The Guests of Itlldo Place Bed and Breakfast

Itlldo Place Bed and Breakfast
Donnelly, Alberta, Canada

What would it be like to have a bed and breakfast? What kind of guests would we get? Would it be a good idea to have one in Donnelly, a village in northern Alberta of less than 300 people? Roger, a local farmer, our preteen daughter Leslie, and myself Dana, were going to find out! None of us had stayed at a bed and breakfast before, people in the area were not familiar with the B&B sign on our building, yet we felt confident that the idea would succeed! Both of our families thought that we were crazy to take on such a task! We were living a comfortable life, in a normal house, that was just about paid off. Why move, take on such an enormous workload and uncertainty, with hugh financial costs? I knew that I could always count on the income from my teaching job to keep us afloat however, and the people that we met were more than rewarding enough. Where elso could you meet and learn about so many people, without even leaving your own home?

January
Sunday, January 1
No guests were here. It was the start of a brand new year.
Who would be coming in through our door this year?
Would they come because of business or for holidays?
Would they be from Canada, the United States or Europe?
Would they like our unique, renovated restaurant and bar,
bed and breakfast? Only time would tell if the previous
years of experience, would enable us to have a smooth
running, day-to-day operation of our business.

Friday, January 6
The doorbell rang at 8:05 p.m. There standing in the
moonlight, with snow softly falling down, was Barb from
Manning. Barb had dark, curly hair, was 30ish and anxious
to check out the place. Her eyes lit up when we entered the
4000 sq. foot main floor. The rope lights around the
counters, the pillars and the exercise area were all on. A soft
glow of light filtered down from the upper floor. She was
delighted and booked two rooms, the double and the bunk
bed rooms. Her two sons were playing hockey in McLennan.
They came back around 10:15 p.m. the code for the door
beeped away, the door opened and squeals of delight were
emitted as the boys checked out the four-in-one play area.
The pool table was their favorite. They also played ringette
on the dance floor, and plunked away on the keyboards.
They were all tucked in by 11:10 p.m.

Saturday, January 7
Barb appreciated the free breakfast of waffles, toast, and
fruit. She came back with two of her girlfriends to show
them the place in the afternoon, along with a hockey dad.
Pete had one boy. Pete said that they would come next
weekend and travel to Valleyview for the hockey tournament.
He said that he would phone some other people to see if
They would book up the rest of the rooms.

Monday, January 9
7:30 p.m. The Busy Bee Motel in McLennan was
wondering if we had any rooms available for tonight. Sandra
was the only woman, traveling with five men. They arrived
in an older van. Their job was to sell cleaning products to oil
rig workers and people in the towns. Sandra went to the
washroom while Roy and Burt talked to my husband Rogher.
Topics ranged from farming to hockey. Roy proudly stated
that he could solve our Rubric’s cube. He said that you have
to solve one side and them keep on going, twisting each side
in turn. Burt enjoyed playing with the remote-controlled
helicopter. Steve, with grey hair, found a place on one of the
couches and fell asleep in front of the big screen television.
He had strummed away on the guitar for half an hour. They
had been up since 6:00 a.m. Greg and Tim played a game of
cards, The game stopped whenever Tim had to go outside
for a smoke. Tim’s favorite pun was, “A hold has been
found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking ino
it!” They were a friendly lot! The last two went to bed at
midnight. They’ll only grab a cup of coffee in the morning.

Tuesday, January 10
7:55 a.m. Pete book two rooms for the weekend
Coming up. There is a hockey tournament in Valleyview.
Pete and his son will take up the other room.
The doorbell chimed away its post Christmas greeting at 4:25
p.m. A couple in their 60s, were smiling sadly at us. The
fellow, Victor, had been driving since yesterday. They had
come from Vernon, British Columbia, for his uncle’s funeral.
Their last night’s sleep wasn’t very good. A fellow must
have fallen asleep watching television in the adjacent hotel
room. Their bed was on the other side of the television and
they didn’t get much sleep. His wife, Cecile, reminisced
about Uncle Pierre who had died at the age of 94. He had
had a hard life, and ended up slowly losing his memory due
to Alzheimer’s disease. He had spent the last years of his life
deaf in a nursing home, in adult diapers, being fed mashed
up food, and then ended up getting gangrene in his foot. It
was a blessing in a way that he died. He was married for 68
years. Victor overheard this joke: A small boy swallowed
some coins and was taken to a hospital. His grandmother
telephoned to ask how he was and a nurse said, “No change
yet!” They will be leaving ‘early’ in the morning, at 8:00 a.m.
Victor is one of the pallbearers and doesn’t want to be late.

Wednesday, January 11
8:10 a.m. A hockey team from Spirit River was trying to
book all of the rooms for the weekend. We had to turn
them down, but we did give them numbers of other bed and
breakfast operators in the area.

6:55 p.m., the Busy Bee Motel gave us the phone number
for more potential customers. I phoned the booking lady
for the oil rig crew, but because we were already book up
for the weekend with the hockey gang, and they wanted to
stay in one place for a whole week, they decided not to stay
with us.