After almost a year at the Andon-Reid Inn, Andrea and I are pretty well organized (well at least Andrea is) so we almost never have unexpected guests. However, some months ago we remember seeing a couple driving up to the Inn, taking their bags out of their car and heading to our entrance – even through all our planned guests had already arrived. We don’t ever get walk-ins so Andrea and I looked at each other and went “gulp”. Was this somehow going to be our first nightmare double booking?
With a smile plastered on our faces Andrea and I greeted the guests in the parking lot and helped them into the Inn where we tried to get to the bottom of the situation. Once we reviewed the relevant email traffic with the guests it all became clear. As it happened, the guests had been anticipating a possible family emergency (that thankfully hadn’t transpired). In the meantime, just in case, they had drafted a cancellation email to us. Unwittingly, while doing this they had pressed the “send” button not “save draft”. We had therefore received the email, dutifully cancelled their reservation and had resold the room.
Fortunately we were able to accommodate this charming couple for the first night and then Andrea found them a room at another Waynesville B&B for the remainder of their visit. Their one night at the Andon-Reid Inn must have impressed them as they recommended us to their brother – and we had the pleasure of hosting the brother and his wife a few months later.
More recently springtime in wonderful Waynesville has brought us another group of unexpected visitors. We have a small bird box on the northwestern corner of our wraparound porch that we had always thought was an ornamental part of a plant stand. We were therefore surprised a week or so ago to hear some furious cheeping from that corner of the porch and so we 
crept around to investigate.
To our delight we saw a pair of Carolina Chickadees darting in and out the bird box with tasty tidbits of bugs and worms to feed to a hungry brood of twittering offspring. We have named the parent birds Chuck and Chiquita and the offspring are now called the Chiclets. They proudly join Bibb the Cat, Gretel and Hansel (the groundhogs that live near our owners’ quarters) and our large tribe of cheeky squirrels, as outdoor residents of the Andon-Reid Inn extended family.
Come and visit us soon at the Andon-Reid Inn and you may get to meet Chuck, Chiquita and the Chiclets before they fledge. A tiny warning – if you get too close to the nest Chuck and Chiquita can get quite protective and irate so you may find yourself being dive-bombed. Carolina Chickadees may be small – but they are mighty.
