Latest / The Ric and Dan Show / "Escape From The Valley Of Death": Kenya and James Hopkins of Acadia Wilderness Lodge

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"Escape From The Valley Of Death": Kenya and James Hopkins of Acadia Wilderness Lodge · The Ric and Dan Show

• 0:01
  (Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) He's Rick Tyler and he's Dan Cashman.
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  And I'm Kenya Hopkins.
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  And I'm James Hopkins of the Katie Wilderness Lab.
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  And we're on The Rick and Dan Show.
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  In Maine, we often hear,
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  you can't get there from here.
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  These are the stories of the risk takers,
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  the trailblazers, those who turn obstacles
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  into opportunities every day
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  and found their way to get there
• 0:21
  from here. And today, they're
• 0:23
  on The Rick and Dan Show.
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  Everything I know about you I learned from
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  Dan. And I think, based on what Dan tells me,
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  you guys are this close to a Hallmark
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  movie script.
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  That's true.
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  Am I wrong? I don't know.
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  Because I think it's pretty close. You're not too far off
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  there. You know, you come to a cozy
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  Maine community, settle in,
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  there's love, there's romance,
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  there's just a tiny bit of drama.
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  Sure. Was that sarcasm?
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  A tiny bit of drama?
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  Yeah. We're like, rom-com.
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  Drama.
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  So where to begin?
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  For people who don't know anything about Acadia
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  Wilderness Lodge,
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  what is it, where is it?
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  Yes, yes. So Acadia Wilderness Lodge
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  is a glamping campground
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  on MDI in Tremont, Maine.
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  And we offer
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  luxurious stays
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  in nature. It's like, I like to
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  say, it's like you're surrounded by
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  serenity, trees.
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  It's not like a hotel
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  type stay where you feel more
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  indoors when you're inside.
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  Here you're inside, but you're still
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  connected with outside.
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  Because we have yurts, we have tents,
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  and the tents are new.
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  And we just make sure that your
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  surroundings and your environment,
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  it's just very typical of what you'd find
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  in Maine and in the park.
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  When I hear yurts,
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  before I met you, I pictured
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  a domed
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  cloth structure,
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  dirt floor bed, maybe
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  a cot and a sleeping bag.
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  This is not what people experience
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  at Acadia Wilderness Lodge. Am I correct?
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  Well, that's true.
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  Yes, you are correct. So our
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  goal was to make
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  your camping experience as luxurious
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  as possible. What you're talking about
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  are the standard yurts, right?
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  Yurts that were used by the nomads
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  a long time ago. And they've brought them,
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  modernized them, and so we wanted to
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  add some more flair to that. So our
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  yurts have wellness features, like
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  a soaking tub, hydrotherapy showers,
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  king-size beds,
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  and fireplaces inside,
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  and sofas. So they
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  really have the
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  feel of a luxury hotel.
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  I honestly thought we were talking about canvas igloos
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  to here, too. But now,
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  how big are these yurts? So they're about
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  just over 700 square feet on the inside.
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  And so you've got two bedrooms,
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  you've got a loft in there. So there's quite
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  a bit of room, really, to stretch out. We'll take six
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  people, and it's pretty comfortable for
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  six people. Obviously, if you're going to have the amenities that you
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  described. Yeah. And amenities,
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  I mean, it's not, let's say you go to a
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  Acadia Wilderness Lodge in the off season,
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  where it's a little bit, or the shoulder season
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  where it's a little bit cooler, you're not going to
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  freeze in these things. No, we have heating
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  and cooling in the yurts.
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  Fireplaces, as well, that
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  actually emit heat. You have your own
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  outdoor space,
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  as well, that has an outdoor fireplace.
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  You have your own personal grill
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  with a burner. Outdoor seating,
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  and it's covered in your own private area.
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  There's a microwave there.
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  Really rough, isn't it? Yeah.
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  Well, you know, Kenya and I did a lot of trips with our kids,
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  and I don't know if you guys have done the Disney trip,
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  or anything like that, but after a day in the
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  park, and you're bouncing all over the place,
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  and you get ready to go and crash, you want a place that
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  you can be comfortable at night, and we try to
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  provide that here. Because if you're hiking, or
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  most people are up early to get as much of the park as
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  they can, so they're out early, you know, they're out there
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  all day getting all they can, hiking, swimming,
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  whatever. So when they get back, we want them to really
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  be able to kind of relax and recover,
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  and get ready for the next day. So,
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  you know, Kenya did a really good job, like, with
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  the beddings, and the mattress, and put a lot of thought
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  into it, Phil. People can recharge there.
