Month: October 2005

The B&B we stayed at in Grand Junction was actually in the adjoining community of Palisade — Hubert’s Place. It was a fine experience I wouldn’t mind repeating.

Unlike a lot of B&B’s (a fancy room in a large house, breakfast served in the kitchen/dining room, some sort of common area to hang in), Hubert’s place differs in two important details:

• It’s is actually a cottage on its own that you rent (the proprietor lives next door), all fixed up very nicely, complete with kitchen, dining room, sitting room, two double-bed bedrooms, one single-bed bedroom, and a bathroom. You’re the only one there, and you can rent one or both large rooms (for separate rates); the single room gets thrown in.
• Breakfast consists of a freshly-baked coffee cake, plus all the breakfast fixings you’d want (bacon, sausage, eggs, milk, juice, pancake mix, cereal, etc., plus supplementary goodies, fruit, condiments) in the fridge and pantry of the kitchen. You’re in charge of the cooking.

Basically, then, it’s like renting a house, rather than staying at an inn. So, my thoughts (starting with the down side, since I think the up side more than compensates):

The bad:

1. The staples provided are pretty basic. While you can cook what you want with them, and there’s nothing wrong with normal cooking from this family, I’ve certainly eaten fancier and better at some B&Bs (and fancier and worse at others, to be sure). If you want walnut-cranberry-peach muffins with a maple glaze on them — better dig out your cookbook and go to the grocery store. And be ready to wash the dishes when you’re done.

2. The kitchen is fully stocked — but lacks an oven and a stove. Instead, there’s an electric skillet, a large toaster oven, and a microwave. That constrains some of the cooking you might do.

3. The shower head in the bathroom came to, oh, the base of my neck.

4. The beds were only doubles, and tended to sag toward the middle, making sleeping two adults comfortably a bit of a challenge.

5. It’s off the beaten track, a good twenty-plus minutes from downtown Grand Junction, a good 5-10 minutes from downtown Palisade, all along the (initially) confusing grid of streets in the area with such names as “35 Rd.” and “G.75 St.”

6. No broadband. No WiFi. Payphone access to the outside world.

The good:

1. The place was clean, attractive, and well maintained. There’s a no smoking and no pets policy. Everything worked. There are plenty of supplies. There’s also a small sound system (with CDs), a drawer full of games, and a TV with attached VCR (and a huge library of VHS tapes to partake of).

2. You eat what you want, when you want it. Want to sleep in until Noon? Breakfast is still there. Up at dawn to get to a convention? Ditto. Want to have dinner in? We went to the store, bought some steaks, some potatoes, some salad, and made ourselves a very nice dinner (charcoal BBQ and accoutrements, including charcoal, are present). It’s perhaps less pampered than some B&B experiences, but for a control freak like myself (and a lazy one at that) it’s a better arrangement.

3. The place is downright comfortable. Some B&Bs make you feel like you’re in a museum. Well, this one has plenty of decor, but most of it is functional or easily shifted aside. Comfy chairs, plenty of places to hang out and read (including an enclosed porch and a nice garden), all in all a fine place you could stay a day or a week and feel like at home.

4. Along with the above comfort comes privacy. It’s your place. Want to wander around naked (or just in your pajamas and ratty robe)? Nobody’s going to bat an eyelash except the folks you arrived with. Even with the shades up, the lines of sight to others are pretty obscured, out there in the country. Up at 3 a.m. because you can’t sleep? Go to the living room, and sit and read. Nobody’s going to be bothered except your friends and family (if even them). That’s much better than most B&B experiences.

5. Unlike most B&Bs, you don’t just have your room and a shared common area. It’s your house, basically. Katherine immediately called it home, and it was. Places to sleep, to cook, to eat, to sit. Nice.

6. And, the flip side to the bad, it was off the beaten track. Little traffic. But, really, not that far from anything, and, once you figured out the grid system the streets were on, easy to get to and from. Not the “freeway close” place you’d want to check in overnight when travelling from LA to Denver, but a great “home base” if you’re in GJ for business or touring the local area.

7. Cell phone signals was great. I managed to survive without broadband. Your mileage may vary.

8. Linda, the proprietor, was friendly and helpful, staying out of the way but available when we needed her. I’ve known cloying B&B proprietors and I’ve known prickly ones. She fit into the golden mean.

If we visit the Grand Junction area again, I can definitely see staying at Hubert’s Place again. If you visit, you could do far, far worse than doing so, too.

More at Canyon Wind.

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’nuff said.

UPDATE: One of the cool things about the Grand Valley is that it’s highly scenic, with vinyards (or fruit trees) in the foreground, and grand mesas and rocky formations in the background. Spiffy.

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