Bedford Landings is a Getaway
Posted on July 15, 2016 by
Bedford Landings is a getaway for all walks of people including parents getting away from their young children, family members attending reunions, young lovers and old lovers, families traveling with children to the lake, wedding guests, and others.
Pilots Love This Getaway
Bedford Landings B & B is a also pilot’s getaway. Pilots are starting to hear about us and the fact we are located right along an airstrip (W91) where you can fly in, tie down, and spend the night at a beautiful lake location with your airplane with eyesight! We have had a few “cool” planes fly in to be guests of Bedford Landings. One was just last week when this Super Decathlon was here. Jack always loves photos of the planes sitting in front of our hangar, so here it is. This small tandem seating plane fit in the hangar, so we pulled the Cessna out just for over night to hanger this little beauty.
Family Stuff
Our whole fam damily will make Bedford Landings their getaway the end of July. We have to spread it over two weekends since we are at capacity when they come! All our children and grand children live in the Raleigh area. Karen’s sister has a home here and brother Michael is not far away in Floyd. Michael and his wife visited recently for his birthday and we made a German chocolate cake from scratch. Scrumptious!
We love family to visit, especially grand children! Earlier this summer, Grandson Jamison (4 years old) visited and spent three nights for the first time. Gramma got in trouble having had his long hair cut but he was happy with the result and now nobody thinks he is a girl! He also got to taxi up the runway (not fly) for his first time.
Super Grand Daughter, Destiny is here for the month of July and has been active with taking swimming lessons and volunteering at Skyway Animal Farms.
Skyway is a non-profit working farm that is a great place to take kids and grand kids. Bea and Debbie explain what they are doing to visitors, name all of the animals, and keep a really tidy farm! Destiny has learned a lot, walked and fed the baby goats, fed the Alpacas and Llamas, learned the names of all of the Anatolian Shepherds, and helped put up an obstacle course for the “fainting” goats. We haven’t tried to scare them yet but will report when we see them faint!
Feeding carrots to the Alpacas.
Walking goats on twin leashes!
Destiny is also helping with Vacation Bible School at Bethlehem United Methodist and fulfilling her lifelong (at the ripe age of 11 years) role play/dream of being in a “teacher” role.
Sister Artist
I was honored that my sister invested her tender loving care into a recent piece of art she completed for us! Sheridan Brown and husband, John, are our substitute innkeepers when we are away. She has been taking art lessons and completed a very cool piece for us that I proudly have hung in the upstairs foyer. It depicts the front AND back of our house and even places the Cessna in the sky!
Artist in the House
Speaking of artists, Mary Lou Koons is our in-house artist this month. Mary has been a full time Smith Mountain Lake resident since 1992. She has a great deal of experience with the art community, particularly in the Smith Mountain Lake area. She is a member of the Smith Mountain Arts Council (SMAC) and has been the organizer of the SMAC Art Show for the past 6 years. She is also in the Roanoke League of Artists and really enjoys entering art shows. Her work entitled “Speaker of the House” has been a favorite and an award winner in several art shows (pictured below). The work that Bedford Landings is displaying features water color and acrylic. It is priced right and we are willing to open our doors for you to see. Just email us to schedule a time to stop by.
Speaker of the House painting on the left top.
Honeybees
Bedford Landings is a getaway for the bees but also their home. Our darling honeybees have produced 3.5 more gallons of honey. We have a little for sale and are saving some back for cooking. We enjoy the harvesting process and enjoy having bees, but this MAY be our last year.
Sadly, Karen is starting to get allergic reactions to bee stings including swelling, redness and a temperature at the site of the sting. Twice this summer, ice, Benadryl and itchy nights have been experienced. We have not made a decision yet but are considering replacing the bee yard with a chicken yard. Anyone want to trade hobbies?
Cardboard Boat
Jack has been consumed with constructing a cardboard boat. That’s right–a cardboar
d boat. At least we have a hangar where he can work on it! The boat must float and be rowed 200 yards in one of the SML 50th Anniversary events to be held at the Skelton 4-H Center the July 30th. Come to the Cardboard Boat Regatta and cheer for Bedford Landings and Bedford Landings Air Tours boat at 11:00 that day!
Largest Human Float!
If you haven’t signed up for the Guinness Book of Records Human Float, then please do so. Sign-up, then bring an inflatable on August 6th. SML has been challenged by Lake Winnipesaukee saying they can get more people floating on inflatables than we can. Some of you may recall that Bill Murray movie What About Bob was filmed at Smith Mountain Lake but they said it was Lake Winnipesaukee. Rumor has it that the leaves were already changing at Winnipesaukee so they changed the filming location. We can’t let them win the Guinness Book record! Sign up by July 15th!
We have not yet signed up and hope to take aerial photos of this event! Can’t wait!
Staycations
Ever heard of a Staycation?
stay·ca·tion ˌstāˈkāSHn/ nouninformal
a vacation spent in one’s home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions.
Neesy Payne, a Morning reporter for WDBJ7 wanted to find out if Bedford Landings was truly a getaway. Working on a story about locations that could be stacations, we were honored that she “discovered” Bedford Landings B & B and Bedford Landings Air Tours. Jack flew her over the lake for some footage and she interviewed us about the business. Click this link to the Staycation Story.
Neesy and Videographer, Bruce tasted our bacon!!
Until next time, have a great summer! Storms and all!
Ahhhh, with all going on here, glad I made the blog. You forget t mention what community leaders and representatives you are for SML! Bravo!