WORLD NEWS TRUST: The Gathering Inn: Bed, Breakfast... And Beyond (Carolyn Baker)

[Tace]

Carolyn Baker -- World News Trust

If you're watching the state of the world and are up to speed on the collapse of civilization, and if you want to take a vacation or just get away for the weekend, where do you go? Do you want to hang out with folks who haven't noticed that "normal" is over and that a new paradigm is foisting itself upon us whether we welcome it or not? If that's you're only option when planning your getaway, you may lose your motivation to pursue it-unless you could escape to a place where you'd be surrounded by people who know what you know and are willing to talk about it with you.

Tim Bennett and Sally Erickson, creators of the powerful documentary "What A Way To Go: Life At The End Of Empire", now own and operate the Gathering Inn in Hancock, Vermont-a lovely bed and breakfast on 2.5 acres of gorgeous land between two stately mountains on the southern portal of the Mad River Valley of Central Vermont. In addition to a lovely setting and lots of TLC, the Gathering Inn's cook, Kathleen Byrne, creates a variety of scrumptious palette-pleasers for guests, seasoned with love and many years of culinary expertise.

Fall is has arrived in Vermont, and the brilliant colors of foliage season grace our hills and valleys. It's a short season, but a perfect time for a weekend escape to the crisp, clean air and the magical, serene beauty of the Green Mountains in autumn.

I caught up with Tim and Sally a few days ago and had the privilege of spending a couple of hours asking them questions about their new venture, and a lengthy dialog ensued. It became so extensive and rich that I felt we needed to present it in two segments.

Carolyn Baker: What are you guys up to these days?

Sally Erickson -- We've done this really "crazy" thing -- we've gone into debt buying an inn in Vermont in the midst of a resource crisis that will never end at a time when tourism and the hospitality business are likely to take a huge dive as we stumble over the threshold of a Second Great Depression.

CB: Well, I'm laughing at this somewhat black humor, but I'm also wondering how do you feel about that.

SE: I feel alternately really grateful and excited, and occasionally kind of terrified. We had gotten ourselves debt-free, and it was a big thing to step back into a mortgage.

CB: Well, tell me how all this came about. This is a pretty gutsy thing to do in these times. But why don't you first tell me how you ended up in Vermont?

TB: Vermont has been on our radar for years now as we started hearing about the Vermont secessionist movement and the Vermont Manifesto by Thomas Naylor. That was intriguing, and having lived for a couple of decades in the South and never having felt at home there, it was time for me to get back to the North where I was born. So as we went on our screening tours last summer and fall, we had our eyes wide open, and we spent some time in Vermont and compiled a long list of reasons why it made sense to move here. Actually, there's a way in which it felt as if Vermont decided that we had to move there, and we had to obey that. We received "marching orders" to move to Vermont, and we did, and we had to get our rational minds on board, and that's what the process has been about the last few years.

more

http://www.worldnewstrust.com/wnt-reports/commentary/the-gathering-inn-bed-breakfast...-and-beyond-carolyn-baker.html