May 10, 2024
This is our last day in Branson. And we have but 1 ticket left to cash in. The time for our next adventure will be 11:00AM. We arose and loaded up the truck and checked out of the motel. While breakfast was included, we did not partake. I am not getting very excited about breakfast foods. We opted to try a diner very close to our adventure. It was called Jackie B Good’s. I actually had a pancake and a couple of eggs. But it was still breakfast food. After cooking it for three months it just doesn’t have the same appeal. After breakfast we landed at the Titanic Museum. We were given our Boarding Pass. Everyone gets a Boarding Pass. On the back of it is the name and picture of someone who was on the Titanic. It is interesting to see if you were a survivor or victim. At the end of the tour there is a wall with a list of the survivors. It also tells a little about them after the fact. There is also a wall with the names of all the victims. Nancy was a survivor. I was a survivor but also a member of the crew. I was on Life Boat 6 as was the Unsinkable Molly Brown. I was Frederick Fleet, who was the one who spotted the iceberg first and rang the bell. He was one of the lookouts. You could not take any photos downstairs but could once you went upstairs. The tour was self guided and you were given a device like a phone with a number pad, a small screen and a speaker. When you get to certain displays, you punch in the number and listen to the story about the display. Several of the audio portions were actual survivors talking about that fateful night. The first part of the tour were artifacts and told about the construction and launching of the ship. It also had displays of how the cabins were laid out and the size of hallways, etc. Once you finished downstairs, you met a crewman who moved a velvet rope and allowed you to go upstairs. It was an actual replica of the Titanic grand stairway. Once upstairs you continued your journey of the ship. They even had someone playing the piano at the top of the stairs. All of the employees were in period correct costumes. We went through the bridge, the deck in front of the bridge to look out over a dark sky. They had one interesting display about the steel that was used on the ship and how its chemical makeup may have been a contributing factor in how easily it ripped open. They had a large panel of actual steel hull to touch. So much to see and take in. It was an awesome experience. Just before exiting we had our pictures taken so they could then be superimposed onto a few different backgrounds. We did buy the digital version. There are two Titanic Museums. This one in Branson and the other is in Pigeon Forge, TN. Both were created and built and run by the people that discovered the wreckage of the Titanic and did the diving and collection of artifacts, etc. Highly recommend to visit one or both.
After the museum it was time to head home. On the way to fuel the truck, we passed an Amish Country Store. We stopped and looked around for a few minutes. We picked up a couple items like a bottle of Blueberry Balsamic Dressing. We fueled up and grabbed some lunch from a Chik-Fil-A and drove the 2 1/2 hours home. Our time at Branson was over but we are close enough that maybe an overnight trip might be forthcoming. There are still a couple of shows we want to see.
May 9, 2024
We have a full day today. We are first going to explore the Butterfly Palace. It is a very neat place. It is a two story building with a theater on the second floor. It shows a video about the Monarch butterflies and their 3 generational migrational journey from south to north and back south again. It was very educational and very interesting. It was also in 3-D. Cool to see the butterflies flying right at you. After we watched the video, we entered through two sets of doors to get into the very humid and warm butterfly area. When you first enter you can pick up a “test tube” with a flower attached to it and carry it around to attract butterflies to you. We were in this area for about 30 minutes. We then went back downstairs. There were a couple of other options but they were geared more for children and we did not explore them. After browsing the gift shop we headed out to our next stop, The Kings Castle Theater.
The 2:00PM show of the Dublin Tenors and Celtic Ladies was our afternoon entertainment. The show was very good and entertaining. It was definitely not the Celtic Woman but it was very close. For Christmas of 2019 I got tickets to see Celtic Woman at the then brand new Tanger Center in Greensboro. But then in March 2020 COVID shut everything down and they were not able to reschedule the show so we got a refund. I still have that show on my Bucket List. As well as attending an Andre Rieu concert.
