I had the good fortune last week to be invited to present at the New Mexico Bed & Breakfast Association meeting in Silver City, NM., a mining community in the Southwest corner of the state.

A full agenda…board of directors meeting, business meeting for the association, my presentation on Exit Strategies, a delightful social, a breakfast presentation by Marie Lanier on Social Media, and my final presentation on Inn Valuations, punctuated by visits to the vendor booths, made for a full and satisfying meeting.

Wow! …you talk about a difference in topography and flora between NM and the Eastern Shore of Maryland!  We must have crossed the Rio Grande six times on the trip (in a car on a bridge, not wading) and through Hatch, the world’s mega-center of chiles!  About 4 hours south of Albuquerque, in Silver City, the Inn on Broadway was host to our evening social of munchies and networking.

When Nancy and I took the photo above, little did I know I was stepping on little spikey-burrs that penetrated the soles of my shoes (Nancy called them Goat heads), which took a while to pull out when we got back to the Chocolate Turtle, the inn owned by Nancy and Dallas Renner located in Corrales, NM.

But after a long couple of days “working” in Silver City, the real pleasure was getting back to the inn.  You see, most of the inns in NM, including the Turtle, were participating in the “B&B’s for Vets” program on November 10, where veterans and active service members alike can stay at no charge…a  generous THANK YOU for their service.  Here is a photo taken the next morning of those service  members at the Chocolate Turtle.

From left to right:  Army Sgt. Ross Cox and his wife, Master Sgt (ret) Terri Cox; Senior Master Sgt Jody Martinez (Air National Guard) and his wife Sarah; Marine Corporal Brian Barela with wife Victoria and son Uriah.

Thank you for your service and to those family members at home who support our active and veteran service members.

As a veteran myself, I am proud to be a part of the innkeeping industry, a group of folks who really care about what is important.     Scott