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  Do you have different names for the yurts?
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  Is there, like, that's the Katahdin,
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  that is the Cadillac?
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  Because I don't know, so I'm asking.
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  So we do, and the way
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  I landed on that kind of came from the
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  original concept. I actually got a piece of paper,
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  and drew this, like,
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  drawing. That's kind of how it started.
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  The whole idea, and I
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  said, this is what I want to do, and I kind of
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  showed James, and he's like, oh.
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  That's it.
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  I was like, oh, good lord.
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  Do you want to put a pin in that and come back to it?
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  Or do we here on this
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  fun little newlywed game want to jump over
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  to James now and ask,
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  first of all, what did the drawing look like?
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  And two, what was your reaction to it?
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  I was, you know, first of all, I was impressed.
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  You know, because she had done, you know, what I thought
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  was, hey, this is actually a really good idea.
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  And then I was kind of like, oh, god.
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  How are we going to get there?
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  So, but
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  I will give her credit. It was a good design.
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  It was, you know, her thoughts. She's very
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  creative, but then I was like, oh, my god.
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  Now we've got to make this a reality somehow, which
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  was quite a bit of work.
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  Yeah, and so back to the names.
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  The whole goal, like I said, is just to
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  make you go on vacation
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  and feel like you're away
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  from all the craziness of your
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  normal life, and so
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  the concept was just to
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  go back in time to like
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  simpler times. And so I use
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  indigenous names for all of my
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  yurts. All of the names
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  are of the original indigenous language
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  from different places around the world,
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  and they're elements. So in
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  each yurt, for example, there's a water yurt
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  called Mizu. The
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  decorations in the yurt and the feel
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  of the yurt is like water. You're
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  able to go, and it's just like basic elements,
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  right? Basic back to
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  the basics with nature
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  where we all come from and
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  set the tone for what
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  we wanted to do when people go on
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  vacation. One of the things I like
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  about everything there is it all
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  comes with a story, and
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  if visitors just ask,
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  there's a story behind the names
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  or what is happening within
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  each yurt. But I'm going to go back
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  further than that, because we talk about
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  obstacles a lot on this show
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  and overcoming those obstacles.
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  I don't think obstacle is an appropriate
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  word for getting to
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  where you are today. Roadblock
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  is still not an appropriate word.
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  Tell us about that process
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  of getting Acadia Wilderness Lodge, what it
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  is today, approved.
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  This is really cool because
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  honestly, we've never really
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  told how we felt to anyone
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  about what happened.
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  We were in the news
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  every week. It was craziness.
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  James and I would be like,
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  what? We'd look at these blogs
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  and our names would be in there. It was
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  the biggest story ever. We had guests
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  that came to stay with us and they were
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  like, we saw you on the news.
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  They were like, oh my gosh.
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  I'm guessing you don't mean
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  in a good way, can I interrupt?
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  But this is an exclusive
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  because nobody really
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  got a chance to talk to us about how
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  we felt. It was just because we'd been in the
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  midst of it
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  the entire time. And now
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  I feel like we're in a good place
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  so we can talk about it.
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  The whole thing started because
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  my parents came up to
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  meet James' parents when we were
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  still dating and he had
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  proposed and there was no place
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  for them to stay. We tried to find
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  housing or a hotel or anything
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  for them and there was nothing.
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  James had a lot that his
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  grandfather had given him
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  right next to his
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  mom's house, which is where our
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  current business is. My parents
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  ended up coming. They ended up staying at his
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  mom's house. It was a crowded
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  mess, but you know.
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  And because of this
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  I was like, you know, let's do something
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  with that, you know, because this
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  is obviously a need.
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  I mean, there was not even a place
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  for my parents to stay
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  when they wanted to come visit. And so
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  that's where I first came up with the
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  idea and then that's where the drawing came
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  about. And so James was like, oh yeah
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  that's no problem. Like I grew up
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  there. My grandfather was the
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  one who started the Tremont Planning
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  Board. He was like the first selectman.
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  Like this is our town. Like my great
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  great grandfather signed the Declaration of
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  Independence. They were on the
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  Mayflower.
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  This is my town, you know.
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  That's going to make the Hallmark movie.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  I'm like, cool!