It was time to get something to eat and we have a few hours before the next event. We opted to try the Hero’s Tastes & Taps. The restaurant was very well decorated with fire, police, and military memorabilia. I ordered a flight to try some of the different brews, as usual. Our waiter was very honest and straight forward about what he thought was good on the menu. The food was underwhelming. Nancy tried a dish that the waiter said was one of the best. He talked her out of ordering a Rueben. She was only able to eat a little bit of it. The waiter came by to check and she said that she should have ordered the Rueben. The waiter removed her plate after an apology and we could hear him in the kitchen. “Rueben on the fly”. That means he needed one right now. He brought it and Nancy ate it but it was nothing to write home about. My food was okay but not spectacular. The beer was good and we also dined on an appetizer of fried green tomatoes which were very good. We still had some time before the 7:00PM show. We had decided we needed to check out the Tanger Outlet Mall which was about 0.2 mile away. We found that we were both in need of a pair of socks. I usually buy Hanes socks and there is usually a Hanes in the Tanger Outlets.
We made the trip there and found the sign for Hanes. We went to enter the store and something was terribly amiss. The clothing inside was Champion. The employees were in the process of setting up the store and were not set up for retail sales yet. They told us that Hanes had just left last month. I needed a restroom and there just happen to be one a few yards down. As we were walking we passed a SAS store. Of course, Nancy went in to look at the expensive but very comfortable shoes. After I finished my business I met here in the store and they sell socks. Actually they had a sale going on. Buy 3 pair get the 4th free. Nancy wanted me to try the diabetic socks so that I would have a little compression to help my feet while standing in the kitchen for several hours a day. So I bought 2 pairs of those and a pair of the anklet type and she got her pair of anklet socks as well. We still had lots of time left so we went back to the motel to relax and maybe nap a little.
The other shows we had been to were not sold out and we had our choice of seats with lots of leg room. Tonight was very different. This show was sold out and the parking lot had several buses. Fortunately there is a special area just for buses. I dropped Nancy off at the door and was hoping for a good place to park. As luck would have it, the parking lot also has an area for larger vehicles as well as busses. It was a great parking place and was going to be very easy to exit. The show is the Haygoods at the Clay Cooper Theater. It was an awesome show. They had a large variety of music, stories, special effects such as lasers, zip lines, etc. We thoroughly enjoyed it. And we actually had some really good seats and the leg room was quite adequate. I would highly recommend this show to anyone who ventures to Branson. If the price were right, I’d go see the show again. We just mulled around a little after the show as there was no sense in trying to hurry to get out. We had no problem getting back to the motel which was only about 5 minutes away. Another great day in Branson.
May 8, 2024
Today is Wednesday. Starting tomorrow a family will start to come into the Inn. They have rented out the entire Inn, all seven rooms, and the Cottage. They are not requiring any of our services. They will be cooking their own meals. That means we have 5 days off. So we decided that we would take a short trip up to Branson, MO. Its only a little over 2 hours from here. But first Nancy has a doctor’s appointment. She has been having some trouble with her knee. She made an appointment with the same doctor who took care of me. So we have left Ashes and Bree at home and Jessica will be coming to take care of them a couple times a day.
So last night we realized that we did not have a small bag to pack. We brought one but it is still in our RV which is in Conway. So I had to run to Walmart to pick up one that was on sale. Then we packed and this morning we loaded the truck. Not only did we have our one bag for clothes, we always travel with our pillows and then we always take a shoe bag. Finally loaded we head to Mountain Home. Nancy got a shot in her knee and was feeling better when we left the doctor’s office. She decided it was time to get my hair cut and beard trimmed. She located a barber shop nearby and made an appointment for me. In that shopping center was also a hair salon so she got her hair cut also. What a way to start a vacation.
We plotted a course for Branson. We did very little planning. We spent a few hours last night looking for a motel. After some more searching, Nancy called a Quality Inn and made a reservation for 2 nights for us. Once we hit town, we just drove through downtown and scoped things out. We have been told about several things to see and do. We passed a Visitor’s Center in downtown Branson so I dropped Nancy off and I found a place to park. We wound up getting some discount tickets to two attractions and three shows. The first show is tonight.
After we got our tickets for our stay we found our motel and checked in and found our room. We rested a little after unpacking the truck. Next decision is where to eat dinner. We settled on Big D’s BBQ. The food was very good. After filling up we decided to check out the dispensary across the street.
