All Alone - Visiting A Resort During A Pandemic

I don't normally visit large expensive resorts.  An all inclusive resort in the Caribbean would be my worst nightmare vacation.  Recently I did visit a very beautiful resort and spa in New Hampshire.   And it was not a nightmare.   Of course there was no one else there but me.  So that made it easier for me to enjoy.   My daughter had a job interview in Lancaster, New Hampshire the first weekend in June this year.   Of course this was in the midst of quarantines and lock downs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The resort had been closed for eleven weeks.  They reopened on Friday June 5, 2020.  We arrived on Sunday June 7.   It was interesting to see a big resort like this with no one else there.  I did see three or four people in passing.   But for the most part the halls were empty.   The ballrooms were vacant.   The bars were closed.   And there we three very friendly staff members that I interacted with during my stay.

The hotel was massive.  It has 150 rooms.   The have a full menu of services available for the guests.  I was at the hotel for two full days while my daughter was interviewing for the job.  She took the car each day into the tiny town of Lancaster, New Hampshire and I stayed behind at the hotel.  I had planned to bring my lap tap with  me.  I was going to relax at the hotel and work on editing my travel photos.  I figued a glass of wine from the bar or on the patio with my lap top in front of me would be perfect.  When we arrived I realized I had left my lap top packed up in its travel case back at home.  And then I found out the bar would not be open and there was no alcohol being served on the patio or any where else in the hotel.   New Hampshire only had restaurants and bars opened if they had outside seating.  So I had lunch on the patio deck each day but no wine or beer to relax me. 

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That is my lunch view.  Some water, a menu and a table with beautiful mountains in the background.  It was a bit odd.  I was the only person at the hotel other than one or two other guests.  I asked the lady at the desk about lunch.  She told me I would need to make a reservation each day for lunch. I looked at her with a grin and kind of looked over my shoulder to make sure there was no one else in line for reservations.  So I asked to make a reservation.  She asked me what time.  It was 11:45 am.  I looked at my watch and asked "Is 12:00 alright."   And I am not exaggerating here.  She pulled her little electronic tablet out of the drawer and checked the calendar.  She keyed me in for 12:00.   She then told me to come down to the lobby a few minutes before 12:00 and some one would come to seat me in the porch dining area.  By this time it was already 11:50 so I just walked over and sat on one of the large couches in the lobby and waited to be called for seating.

So there I sat with my mask, which was required in any public area of the hotel, waiting for someone to call me for lunch. And magically at precisely 12:00 a lady appeared from the porch area and called my name. I was the only person in the lobby. But I guess she wanted to make sure I was indeed the person waiting for lunch. I turned my head around and she asked me, "Are you Larry?" I assured her I was Larry and we walked out to the porch together. I looked around. There were several tables on the terrace all empty. She asked if I had a preference. I said no so she looked at all of the tables and pointed to one and asked if that was alright. She then looked around They were not using individual menus and I had to use my cell phone and focus on the link provided at the table to see the menu. She brought me a bottle of water and left me to read the menu on my phone. I did understand that the kitchen was not fully stocked yet and the menu was not full of choices. They had sandwiches for the most part and a pizza. I opted for the cheeseburger platter and had an enjoyable lunch. I took photos of my food and chatted on Facebook while I was eating. There wasn't much else to do.

After lunch I needed to find something to do to entertain myself.  The hotel normally has a full selection of services for the guests.  They have a spa in the tower room which looked beautiful in the photos.   They also have an in ground pool and a huge golf course.   The spa and the pool were both victims of the COVID-19 closing and were not open for guests.   There was a large golf course which surrounded the hotel.  It was open I was told.  But I am not a golfer so I did not really care one way or the other about the golf course  I did look at it though and the grounds were beautiful

But like everything else at the hotel, there was no one there to play golf.  So I could not even go outside and watch a brisk game of golf being played.  They did have two services available for guests.  And they were not exactly what I was expecting.   There is a large llama farm attached to the hotel where you can visit the llamas.

There were quite a few llamas to go look at.  I had seen llamas in the wild when I was hiking in Peru once.   But I had not been to an actual llama farm.   So I took a walk to the back part of the property to go visit the llamas.   They mostly ignored me.  I did whistle and got the attention of the one pictured above.  He looked at me.  I snapped the photo.  And that was the end of our interaction.  

I tried to get a selfie with llama looking over my shoulder but he chose to ignore me and went back to grazing.   I think he was as bored as I was at this point.   The hotel did have one other service available at this time.   COVID-19 was not interfering with everything.   Every morning between 9:45 and 11:00 am the hotel offered axe throwing.  Yes, you read that correct.  There was no pool open, no spa to use, and no bar for a drink.  But you could go throw axes.   

I took a photo of the TV screen where it explained about the axe throwing   This was advertised as Adult Axe Throwing.  I was glad to hear this.  I certainly would not want to see child or family axe.throwing.   I was a bit confused by the image on the TV screen though.  It appears the two ladies are getting ready to battle with axes much to the amusement of the man standing behind them.  My only thought was if there were people here I could go watch this and maybe start looking for  Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote in the episode The Missing Axe.  

I did do some hiking on the back roads while I was here.  The scenery was beautiful.  My only concern was all of the signs warning  me to wear repellent and to be sure to check for ticks after hiking.   I had not prepared for this and doubted they had tick repellent at the hotel.  So I mainly walked down old roads and took photos.  I did not really adventure out into the wooded areas.   There were also warning signs about moose and I had no idea how to deal with a wild moose.  The only moose I was ever familiar with was Bullwinkle J. Moose.

It was fun though.  I've never had a huge resort all to myself before.    The room was beautiful.  I really had nothing to complain about with the hotel or the staff.  They could not have been nicer.  And they seemed really happy to be back at work and having a guest again, even  if it was only me.

I will admit thought that the empty hallways did get a little creepy in such a big hotel.   At times I did think of Jack Nicholson in the movie The Shining.   If I had seen two little creepy twin girls in the hallway I would have run as fast as I could out of there.  Of course a lone old man in an empty hallway wearing a mask is kind of creepy in itself.