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  Right? So
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  we're like, okay. So then we
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  find an engineer to get started
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  and everything. And then I kind of talked to him about
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  the drawing, the concept. So we pay, we get
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  the plan together and we're like, yes! We get
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  to move back home. Because we were living in Florida
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  at the time and we had twins
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  while this was happening. So then
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  we put in the application
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  and then unfortunately my father
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  was really sick at the time and
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  he passed during this time as well.
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  And so James kind of was like dealing
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  with the back and forth for it.
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  And then all of a sudden he goes, um,
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  there's a problem. And I was like, well
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  what? He was like, well somebody
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  like is taking us to court
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  about the project. And I'm like
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  what? So that was
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  just like the beginning.
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  This is like the easy part. Like this is
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  like the one little lot. This is the easy part.
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  The easy part. We had this one little
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  lot, right? And we were doing like these
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  units on it. The one that I, you know, because I basically
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  kind of, he had the lot but then
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  he had a loan on it and we paid it off and all.
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  And so this was our one little lot
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  and we're doing that. And so I'll let him talk to you
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  about that because like I was like in
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  like parent sick zone, you know what I mean?
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  Like I was like not. And so he
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  was kind of dealing with it day to day. That.
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  Yeah. So we were, you know, we had
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  basically finished our design. We
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  were not going to do yurts at the time.
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  We were going to do little lot cabins.
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  We had done the lot
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  calcs and we decided, hey, we're going to put 11
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  units on this site. And people are like
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  how the heck are you going to fit 11 units
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  on an acre six? You know what I mean? But the math
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  worked and so people were concerned
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  and so then people started kind of being like,
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  oh, you know, we don't want this. We don't want that.
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  So then they decided to take us in saying that
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  your calcs are wrong and all this. So we started
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  there. Got through that and
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  then we decided,
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  um, Kenya and I were thinking
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  well, maybe we want to do something different when we switch
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  to yurts. So that went into a
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  court or something. But we
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  won. And so we were approved. Okay.
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  We quickly realized, first of all,
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  there's two things. One, we can't
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  run this business from
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  Florida. Two, it's not
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  going to be sufficient enough
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  in order for us to leave our jobs
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  and leave everything in Florida and move here
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  like the revenue. We need to make sure
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  that we're making enough money so that we can
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  actually move here and
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  our kids can go to college. Because he was
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  working in Florida, had a really, really
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  good job. I'm a registered nurse amongst
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  a bunch of other things. And I
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  was working there. And so we're like, okay,
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  we have to be able to realistically
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  make this move and do
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  something that we want
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  to, you know, enjoy, that we love.
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  And then that's going to sustain our family.
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  So then I was like, you know what? How
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  about, there was a lot like adjacent
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  to that, that was for sale.
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  I was like, oh, let's buy this lot.
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  And then it was like, okay.
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  Because it was like, whatever we do, maybe we can put
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  a house on it, whatever. But, you know, this lot's
• 11:06
  available. Let's just get it. So we got the lot.
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  The lot, by the way, was where my grandfather grew up.
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  It was no longer in the family, but it was a,
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  it used to be for many, many years.
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  Yeah. But they didn't own it anymore.
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  But it was for sale. And it had been sitting for sale
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  for years. Like, and nobody bought it. So I was like, oh, let me
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  buy it. So I bought it. And I was like, so this is
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  great. So now we have this lot where we can
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  build a house or we could do whatever. It kind of gives
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  us some options. Then I got to thinking
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  like, okay, this is really cool because now
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  I can really do something like really
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  awesome, right? It's like, I had this little
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  idea, but now I can do something
• 11:37
  really special. This can be
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  something special. And so
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  then that's when I said, okay, let's do
• 11:42
  this plan and then let's go back
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  and try to get it approved. And
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  then, excuse my French,
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  all hell broke loose.
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  It was like
• 11:53
  a bottle rocket in a toilet.
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  It was not. I mean.
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  I've thought that before actually.
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  So much fun. Yeah.
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  This one was more expensive
• 12:03
  than repairing. Was the resistance to this
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  the same people who
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  brought resistance to the first idea?
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  Them and then they were. And then they added
• 12:10
  more. Many more with it. Lots more people.
• 12:13
  Well, we started with. Consistent I guess.
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  Yeah.
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  Well organized. And that's what we didn't
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  understand. It's like, okay, like you're just
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  going to go against anything we do because it's like
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  you were mad at this. Now
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  you're mad at that. Maybe you're just mad.
