This week life at Scotty’s Castle has not followed the usual routine.  First, we had clouds and cold weather.  I know it isn’t cold compared to the rest of the country, but people come out here for the sun and warm weather and it has been cloudy and cool (in the 50’s).  On Tuesday, just as I was beginning my first tour, it started to hail!

The bigger event this week has been the resealing of the floor tiles in the courtyard.  The tiles are all the original tiles from 1926, so once a year they need to be cleaned and sealed.  This week an Americorp group was available to work, so the courtyard was closed off to the tours for two days as they applied the sealant and let it dry.

Tours normally begin in the courtyard, so we had to enter the Castle via the dining room, which is usually in the middle of the tour route.  The tour guides all got together and decided on a route we would all take – it would be a little awkward at first, but it would require minimal disruption of the tour route.

Then our interim supervisor, who wasn’t leading the tours, decided we needed to change our routes and insisted that we all do it another way.  The other tour guides all nodded politely and continued to do the tours in the way that was working for them.  The guests all got to see the Castle and enjoyed their tours – as usual – and most people never noticed that anything was out of the ordinary.

Today things are pretty much back to normal.  The tiles look great, the tour routes are back on track, and it is sunny and warming up nicely.