Retreat The Manor

I want to tell you about our retreat on Merlot Lane in the town of Wisteria. As you drive down this heavily wooded lane, huge homes that look like castles pop up in the mist of the trees. My first thought is always how do you keep a house that big clean? From what I hear many women think bigger is better (no pun intended.) Not me. I would love to live in the forest. I would want a small house. Two bedrooms and a wrap around porch. I would have a rocking chair on the front porch. I could set outside and their would be peace. Ok ok, I need to come back to reality. At the end of Merlot lane sits an old victorian Manor.

Wow. This place is very cool I thought as we drove into the parking lot. We go to the veranda where check in was. They tell my dear friend and I that we will be staying in the "lodge" down the hill. Not in the Manor. My dear friend and I looked at each other in a confused state, ok we will drive down the hill. When we arrived, we see this green building. Come to find out the "lodge" was a converted horse stable. A paddock to be more precise. The "lodge" held a total of 20 people. My dear friend and I were in stall 2...I mean room 2. Our room had a half door. Over the door there was some old dark blue dusty curtains that had straight pins holding them together so you had some privacy. Our stall had two twin beds with bedspreads that had cowboy hats on them, an old whiteish dusty fan, one old brown bedside table with a drawer, and a lamp that you could extend from the wall towards one bed or the other. The room had a dowel on one wall with some wire hangers if you wanted to hang your stuff up. The window was the slider kind. Ours went up and down. The screen to the window was on a roller. Our stall was in the middle of the down stairs "lodge" rooms. On our left had side was the tack room to our right was another stall. Each room had 2 beds. I like the tack room because it had a full door on it.

A cross from our stall there was a sitting area with a tv and some old beat up sofas with southwestern print on them. So if I was standing in my stall and I looked across the sitting area I could see the bathrooms. We had 2 bathrooms for downstairs. They came complete with a sink, a toilet, and a shower. The paddock had a kitchen. It had a sink, coffee makers and a refrigerator stocked with soda. Next to the kitchen was a large room with a ping pong table in it. Upstairs the ceilings where low and people kept bumping their heads. The 4 rooms upstairs had 14 beds and 2 bathrooms. I was as happy as a little lark. Some of the other ladies were not as happy as I was to be staying in a stable.

Maybe those women forgot that Jesus laid in the manger. A manger is a troff. A troff is usually by a stable. Therefore, Jesus liked us who stayed in the stable better then those staying in the frilly Manor. JUST KIDDING.