• 12:27
  So how did you approach getting
• 12:29
  past or getting through the resistance
• 12:31
  that had popped up the second
• 12:33
  time? Right. That was a whole nother
• 12:34
  like can of worms because
• 12:36
  this was a bigger project. I bought like 40
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  acres. We weren't going to use all the
• 12:40
  40 acres obviously for the project. But like we
• 12:42
  were using part of it. James actually
• 12:44
  went to the town and said, hey, what can
• 12:46
  we do? Because we really want to move
• 12:48
  back home. And so we need
• 12:50
  to make a living. What can we do?
• 12:52
  What's possible with this land that we have?
• 12:55
  And they told him, you can do a campground.
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  So we're like, oh,
• 12:58
  okay, we can do a campground.
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  So then we started thinking about all these ideas
• 13:02
  around campground. And then we worked with an
• 13:04
  engineer who told us, this is like the
• 13:06
  maximum that you can do on
• 13:08
  this land. So we went and did a design
• 13:10
  with the maximum. Like, oh, we could do
• 13:12
  this. It would be great. But the
• 13:14
  maximum was a lot, I have to admit. It was
• 13:16
  a lot, but we were allowed it, right?
• 13:19
  Did the engineer's pictures look anything
• 13:20
  like the picture that you drew?
• 13:22
  No. Okay.
• 13:24
  I'm just curious.
• 13:26
  Sorry.
• 13:27
  Okay. So we went in like,
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  okay, this is what he told us.
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  This is what you can do. This is the maximum.
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  So we're like, okay, fine. We'll go to the town with the maximum.
• 13:37
  Oh, my God. It was like...
• 13:39
  Why are you shaking your head?
• 13:40
  It was insane.
• 13:42
  I mean, it was like, people
• 13:44
  were like writing and calling
• 13:46
  and sending letters. I think there was
• 13:48
  like a hundred letters or something.
• 13:51
  I don't know how many there were.
• 13:52
  I don't know, like letter after letter. Like, we don't
• 13:54
  want this in our town. We don't want you to turn
• 13:56
  this into Bar Harbor. Then they started making
• 13:58
  signs. And so like, there was like all
• 14:00
  these signs around town about us. And we were
• 14:02
  like, whoa, like this is about us?
• 14:04
  Like, seriously? Then we had the news
• 14:06
  come down and interview us.
• 14:08
  And after maybe two
• 14:10
  years of like battling, we
• 14:12
  ended up going to...
• 14:14
  Mediation. Mediation. But first we went
• 14:16
  to the planning board. That took
• 14:18
  months and months to approve. They kept
• 14:20
  asking for more and more stuff. We did
• 14:22
  everything they asked for. We
• 14:24
  did a town meeting with all the neighbors
• 14:26
  to see if like, okay, look, you guys
• 14:28
  don't like it. What about this?
• 14:30
  What about that? What about this? And they
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  like screamed us off the
• 14:34
  meeting. Like, we had to like end the meeting
• 14:36
  early because they were like...
• 14:37
  It was like crazy.
• 14:40
  So it's like, okay, that's over. So then we redesigned
• 14:42
  it. We came back because most of
• 14:44
  what we heard was like, we want less. We want less.
• 14:46
  We don't want RVs. We don't
• 14:48
  want this. We don't want that. So we're like, okay,
• 14:50
  we're going to listen, right?
• 14:52
  We're going to do less. And it was a lot.
• 14:54
  Like, I'm not even going to like, whatever. It was a lot
• 14:56
  because like he did the maximum, right?
• 14:58
  And so then I was like, okay, let's listen.
• 15:00
  And then the engineer that I was working
• 15:02
  with, architectural engineer, she
• 15:04
  is amazing. She said, Kenya,
• 15:06
  what do you want to do? Because what
• 15:08
  I had was what the engineer said we
• 15:10
  could do. But it was like, what do you
• 15:12
  want to do? And I was like, you
• 15:14
  know what? I would love to do something
• 15:16
  more upscale. Because what we were doing with
• 15:18
  like RVs and stuff like that, that's
• 15:20
  not really my jam, right? So I was like,
• 15:22
  I want to do something more upscale,
• 15:24
  more luxurious, more wellness focused.
• 15:26
  And she was like, okay, so how
• 15:28
  about, you know, we look at these places.
