As you can see, our blog ended abruptyly after day 83 with no explanation. Most of you know the reason for that - at 1:30 am on the morning of day 85 we got a phone call from our hotel that a tornado had just ripped the roof off! Needless to say, our trip was over for the year.
We drove to Buffalo, NY so I could fly home that day, and Jim and Sam followed behind in the rv. I got to the hotel around 2:30 pm, and it was a circus of people and equipment everywhere! Fire department, city officials, television reporters, restoration companies, and curious onlookers. Seems we were quite the attraction! We made national news, and Sam was really excited when he called to say we were on Fox News! :)
The entire top floor of the long wing was a shambles. The front part of the roof including the whole veranda overhang was gone on about half of that wing. It was still raining, off and on, and everything was soaking wet and covered with debris. A huge section of our roof was torn loose and dropped onto the roof of the condo building behind us, and it was sticking out of their roof like a spear. I heard reports that some of our roof was in the bay behind the neighborhood!
I got a crew of cleanup personnel started immediately and had them tarp the roof to try to save the rest of the building. The next few months went by in a blur - a parade of contractors, construction workers, insurance adjusters, and officials. Jim was onsite day and night for about two months because of the constant rain, fighting to keep our bottom floor dry. Finally in November the rains let up, and we got the place under roof in December. Our greatest concern, and driving force, was to have the place open by the beginning of the winter season, which was February. We pushed and pulled, harangued, and argued, and pestered and pleaded, and worked our tails off, but we had every room open by February 15th (except our 2 bedroom, which was ready by the end of February). It was a LONG winter, but we had a record breaking March, so it was fantastic!
Unfortunately, we had to replace our hotel management team, and it was at the end of the winter season when it is CRAZY busy, so Jim moved into the hotel and ran the business until we contracted with a new management company. He was there for about six weeks before he finally got to spend a night back home. I was also over there most every day during the day working the laundry and managing the housekeeping, so Sam got to see his share of the place, too!
Our new management team came on board in June, and after some training, moving, and assimilation, they are on board and running the show! The hotel has had a really busy summer season, so they have had PLENTY of OJT! :) They are really good folks, and all of our customers like them! We greatly appreciate all their hard work - and we finally managed to get out of town at the end of July! LOL
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