Arkansas has legal medical marijuana but not recreational. Missouri has both. It was a very nice shop and they actually take debit cards here. In Arizona and Colorado, they did not. Each state is different and it’s interesting to see how each state works. While we were in the dispensary, a very strong thunderstorm rolled through so I had to run through pouring rain to get the truck to pick Nancy up at the door. We left the dispensary and went to the Pierce Arrow Theater. The show we will be seeing is called Decades. It features a little bit of comedy and the music from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The show was awesome. I always thought of Branson as a tourist trap. It does remind me a lot of Myrtle Beach with all the shows available. I’m glad we went to Branson and I’m glad we are close enough to come back. There are still a couple of shows I want to see. Back to the motel for some sleep.
May 1, 2024
Today we need to move out of the Cottage but we need to first go get a place to move into. That is the RV that Chris owns. He has a 2017 Heartland Cyclone II HD Edition toy hauler. He is trying to sell it but he is letting us use it while ours is being repaired. We picked up the Cyclone and moved it three blocks to the Ozark Country Inn. It is a couple of feet shorter than ours but it does have the patio. Nancy loves the patio. We are discovering some things. The bed in the bedroom is “north/south”. That means that is is inline with the length of the RV. Now you have a queen bed in a space that is less than 8 feet wide. Add a small closet and you have very little room. I have to turn sideways to get dressed in the bedroom. By staying in this one it has given us a new appreciation for our RV. The living room is very large. Actually larger than ours. It has a double slide out. That is a slide within a slide. It also has a very comfortable couch/recliner. Then there’s the garage. We set the garage up as our storage and seldom used items. We are not real sure how long we will be in this one. Depending on part availability could be a month or more. And then there is the patio. But on this day, we basically piled stuff in. We actually went out and bought several totes to make it easier to transfer our stuff. By nightfall we had moved in. Very exhausting day!
April 30, 2024
I only have to cook for one this morning. Easy peasy! After clean up it was time to hook up and get the RV out of the spot. To get into the spot, I had to come through a grassy area, through a fence opening (very wide) and pull forward past 2 trees. Then I had to back up within 4 feet of the Cottage. So to get out, I am going to have to pull forward, then back through the gate, between a few trees, and then I will be able to drive around the building. To make matters worse, the rain has softened the grassy area and created a couple of mud puddles. But within 15 minutes we were on our way to Conway, Arkansas to Moix RV. Moix is a very large dealer and they were able to get us in sooner than anyone else. We arrived about an hour early and the service rep. we had was out of the office for lunch. So we sat and waited. We didn’t have to wait very long. The rep came back from lunch and showed us into his office. We completed the paperwork and then went outside and unhitched the RV.
This particular dealer is a dealer for Brinkley RVs. Brinkley is a relatively new company and they are building some interesting RVs. They are putting a lot of features into their RVs that a lot of RVers are wanting. The founders of the company are actual RVers so they build a prototype and then take it out for a week or two and use it to make it better. They are pricier than a lot of RVs but the quality of the build is very evident if you know anything about RVs. Nancy has been looking at one of their new models and we are hoping to see one today. It is the Brinkley Z3400. It is about 4 feet shorter than our current RV and it has a drop down back patio but it is not a toy hauler.
We went to the brand new Brinkley building and they did have several models for us to look at but not the Z3400. They had ordered one for a customer but in transit from Indiana it got scratched. So the customer was ordered another unit and they had this one at the body shop. We requested to be notified when it came out of the shop. They said they would.
Next door just happened to be a Harley dealer. So naturally I had to check it out. I no longer collect Harley T-shirts but I do collect poker chips. After I made my purchase, it was finally time to get something to eat. After looking online at nearby restaurants, we settled on O’Malley’s Irish Grill. The food was good and the Guinness was as well. I tried get a local brew but they were out of the one that wasn’t an IPA so what else would you drink at an Irish Pub? Then it was 1 1/2 hours to drive home.
