February 23, 2009. Chevy Chase, Md. Bedford Springs Hotel

Who would ever expect such a luxurious hotel in Bedford? Bedford is a quiet and small town, and although it was an important town years ago, in recent years the little place has faded. Saturday, Ken and I went for lunch to the newly renovated Bedford Springs Hotel and Spa. This is the place where we will hold our 55TH Anniversary party, so we need to keep track of the place. The news we heard on Saturday was that Omni is now managing the hotel, which is a good thing. This hotel is just beautiful. And it is huge. The complete renovation was completed about one year ago, by a group of investors from Texas, and they spent an arm and a leg putting the old hotel back in order. Also they added a full wing for the spa and swimming pool. The renovation is very tastefully done, in fact it is perfectly done, both inside and out, with a full update of the golf course. We ate lunch in the Bar, called the Founders room, and we wined and dined and enjoyed ourselves, right until a group arrived meeting and greeting each other, while staying for a drink, prior to their first event of the weekend, which was a Scavenger Race. They were noisy and happy so we left. Now these investors never intended to open that very large hotel just in time for a major recession, so they must be hurting.

All the large rural resorts are having trouble surviving right now. The Homestead is for sale and the Greenbriar has many attractive enticements to come and have a weekend there. The Bedford Springs Hotel appears to be doing well. The staff seems friendly and enthusiastic, the restaurants were full and the gold course had folks playing. My thinking is that everyone could go for one meal a year, so we can keep this hotel functioning in four more years. I'm just happy that I am not responsible for running those very large and luxurious hotels. For me, I'll stay at the farm and go to the hotel for lunch. Their food was wonderful.

We arrived back home to find the Cable for the TV and Internet not operating., so we were back to the good old days. We like the modern world, but now we are back with the real world of today. It is really interesting how dependent we all are on the Internet.