat out on their porch, and I could see it from my rocker. Sue said it was the happiest-looking thing on that whole stretch of river. I had decided it was handmade, some one-off from a craft show that I would never find. On Sunday morning, while we were all waiting on the husband to come back up the road for them, I asked her, plainly. Her name is Joanne. It was her third river weekend with it. Read on.
Mine, on our porch on the river. Cypress trees going rust-colored, river below, rocker right where I left it.
Here is what all those weekends taught me about packing. In a river cabin there is no closet to put your bag in. It sits out on the floor, or on the porch, or at the foot of the bed, for the whole weekend, right where you look at it every time you come in from the water. And most of us carry the same thing every time, a black duffel that sags in the middle and slumps over in the corner like it is as tired as we are.
For years I thought a weekend bag was just a thing for getting your clothes from the car to the cabin. It had never occurred to me that I would be looking at it for three days.
I ordered mine the Monday after we got home, and I have since taken it to the coast with Frank, to Sue’s for two nights and to my daughter’s for one, and this month it is packed for the river again. Going by that weekend and those trips since, it comes down to six things, and I will give them to you in the order the weekend found them.
Friday: it comes out of the truck looking like the weekend has started
Coolers and firewood and grocery boxes all look like work. This does not. The front of the bag is the face of an old camper van, a yellow nose with a peace sign on it, two round headlights and a windshield full of sunset stripes, and the van runs right down the side past purple mountains, pine trees and green hills. Joanne said the first time her husband lifted it out of the truck he laughed, and I can see why. Before anyone has carried a single thing inside, you feel like you are on vacation.
On the tailgate next to the cooler. The cooler is bigger, but you know which one I was looking at.
My son-in-law carried it in from the car and asked if it came with a van. Makes me smile every time I pack it.
Darla W., KerrvilleFriday night: three days went into the bigger one
It comes in two sizes, and I took the bigger one, 18 by 9 by 9 inches. The boutique says that size is for two to three days away and takes a couple of outfits, shoes and a towel, and that is exactly what went in on the Friday night, with room left over for the heavy cardigan, because the river gets cold once the sun goes behind the hills in October. I did not have to sit on it, and I did not have to leave anything behind on the bed at home.
Three days of clothes, my good walking shoes and a sweater for the evenings, and it still was not stuffed. Roomy without being huge.
Bonnie R., IngramSaturday morning: it stands up on its own
This sounds like a small thing until you have spent a weekend stepping over a heap. The Wildvana is quilted all over and shaped like a soft box, flat on the bottom and squared off at the corners, so when it is packed it stands up on the floor by itself instead of slumping over into the corner. Saturday morning it was standing by the bed exactly where I had set it down the night before, looking as neat as when I packed it. In a one-room cabin, that matters more than I would have believed.
It holds its shape even when it is not full. Sits on the floor of the hotel room like a little piece of furniture instead of a sack.
Marlene H., Center PointSaturday afternoon: two handles, down to the river and back
There are two handles, and they are pretty in their own right, black bands covered all over in little stitched flowers that run right down the sides of the bag. Hold both together and the bag hangs level from one hand, which is what you want when the other hand is on the rail of some old wooden steps going down to the water. Saturday afternoon I carried it down to the bank with towels and a book in it, and back up again, without once wishing I had brought the cooler cart.
Down the steps to the river with both handles in one hand. Sue took this one, and I asked her to leave my face out of it.
The flowered handles are as pretty as the bag. I hold both in one hand and it does not swing around.
Juanita C., KerrvilleSaturday evening: nobody wants to hide it
Here is the thing about a cabin with no closet. Your bag is part of the room all weekend, and this one is the nicest thing in it. The quilting is stitched right into the picture, so it has a little raised texture you can run your hand over, and every time you look you see something else. Saturday night Sue was in her rocker with her iced tea and found the toadstools down by the wheel, yellow ones and red ones with white dots, and the big pink and orange daisies, and she has been talking about them ever since. My black duffel never once started a conversation.
I leave it out in the guest room between trips because it is too cheerful to put in a closet. My granddaughter counts the mushrooms.
Carolyn L., IngramSunday: two sizes, written down plainly
Packing up to go home, I was glad I had the measurements in front of me when I ordered, because the boutique writes them down plainly. The bigger one is 18 by 9 by 9 inches, for two or three days. The smaller one is 16 by 8 by 8 inches, for one night, the gym, or as a roomy cabin bag on a plane, the boutique says. They also say most people are happiest with the bigger one, and so was I. Joanne has both, the little one for her overnight trips to see her mother.
Sunday, heading home on the back seat with my hat and a sack of pecans from the stand outside Hunt.
I bought the larger one for long weekends and went back for the small one as my overnight bag. Glad they list the sizes so clearly.
Rhonda S., Center PointThe Wildvana, against the black duffel in the hall closet
You can keep taking the same tired bag to the river, like I did for more Octobers than I can count. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Looks like a chore coming out of the truck
Slumps over in the corner all weekend
Gets shoved out of sight, if there is anywhere to shove it
Plain black handles and nothing else
One size, and you guess at it
A camper van under an orange sunset
Stands up on its own, squared off and neat
The nicest thing in the room
Two handles covered in stitched flowers
Two sizes, measurements written down
About the price
The smaller Wildvana, the 16 inch one, is $53.95, down from $108.00. The bigger one I took, the 18 inch, is $56.95, down from $114.00. Three dollars between them, so you may as well take the one you want.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that these are made in runs, and once a run sells through, that design is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that I have spent more than $114.00 over the years on bags that ended up in the garage, so $56.95 for one I look forward to packing was an easy yes.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real women rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
If you have a weekend away coming up this fall and the bag in your hall closet makes you tired just looking at it, this is where I would start. Take a look before the run sells through, because once this stock is gone, it is gone. And if you are ever on the Guadalupe outside Hunt in October and you see a camper van bag on a porch, it might be Joanne’s, and it might be mine.
Peggy
THE WILDVANA WEEKEND BAG
- Quilted camper van and sunset design
- Roomy, holds two to three days away
- Stands up on its own, squared off
- Two handles covered in stitched flowers
- Two sizes, 16 inch from $53.95 or 18 inch $56.95
- Free shipping
Sale on now. Once a run is gone, it is gone.