April 29, 2024
Only had a small breakfast service so I was able to get everything done in a reasonable time. Since we will have to be out of the RV for a couple of days until we get Chris’s RV set up we closed off the Cottage for “Repairs” for 3 days. Today is day 1. It’s time to move everything we may need to live out of the RV into the Cottage. That means all of our clothes, food, freezer goods, and many. many things. Basically move out of the RV and into the Cottage. That is a lot of work but to add another twist, Mother Nature decided to throw us a thunderstorm, too. By the time we had finished, we were both very sweaty and very hungry. We took showers and ordered food through Door Dash. It’s great to have Door Dash. Tomorrow we move.
April 28, 2024
The house was going to be empty again after breakfast. They all wanted to know who won and the stories were told at breakfast. Most of the pie had been eaten and the guests enjoyed them. Some even commented that they liked my pie better than the winner. We had made an appointment to take our RV to a shop for repair on Tuesday, April 30th. That means that we will need to move a lot of things out of it for a week to a month. Nancy was busy with cleaning the Inn and getting rooms ready and laundry. So I decided that I would empty the compartments on the outside of the RV. Fortunately we have access to a small garage so we can store items in there. So I moved my outdoor cooking station into the garage. Then took all the items out of the belly so that the hydraulic pump/tank can be accessible. Then took all of items out of the basement. Then I emptied out our outdoor kitchen.
April 27, 2024
It’s Pie Contest Day. Pies have to be dropped off by 10:00 AM and the winners will be announced at 11:00 AM and you must be present to win. So after breakfast we got the tables cleared and all the dishes in the dish room. Nancy and I took the pies to the church. We were not sure how many pies to make. If you read it one way, it sounded like you needed one to judge and one to auction. Actually we only needed one. So we decided to keep one and share it with our guests. Plus I really wanted a slice of it. The smell was driving me crazy. On the way back, we stopped at the Wildflower to talk to Chris. We sat and talked for a while and left there and went back to the church. While waiting for the judging to end and awards to begin music was provided with a little sing a long. It was wonderful. At breakfast, Nancy announced to our guest about the pie contest/auction. As we were sitting in the pew, one couple from the Inn stopped by the church. I had befriended the local “Pie Lady”, Reda. She works at the Rainbow Cafe and we have eaten there a few times. Her pies are awesome, especially the Banana Split Pie. The others look awesome and the patrons of the Rainbow Cafe rave about them. The true pie lovers actually come in, order their pie with their meal. Not after. Reda entered two pies.
The church started a program to provide beds and bedding to local students that had none. Some families are so poor that they cannot afford beds for everyone in the family. The church has developed the Blessed Beds charity. The pie auction is one of their fund raisers. Church members were actually doing the auction. Before the start of festivities, one church member introduced his family visiting from Florida and Indiana. They had a family activity so all were at the pie auction. The one relative from Florida belongs to a quilting club. She rallied here club to make quilts for the children’s beds. She had two large totes full of bedding and books for Blessed Beds. Very touching moment. After that the winners of the pie contest were announced. My pie was not among them. Then the fun began. The auction. There were certain pies that a lot of people wanted. The auction process was fun to watch. A couple of pies actually sold for over $100. My pie did bring $40. Not bad. We had some money so Nancy decided to bid on a couple of pies. She bid on one but was out bid as we only had $30. Then came a pie that was very interesting. It was called an Arkansas Trash Pie. It contained pretzels, chocolate, nuts, and many other snack items. As the bidding progressed, the guests decided to chip in some money. First was $20 and once the bid reached $50, they handed over another $20. The bid was holding at $70. Nancy’s bid. Another relative of the church member told Nancy she would give her $15 if her husband could have a piece of that pie. She said that the $15 would just be given to the charity. Nancy bought a pie for $85. We found a knife and the husband tried the pie. In the meantime, the out of town family bought about 5 or 6 pies. They donated easily over $400 to the charity. Awesome family. Then they told everyone there that they would not be able to eat all of that pie so they took them to the kitchen and sliced them. Then offered up pie to anyone who would like to sample any of them. Nancy did find a couple of small pieces to try. All of them were very good. My friend Reda did win 1st place and that pie sold for $125. The Arkansas Trash pie was the Grand Prize winner.
We took the pies back to the Inn and sliced them up into small pieces and put them out for our guests to enjoy. I got my slice of apple crumb too. Was a very good day. I think I finally finished the dishes by 4:00PM. Then at 7:00PM we headed over to the Square for some great music. What a day!