• 15:30
  And so then we actually put together
• 15:32
  a whole new project and
• 15:34
  it became something that I loved.
• 15:36
  Before it was like I was just doing something
• 15:38
  for a living. But then
• 15:40
  because I was able to put my ideas
• 15:42
  into it and kind of what I liked, it became
• 15:44
  something that I really am passionate
• 15:46
  about. It went from like to love.
• 15:48
  Yes. And it actually
• 15:50
  carried better favor with the neighbors
• 15:52
  because they were like, wow, they're actually listening
• 15:54
  to us. Like they're actually
• 15:56
  hearing our feedback and doing something
• 15:58
  like we said we want less and she's
• 16:00
  doing less. We said we don't want RVs
• 16:03
  and they took away the RVs.
• 16:05
  And so then it kind of like softened
• 16:07
  I think the relationship.
• 16:08
  Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands
• 16:10
  of dollars in lawyer fees later.
• 16:15
  But it did soften it.
• 16:18
  And so
• 16:19
  then we finally were able to get
• 16:21
  to a point where everybody was
• 16:23
  happy and we we had a mediation
• 16:26
  two years later and
• 16:27
  then it was finally approved.
• 16:29
  Hearing the story, it seems like the lesson
• 16:31
  to take away here is
• 16:34
  to listen
• 16:35
  and work together. And it seems
• 16:37
  when everyone got to that point,
• 16:39
  you ended up with something that you both were happier
• 16:41
  with. And as you just said, the neighbors were happier
• 16:43
  with so much so that you have something
• 16:45
  that you love. Knowing that now,
• 16:48
  knowing the end result, would you
• 16:49
  have changed anything?
• 16:51
  I don't know. I don't know if I could
• 16:53
  have, right? I mean, part of the reason
• 16:55
  why I didn't go in with what we
• 16:57
  have now is because it ain't cheap.
• 17:00
  It's very, very,
• 17:02
  very expensive. What
• 17:03
  we had originally was something that we
• 17:05
  could afford, but we had
• 17:07
  to kind of meet in the middle
• 17:09
  and do something that I would have
• 17:11
  loved to do and I am doing, but it's
• 17:13
  going to take me a lot longer because it's a lot
• 17:15
  more expensive. You know, as much as we were
• 17:17
  an open book, I think we were understanding of
• 17:19
  hey, and you guys don't want to see RVs
• 17:21
  and we understand that. Making an RV
• 17:23
  lot is a piece of dirt and so your
• 17:25
  capital investment on each lot is pretty
• 17:27
  low. And so there's just the two
• 17:29
  of us, so we're thinking that's a good place for us to
• 17:31
  start and begin our journey into
• 17:33
  something that we see in the future as
• 17:35
  I can always pull those back out. But when
• 17:37
  you put them in, it kind of scares people.
• 17:39
  Yeah, we didn't get to start there. We had to
• 17:41
  start all... We weren't in disagreement
• 17:43
  with them. We're saying from like a capital
• 17:45
  investment standpoint, hey, this is a great spot
• 17:47
  for us to start, get our heads around this thing and
• 17:49
  then we can make improvements down the road. I'm not a member
• 17:51
  of a planning board or a civil engineer, but I am
• 17:53
  a thinker and I do wonder,
• 17:55
  where do they have a legal standing telling you
• 17:57
  what you could and could not do on
• 17:59
  your land? Yeah, that's
• 18:01
  the same question I asked.
• 18:04
  They really, so
• 18:06
  honestly, legally
• 18:08
  they did not, but
• 18:09
  you can appeal
• 18:11
  any decision by
• 18:13
  the town and you can find
• 18:15
  reasons that you want to appeal
• 18:17
  it and then it's up to us to
• 18:19
  basically prove you wrong.
• 18:22
  And so that's where the back and forth went.
• 18:24
  Strategy may not be
• 18:25
  we have a card in this, it's
• 18:27
  strategy could just be we want to do a capital
• 18:29
  drain or a prolongment of you
• 18:31
  able to rent and produce any income
• 18:33
  while you've got the resources
• 18:35
  to wait and draw this out.
• 18:37
  So it's a different strategy.
