A Lifelong Goal

The Backstory

2001

Once Upon a Time...

…while living as expatriats in Puebla, Mexico. And after hosting family, friends, and business associates Keith and I instinctively knew we would like to one day host guests in our early retirement. This was way before the likes of Airbnb and other online booking platforms.

VoIP calling was in its infancy, and calling country to country was still crazy expensive. So the prudent and economical next step was to create a website to stay in touch with family and friends. And that’s how we came to own the domain yonderways – we were southerners living Yonderways in Mexico! I knew absolutely nothing about creating websites, and rather than learning Spanish properly I took on the “foreign language” of html.

The website served us well until our repatriation in 2004, but we would dust the domain off again upon our move to Shanghai five years later…

2009

Ni Hao Y'all!

Moving to Shanghai, PRC was undoubtedly the most brazen move of our 21 career moves. Keith worked for a fabulous company, and had personal circumstances not played out as they did, no doubt we would be living different lives today.

I lived in Shanghai for only one year. A family member’s health forced my return stateside. Keith stayed almost a full four years more. Living apart was difficult but we managed to stay very close during our physical separation. Technology had come a long way in five years!

We lived in a beautiful flat east of the Bund River (Jin Qiao, PuDong) and we had the pleasure to host many more guests. Upon Keith’s repatriation we had a goal of finding our forever home and a must was having a small cabin to host guests.

In the late summer of 2015 we found our perfectly imperfect Yonderways sanctuary and we have never looked back.

Before photos of the Acorn. We lived in the renovated barn for 9 months while we gutted the main cabin just down the hill. Our friend and Realtor thought we'd lost our ever loving minds, but the land.....

Always a Work in Progress

Being that Keith and I are in our mid sixties and founders of an active company, diy projects don’t happen as fast as they once did.

However, when you choose to stay at The Acorn we promise you pristine well water, fresh mountain air, the sound of rushing water on your private deck, comfortable beds, and cozy, clean accommodations that have earned 5-star ratings from guests across all booking platforms and google.

We have earned top hosting honors through Airbnb, HomeAWay (VRBO), Expedia, TripAdvisor, and we lead the way in hospitality best practices for our vacation rental and our partner rentals via our hospitality cleaning company, PropertySUPERS.

We’re looking forward to sharing our perfectly imperfect Yonderways with you and now your pet! ~ Donna and Keith