April 26, 2024
Today I have to do some baking after I finish the dishes from breakfast. Tomorrow at a local church, they are having a pie contest and auction to raise funds for a project they are sponsoring. So having never done anything like this, why not. I baked two apple crumb pies. Nancy and the family all liked my pies. Pies are all baked. I’m ready for tomorrow. I must say that the storms that occur here in the Ozarks are impressive. And another impressive storm decided to pass through again tonight. This time it was a little stronger. Lots of thunder and lightning. During the storm I heard a loud bang. It was not thunder. It was a sound I had heard before as a firefighter. The sound of a transformer blowing. And then the power went out. It is just as well as we were having issues with the streaming TV. A little while later the power returned. We do not have a generator so the Inn was very dark. Then we actually had a guest text us about what to do. Our advice was to stay put and try not to move around the Inn as the stairs and darkness were not a good combination.
April 21, 2024
All of our guests departed this morning after breakfast. We did our normal routine of stripping the beds, cleaning the rooms, remaking the beds and doing dishes. Fortunately Jessica also comes and does a lot of the work, especially the cleaning. She is fabulous. Then we get a phone call from Chris. He and Krissa want to take Nancy and I out to dinner this evening as a way of thanking us for the work we have done, especially with all the festivals. We met at Wing Shack and Cheeseburger Grill at 5:00PM. We have been there once. Nancy was not impressed with the food. I did enjoy my burger. So Nancy ordered something different and I got the same burger. Nothing changed. She still didn’t like the food and mine was okay. That will probably be the last time we eat there. We did have good conversation with Chris and Krissa. She’s forcing me to remember my sign language. She does not miss an opportunity to teach you different signs also. I enjoy it.
April 20, 2024
Today is the last day of the festival. At 10:00AM there will be a parade downtown. Nancy took our chairs over to Main Street and set them up. I was in the kitchen at my usual 7:00AM. Breakfast was cooked, served, and dishes cleared in time for Nancy and I to walk to our front row seats. It was a small town parade. Some really neat trucks, cars, tractors, floats, etc. And the local high school band and local politicians. And we can’t forget some of the area fire equipment. Brought back memories. After the parade, we walked around the various booths, vendors, etc. Then it was back to the kitchen to do dishes and prep for tomorrow’s breakfast. As the weather was cooler, some of the musicians asked to use our parlor again for a jam session. We talked with them for while during their set up. Andy, one of our guests and a retired Air Force Colonel, was put in charge. We just asked that they wrap it up by 10:00PM so people could have quiet time and sleep. No problem.
April 19, 2024
Mountain View is Festival Central. This weekend is the 62nd Annual Folk Festival. This is one of the two biggest festivals of the year. Needless to say we are totally booked for this weekend. Guests have arrived and after breakfast, Nancy got the musicians who are staying with us to gather in the parlor for a jam session. Unfortunately I missed it but she took lots of video and pictures. I was in the kitchen cleaning, prepping for tomorrow’s breakfast and baking goods for our guests. I was tired. However I did make it back into the Inn for a few minutes later this evening for another jam session. We had a whole house full.
April 17, 2024
Today’s ventures will first take us to The Dulcimer Shoppe. This is another institution in Mountain View. Lyn McSpadden started making dulcimers in 1962. They still handcraft each dulcimer. In addition there are several types of dulcimers. Each will produce a different sound and is played differently. Was really neat to walk around and actually watch the crafting of the instrument. There were several dulcimers around so you could try them out. Some are more easily played than others. The hammer dulcimer is probably the most difficult and a strong piano background is helpful. We have a hammer dulcimer and a mountain dulcimer. These are McSpadden dulcimers that they put into our parlor as a marketing tool. We took them with us to have tuned and restrung. Very cool place. After The Dulcimer Shoppe we continued to our next stop, Mellon’s Country Store. It is an old general store. Reminded me of my childhood candy store in New Egypt, Rush Warwick’s. Had plenty of candy and other items for sale. The floors were wooden.