• 18:39
  It may not be, hey, we have legal standing
• 18:41
  status we have. Can I ask a follow
• 18:43
  question and that would be, were there any
• 18:45
  general store nearby or
• 18:47
  a restaurant nearby that
• 18:49
  would think, you know, if I do
• 18:51
  welcome this development that these
• 18:53
  nice people from away are looking
• 18:55
  to do and someone who's native, it's
• 18:57
  going to bring business to my store. It's going to bring
• 18:59
  business to my restaurant. Was there no even
• 19:01
  back-channeled someone saying to you,
• 19:03
  look, I realize your neighbors are really upset, but
• 19:05
  you know, I'm on your side.
• 19:06
  And those are the people
• 19:10
  that are part of the reason
• 19:11
  why we're here, why we made it through
• 19:13
  because there were. There were
• 19:15
  a lot of local businesses, a lot of
• 19:17
  local business owners that
• 19:19
  stood up for us and some of those meetings
• 19:21
  they would say, hey, I think
• 19:23
  this is a good idea and you're not telling
• 19:25
  us what we can do with our land.
• 19:27
  Just like you don't want me to tell you
• 19:29
  what you can do with your land. How dare
• 19:31
  you tell these people what they can do
• 19:33
  with theirs. And so it was people like that
• 19:35
  that really had our backs, right?
• 19:37
  And they really stood up for us
• 19:39
  in these meetings and helped us to get
• 19:41
  through. And not just those people,
• 19:43
  there's people like all
• 19:45
  over Maine that just came
• 19:47
  through for us. And
• 19:49
  we've ended up building such an amazing
• 19:51
  community from this process.
• 19:54
  People like we would have never
• 19:55
  met, like you guys, had we
• 19:57
  not gone through this. So even though
• 19:59
  it was trying and it was difficult, it
• 20:01
  was definitely worth it because we've made
• 20:03
  some amazing lifelong friends,
• 20:05
  incredible connections. And I've been
• 20:07
  able to do some things here in Maine that, and James
• 20:09
  as well, that we would not have
• 20:11
  been able to do if it wasn't for wonderful people.
• 20:14
  Kenya, you mentioned
• 20:15
  you're in RN. Went to school for
• 20:17
  what? Mechanical engineering.
• 20:19
  And I have a master's in business.
• 20:21
  You also have a background
• 20:23
  in music and modeling.
• 20:25
  James, Kenya mentioned you have a great job
• 20:27
  or had a great job in Florida. What was that?
• 20:28
  So I was working for a family office
• 20:30
  there, overseeing his residential
• 20:32
  basically components, which there was
• 20:34
  aircraft and yachting involved and stuff like that,
• 20:36
  but ran basically staffing and
• 20:38
  oversight of all those things. All of that
• 20:40
  background, none of that prepares
• 20:42
  you for being on the news
• 20:44
  and just using
• 20:46
  your land for what you want to use it for.
• 20:48
  I don't know, modeling maybe.
• 20:50
  Maybe. She's
• 20:52
  definitely better in front of the camera than I am.
• 20:54
  USA, the top 10.
• 20:56
  Maybe you could have put some
• 20:58
  of this to song. I don't know.
• 21:00
  But what cut you through
• 21:02
  all of that, especially in the early stages
• 21:04
  before you built that community,
• 21:06
  that network of support?
• 21:08
  I think it was something we just decided
• 21:10
  that we were going to do. Like it was like
• 21:12
  this is what we're doing. And then we had
• 21:14
  gotten so far along,
• 21:16
  it wouldn't have made sense to back out.
• 21:18
  Like it just financial sense for
• 21:20
  our families. It just wouldn't have made
• 21:22
  sense. And so that's when we kind of
• 21:24
  dug our heels in and we
• 21:25
  really started to fight and just
• 21:27
  did what we needed to do to get to where
• 21:29
  we are. It's a funny story.
• 21:32
  James, so at one point
• 21:34
  it was so, we had gotten
• 21:35
  approved, but thousands and thousands
• 21:38
  and thousands of dollars later
• 21:39
  and like lots of time later, I
• 21:41
  had to come here before him
• 21:44
  to start the business.
• 21:45
  And like we literally like had no
• 21:47
  money because it was like we used all
• 21:49
  our money, like we used all of our money.
• 21:51
  He, he was like in Florida
• 21:53
  working and he would like call me
• 21:55
  every day, like having an entire
• 21:57
  bit. He's like, I can't pay
• 21:59
  my bills.
• 22:02
  Oh my God!
• 22:04
  So I had to be like the
• 22:05
  voice of reason, like we're going to be okay.
• 22:08
  It's okay. I promise.
