Just moments away from the high-speed traffic of Interstate 95, Gloria and Edgar’s Bed and Breakfast is a two-story colonial house with a circular drive in front and a lovely expansive garden in back. The front porches, top and bottom, are graced with white rocking chairs and porch swings. Lingering there on a recent spring day, the breeze was sufficient that the overhead fans were not needed at all. They might be, come August.
The house was once occupied by Gloria and Edgar Nieves, both natives of Puerto Rico, and their four children. Now the house has been transformed to accommodate their guests in as comfortable a manner as possible. Four nicely-appointed bedrooms, each with a queen-sized bed and a television, are available. One of the bedrooms has an adjoining area with a smaller bed, ideal for parents traveling with young children. Bathrooms are shared, but each has a private entrance. A sitting area on each of the two floors offers a comfortable place for guests to watch a movie from the inn’s large collection or sit and chat with other guests. And when it’s time for breakfast, a large dining table permits guests a view of the kitchen where Gloria prides herself on fixing a hearty breakfast that includes eggs, biscuits, sausage and fruit. At dinnertime, guests may avail themselves of the gas grill on the patio and prepare a pleasant evening repast. All guests have “refrigerator rights,” too.
Both Gloria and Edgar are “people” people, veterans in the hospitality industry, and they say the true joy of running a bed and breakfast is meeting folks from across the country. Many of them are here to reunite with a soldier just coming home from overseas. They both still smile at the memory of an extended family from Kansas and Oklahoma that stayed with them recently.
“We are right next to the firehouse here,” Edgar says, “and one night a fire alarm went off. We know that just summons the volunteer firemen to the fire station, but to people from the Midwest, that’s the sound of a tornado warning! These people were up and ready to run out of the house in their pajamas!”
That family had a good laugh at the experience and then joyfully welcomed their son home from Iraq. The soldier son stayed at the bed and breakfast, too, until his family returned to the Midwest several days after his return.
Those Midwesterners included Nick Scocos and his wife, Maranda, who found the bed and breakfast online. Nick’s brother was returning from a 15-month deployment to Iraq and the entire family came to North Carolina to welcome him home.
“We all took the week off and rented out all of Gloria and Edgar’s place,” he said. “We could fit the entire family in there. We descended upon that place. (Gloria and Edgar) work harder than anybody we’ve ever seen. We loved being out there.”
Scocos said the bed and breakfast comes in a close second to their “gold standard” bed and breakfast in Kansas, a Victorian mansion.
“They’re in the top two,” Scocos said. “It was awesome.”
An interesting extra available to guests at the Nieves’ bed and breakfast is Gloria’s status as a licensed massage therapist. She has given massages to some of the guests who have stayed at the bed and breakfast, mostly a basic Swedish massage. But she’s trained in some of the more esoteric massage methods, including shiatsu and cranial-sacral therapy. She’s definitely spoiling the guests, because subsequent bed and breakfasts they visit are unlikely to have that particular service duplicated.
But it’s all about hospitality, say Gloria and Edgar, and they both want to make their guests’ stay as pleasant and memorable as possible.
Travelers searching for a bed and breakfast will often turn to a website, www.BnBFinder.com. In Fayetteville, Gloria and Edgar’s is the only one listed. Maintaining the listing is important to the couple and they happily make their bed and breakfast available for periodic inspections that confirm their place is up to the standards of BnBFinder.
Rates at Gloria and Edgar’s Bed & Breakfast range from $99 to $135 per night. Contact 910.273.1053 or visit
www.gloriaandedgarsbnb.com.