We continued our journey to Angler’s Restaurant. Stone County, our location, is a dry county. However just 15 minutes up the road is Angler’s and you can buy some alcohol there. That was our destination now. The weather was beautiful, so we dined out on the deck. Janey got a moonshine flight,. She was able to try 4 different moonshines. We had done something similar when we were in Nashville last year. We dropped Dennis off at their RV and Janey came back to our place to get some Iris blooms. Afterward, we said our “see ya laters” and Nancy took Janey home. I stayed home.
On her way back home as she was going through town, she saw smoke and lots of fire equipment. About a block from the Wildflower was a smoked BBQ restaurant, Kin Folks. We had not had a chance to eat there yet. And now we may never. It burned to the ground. The next edition of the local paper, Ledger had an article about it. That particular day, the owners allowed a potential buyer to run the operation for the day. As a former investigator, HHMMMM!??
April 16,2024
We had some heavy thunderstorms last night. So, the first thing this morning we did a little cleanup of picking up limbs, branches that had blown down last night. The big clean up was trying to pick up a shattered glass table. The only way to get most of the glass was to get the stone also. Since we are on vacation, Gresham came over and shoveled up the gravel/glass and took it someplace. Since Janey and Dennis are in town we decided we would venture out to the Ozark Folk Center State Park. It was very cool. On site they have a small village and you go from shop to shop to see artisans at work and you have the opportunity to buy some of the crafts. There is a wide assortment of craftsmen. There is a quilt/fabric, jewelry, blacksmith, toy, ceramic, knife, and many others. We roamed around and had a chance to listen to some live music. It was a beautiful day but as we were wrapping up our day you could see a storm rolling in. We opted to return home. Thus ended our day as Janey and Dennis were still recovering from their travels. And trying to dry out.
April 15, 2025
Nancy took Bree over to the campground to play with Tater and Charlie. They walked down to a creek and the dogs and Janey and Nancy had a great time. Nancy and Bree came home tired. They rested. Tonight is the first night of a sign language class. Krissa, Chris’s wife, is deaf. She is going to start a sign language class for anyone who wants it. Very cool.
Several years ago, when Carissa, our daughter, was attending Vincennes University to be a sign language interpreter. In addition, a Carmel Police Officer I was good friends with offered a sign language class at the fire station. We all took the class as a family. It has been a long time since we had used it. Being around Krissa, some of it has come back. But we will go to the class. Can only help. Also, it will give us a chance to meet some more people.
It was a great class.
April 14, 2024
Yesterday I wanted to mow the lawn as we are going to have a big crowd next weekend and we will be off for a few days. So I started the mowing yesterday but finished it up this morning after the breakfast service. We only had 2 people. Our “vacation” starts today. There are three breweries in the area. One is not open today so we are going to visit the other two. The first on our list is Rapps Barren Brewing Company in Mountain Home. That is an hour drive away. Being Sunday, they have a Sunday Brunch. The food selection is limited. I did get a flight of beer but was not really impressed with anything. I found one or two that were okay but nothing that I wanted to take home with me. Nancy and I split an appetizer of 3 beef sliders. They were very good. Nancy had their root beer, which they brew also. It was pretty good. No one was overly impressed with beer. The brewery itself was really cool. My favorite part was their water fountain that had a sign over it that said “Michelob Ultra”. Beer drinkers will know. And then on the way to the truck we saw a beautiful rod.
After Rapps, we headed back home. We had passed Norfolk Brewing on the way to Rapps so it was out next stop. They also had flights but they did not have 4 beers that I actually wanted to try. I settled for a taste of one and took a small pour of it. It was okay,. The brewery was small and served food but nothing that we really wanted.
The locals I talked to suggested the best brewery was the one closest to us but not open today, Gravity BrewWorks in Flat Rock, AR. I guess I’ll have to check it out at a later date. Our friends are Janey and Dennis. We got to know each other in Arizona when we spent the winter there. We’ve kept in touch and Janey likes to sample beers as well. Today was a little disappointing.
On the way home we stopped at the store to pick up cole slaw and rolls. I had smoked a pork butt yesterday and today we are having pulled pork sandwiches. It came out great. I was very pleased with it. We went home and had dinner. They had to get back to their dogs so Nancy and Janey made plans to walk the dogs and find some water for them to play in.
