Reply to Fern's B&B (Windsor)

The people that run Fern's are very nice. I was scheduled to stay there on my trip. The morning I was supposed to arrive I hurt my knee. I called to let them know I wouldn't be able to make it and find out how much I owed for cancelation on such short notice. They refused to charge me anything. I look forward to staying there on my next trip.

Don't do it!

I stayed at Fern's because of the above comment, and because I wanted the first night/morning of our trip to be nice. I think someone refunding your money when you cancel that day is nice but beware, as this place is bad news.

I would have to say the whole experience was a mixture of creepy and dissapointment. The creepy part started when we were shown to the B&B, which is a seperate house from where Fern stays. On our way in to the house, Fern offered us the information that it used to be a "drug house." Gee, what a comforting thought for my mom, as we enter our place to stay in this unformiliar town. I can only imagine the things she was thinking as she is naturally worried most of the time anyway!

Then she showed us the house. The TV in the front room was broken. (Not that we wanted to watch TV, but some may.) She showed us the two bedrooms, and said we could have both, as no one else was staying in the other room that night. (More on this sly trick later.) She also told my mom not to use the "roll-away" bed, as it was "uncomfortable." She then dropped off the keys, and left back to her house, and we never saw her again.

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We unloaded our stuff, and went to grab a bite to eat at the local resturant, and when we got back, we found that Fern had gone out to get our "breakfast" for the morning. Apparently, Fern's idea of breakfast is to go to the Casey's across the street, and buy some packaged cinnamon rolls, some green bannanas, and milk and Sunny D to drink. To say that we were dissapointed at this was quite the understatement. This is not the kind of breakfast that can power you through the morning, and I knew it, but I managed to force down a few rolls anyway, as I knew I had to eat. (I HATE green bannanas.) Is it too much to ask to have some effort put into breakfast at a Bed and BREAKFAST. (However, Fern and Co. cannot even SPELL Breakfast...just look at the sign out front. They spell it "breakfeast!"...rediculous!)

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Anyway, after getting that bite to eat I was talking about, we decided to rent two bikes for the people dropping us off, as Fern's also has bike rental. The creepyness continued as we introduced ourselves with a "Hi!" to the man renting the bikes, and he just looked seemingly right through us, and said nothing. I joked with my mom after he had passed that he was thinking, "Yes, come into my lair of bikes from whence you will never return..." At least we can still laugh... Please don't rent these bikes. BIG MISTAKE! They are Wally world bikes, and they have maitenence issues. Or if you do, take the time to look and make sure everything is okay with them. My brother's bike had a very rusty chain, and on my girlfriend's bike the seat was so loose that it shifted back and forth the whole time we were riding. The next few days, she had major pain from this. My brother's bike also had this problem, but not as bad. Bottom line, you should be able to ride a rental bike with no issues because they should all be in reasonable condition. I can imagine someone getting one of these bikes to ride the trail with, and getting out a few miles, only to have the seat come loose, and be out of luck. Not a pretty picture.

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I am not finished. I know this seems long, but this was truly a horrible experience, and I want to make it very clear to all that this place is not safe, and a bad choice. We returned from our ride, and started to get our stuff together for the next day, when my brother locked the front door, and, oops! The door pulled right open. We checked again, and tried to do what we could to push the door closed, but it would not stay shut. There was no deadbolt, and we were all just standing there in an old "drughouse" with no way to lock ourselves in, and one worried mom! So, we made a doorjam with a chair that was there, and tried our best to feel safe, although that was probably no easy task for mom, considering her being uneasy in the first place. Can you believe the front door wouldn't lock? I mean, come on! Is this really happening?

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Well, we made it through the night, and luckily, we had no crackheads trying to break in to get drugs, or maybe our doorjam worked? We will never know! But we left for our first day on the trail, and after awhile, my mom told me some disturbing information. We had set up our reservaion for 4 people with Fern on the phone. She told us we could use one of the Queen beds with a rollaway, and that the price was $70. Fine. Mom sent a $35 deposit to Fern before we left, and when we got there was about to pay the rest, so she said, "How much do I owe you?" She expected Fern to say another $35, but she said, "$105." So, she WAS going to charge us with both rooms! Well, my mom is non-confrontational, and accepted this, but I wish she would have just walked away. I contacted Fern about this, and she told me that she thought my mom said she wanted the other room. I said we had a verbal agreement for one room, this is evidenced by her accepting of $35 for the deposit. Then she told me it was silly to put 4 people in one room. Well, if it was so silly, why didn't she tell us that in the first place? I mean she is the one with the rooms, so she should have been able to say it was unworkable before we would have been there! Come on, Fern, do you really think we are dumb enough not to see a scam in progress? We trusted you and you let us down. If we would have had the option of staying in the Windsor motel for $40, or the B&B for $140, which would you think we would have chosen...

Next time you're looking for a place to stay around Windsor, try Cruces Cabooses. You get to spend the night in a refurbished train car, which is very cool and appropriate for the Katy Trail. Very private too.

Hey, anything that locks would be better than Fern's! We only avoided Cruse's because of the higher price, but in the end we ended up paying a rediculous $140 as explained above, so what's the point?!