On Friday, February 20, 2009, the Hostel finally, after all these many years, has purchased the Cyrus Dallas house and property, as well as the half-acre beside it on Mr. Road. So, we now officially own all of Mister Road from those trailers on the right hand side of the road all the way to the end. It’s a very long story, which is worthy of writing about, but the stars and moon and sun and all the planets came together about 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon and all the legal documents were signed giving the title to The Hostel in The Forest Land Trust. The long story, which I will tell later, is how we got them to come down off their $100,000 asking price. We still paid entirely too much for it – $60,000 plus $10,000 for the half-acre next to it; but, as Murray says, we can’t afford not to buy it. That property has been an island within the Hostel property for a long time.

In order to pay for it, we’ve raised the price of the overnight from $20 to $25. The extra $5 will go directly into the Land Trust to pay for this mortgage, and, hopefully, we’ll get some donations to help us out.

I left my office immediately after the closing and bought bottles of Champagne. I called Zak to get everyone at the Hostel to come out to Mister Road. Clyde and Koalani, former managers, were among the group. We went down to Cyrus’s house and first poured Champagne around the front door of the house. Then we all toasted to our new acquisition. Funny thing, while we were toasting a dove flew into the tree above the house and began cooing. Who knows? It could’ve been Cyrus or his wife, Estella, but I want to think it was Louise trying to get in on the Champagne toast.

Please send us good vibes and good spirit that this will be a good move for the Hostel.

Love to all of you from the Hostel family,

Tom