April 12, 2024
Happy 49th Anniversary to Nancy and I. Yes, 49 years! Nancy decided that she didn’t want to go out tonight for dinner so we went to PJ’s Rainbow Cafe for dinner last night. Great food. Our friends arrived okay but after traveling, they just wanted to chill and we’ll make plans for the rest of the week. One of our guests came to me before breakfast. She is a retired nurse, and she informed me that one of our guest fell against the desk at the front entrance, when he came in. I had checked them in and offered them a hand to bring in there luggage but he declined. I went on my business and then found this out this morning. The retired nurse bandaged the wounds and assessed as non life-threatening. Nancy came in and she went to check on them as they were late for breakfast. She had to change the sheets as there was blood from a couple of scrapes. She looked at the wounds and re-bandaged them. After breakfast, the three of us each wrote up a report for Chris. Standard procedure when an incident occurs. Our backgrounds came in handy. We contacted Chris and let him know of the situation and I scanned our incident reports and sent him the file.
April 10, 2024
After such a great weekend with our fiends from the eclipse group to a real bummer. First, we only have 6 people in the house. Secondly, yesterday and today are supposed to be our days off, but we have friends coming into town tomorrow so we are working to be able to have more time off. So, we had someone come in that was going to spend 3 nights with us. He came down in the morning before breakfast and spoke with Nancy. They are leaving today because, are you ready for this? The floors creak too much. Yes, a house that is 118 years old, a B & B, and the floors creak. At least they stayed and ate breakfast. One couple never bothered to show up for breakfast. Such is the life of a B & B.
April 9, 2024
Today will be a really busy day for Nancy and Jessica as they have rooms to flip. That means to clean them and get them ready for the next guests. Some of which is coming in today. My day is the same; cook, serve, clean up. The Eclipse crowd is leaving today. Chris wanted a couple of the guests to do a video review. A few of them volunteered. I going to miss this group. This morning we started breakfast with yogurt with bananas and homemade granola. Then I made scrambled eggs, bacon, and Scottish pancakes. Our recipe book also had a recipe for peanut butter syrup. So I thought what the heck It went over real well. Nancy loved it. After all the photos were taken and the videos done Nancy started stripping the beds and clearing the rooms of any cups and/or containers. Jessica comes in to help flip rooms and is a great help. She is fabulous at her job. As I had finished my job, I was sitting in the kitchen enjoying a cup of coffee. Nancy came in with a stack of letters and cash. These fine folks left notes of thanks and notes of green as an appreciation for their wonderful visit. It was very touching.
And then, the couple from Connecticut came by to thank me again for helping them find a room in Mountain View. I thought that was so very nice.
April 8, 2024
Today is the eclipse. I made enough cookies to last a couple of days so no baking. For breakfast we served a Berry Cheesecake Yogurt, the Amish Casserole, and sausage. People have been enjoying the food. Hardly any leftovers again. I don’t want to spend a lot of time prepping so I planned the menu accordingly. We also have a cottage that we rent out and it had some wonderful people in it. Before I started dishes, I went out and set up my lawn chair. It takes a while to do dishes from a large breakfast.
Between loads of dishes I set up my chair to view the eclipse., I was talking to our guests from the cottage and as they are not a part of breakfast or snacks as they have a full kitchen in the cottage. So I went inside and brought out a few chocolate chip cookies for them. They loved them.
I just finished up and as I was walking outside, one of the cottage guests said they were about to come get me. It was almost time for the eclipse. It was very cool to sit with all these people in our back yard and see the eclipse and socialize. The one gentleman in the cottage is a professional photographer. He had quite the set up and we were able to see some amazing images. He has posted them on his website Reflections of Thought. Totality lasted at a maximum of 4 minutes and 27 seconds. We were in the right place as we witnessed 4 minutes and 14 seconds. Was really neat how you could feel the temperature drop and see the sunset at 2:00PM. And then to feel the warmth again. All through this past weekend, we had a festival going on in town. They had the Square blocked off, food trucks, vendors, etc. We had not been a part of it yet as we have been busy. Today was going to be our day to explore the festival. I decided I wasn’t cooking tonight either. So we listened to some music, walked around the various vendors and found a food truck for dinner.