I recently spent the weekend in a cabin out in the Oklahoma countryside.  Sounds quite redneckish, huh?

I would generally agree, but this was no country bumpkin excursion to the wild west.  Rick and I went with some friends, Walt and Casey, and had an absolutely fantastic weekend.

Naturally, a chance to spend the weekend with Rick was as good a reason as I needed, but getting away from everything and spending three days doing nothing except what we wanted to do was an excellent reason as well.

Walt and Casey found the cabin through happenstance and fell in love with it, so they invited us up for a nice respite.

To say it was an outstanding weekend would be understating it by a significant amount.

Although it rained most of the time we were there, that didn’t deter us from enjoying ourselves.  The point was to relax and get away from the hustle and bustle of our lives, so the rain was a perfect reason not to worry about anything.

Casey was our chef apparent with a planned course of meals, all of which were fantastic.  Walt was entertainment coordinator and provided a plethora of music, games, magazines and movies to enjoy at our leisure.

With nothing to worry about and no way to stay in touch with the rest of the world (how does one survive without internet and cell phone access?), we found ourselves forced into relaxation — and I don’t think any of us minded too very much.

Lying in bed on the screened-in porch, listening to the rain fall and the river rush by, I found myself more relaxed than I have been in a very long time.  Like icing on a cake, Rick and I nestled together as often as we could — both day and night.

This was indeed the ne plus ultra of weekend escapes, made as much so by the environment as the company.  We were completely unfettered by our normal cares and concerns.  Each of us found renewal in each other, in the serenity of our surroundings, in the escapism of it all.

But all good things must come to an end, so we recreantly packed and returned to the normal world, to our jobs, to the hustle and bustle of society.

There is no dissembling the experience.  I believe it helped strengthen my friendship with Rick in addition to demonstrating to both of us that our relationship is far more than just a friendship with benefits.  I’m not coloring things misleadingly however, as we two continually define our relationship in real-time.  It is certainly a work in progress — but this is the kind of work that I don’t mind doing.

As Rick once said to Nathalie though, we’re as close to married as you can get.  This weekend helped cement that in reality.

With the promise to return to the cabin on a regular basis and to assist the owner with making it an even more inviting place than it already is (through planned improvements to the property), we returned to the world at large, each of us better for the experience.

When I think of happiness, this weekend helps to set the bar.