• 22:10
  And he would like, I mean, and to the
• 22:11
  point I was like, James, like seriously, you've
• 22:13
  got to get it together. So what
• 22:15
  I was doing was like taking money
• 22:17
  like out of one account and like putting
• 22:19
  it into another account. So like
• 22:21
  stuff would go through.
• 22:24
  Also,
• 22:25
  if you send a bill in and you don't sign the check, that
• 22:27
  binds it by 20 days.
• 22:30
  FYI.
• 22:31
  I think anyone that is in business with a spouse, not that
• 22:33
  I would know, probably has those moments
• 22:35
  where there are some days,
• 22:37
  there are some days you pick up the phone
• 22:39
  or you turn to your spouse and you say,
• 22:42
  James, I need you
• 22:43
  to be the strong one today.
• 22:45
  Or Kenya, I need you to be the
• 22:47
  strong one today. Look, I'll pick
• 22:49
  it up again tomorrow.
• 22:51
  For sure. Sure there are days like that.
• 22:53
  I mean, you know, it's one of these things where, you know, we've
• 22:55
  done a lot of different things, but doing this
• 22:57
  together and navigating
• 22:59
  a move from Miami back
• 23:01
  to Maine was a hurdle that neither
• 23:03
  one of us had been over before, but I think it's
• 23:05
  made us much, much stronger in the long run
• 23:07
  and we've learned, I mean, a ton
• 23:09
  from the process. All
• 23:11
  in all, it was obviously the right thing
• 23:13
  and the good thing, but getting through it,
• 23:15
  there was definitely days where it's like,
• 23:17
  what the heck are we doing?
• 23:19
  You know, it's like, geez, Louise,
• 23:20
  I'm busting butt down here,
• 23:22
  15 hour days, you're up there doing the same thing
• 23:25
  and I got to check my account
• 23:27
  to go in and fill my car up with gas.
• 23:29
  I haven't had to do that in 20 years.
• 23:31
  Since I was in high school.
• 23:33
  So I'm like, I'm at the pump
• 23:35
  and I'm like,
• 23:37
  did Kenya move money out of one of these
• 23:39
  accounts that she didn't tell me and I'm going to be over here
• 23:41
  like, you know, and stuff like
• 23:43
  that. And so then I was like, hey,
• 23:45
  guess what? I can't get gas right now. She's like, oh
• 23:47
  yeah, because I wanted to. And it's just
• 23:49
  like, you know, I'm not in a
• 23:51
  great place in Miami right now. And it's like 9
• 23:53
  30.
• 23:54
  I'm in Hialeah and I'd like to get out of here,
• 23:57
  please, because I don't have any gas.
• 24:00
  You know, it's like, you know,
• 24:01
  it's just like stuff like that on like a long work
• 24:03
  week. You're just kind of like, good God.
• 24:05
  Right now there are couples listening to this podcast
• 24:07
  and one is looking over at the other and the other is
• 24:09
  looking back.
• 24:10
  But
• 24:12
  now that it's in the,
• 24:13
  is it all in the rear view mirror? It is.
• 24:15
  We are, we are like 90%.
• 24:17
  Wow. We're coming out of it.
• 24:20
  So one of my good
• 24:21
  friends and he's actually a part of that
• 24:23
  community that I was talking to you about that we
• 24:25
  met doing this.
• 24:27
  One day I called
• 24:29
  him and he's just been
• 24:31
  so great, such sound advice
• 24:33
  through this whole thing. And he goes, you're in the Valley
• 24:35
  of Death.
• 24:38
  He's like,
• 24:38
  almost every new business owner goes
• 24:41
  to the Valley of Death. He's like, but if
• 24:43
  you get out of the Valley of Death, you're going to be
• 24:45
  okay. And at the time I'm like,
• 24:47
  what are you talking about?
• 24:49
  Our Valley of Death had a lot
• 24:51
  of like straight stretches in it, I think.
• 24:52
  It took me a while to get back out.
• 24:54
  Like this is not a very...
• 24:57
  And so, but now that
• 24:58
  we're out, we are definitely out of the Valley
• 25:00
  of Death and it was just such a great
• 25:03
  description. That's exactly what it
• 25:05
  was. And that's what it felt like. I think we found
• 25:06
  the subtitle for the Hallmark movie.
• 25:09
  That's going to be Valley
• 25:11
  of Death.
• 25:12
  Question about the yurts. You will
• 25:15
  often see people who
• 25:17
  are introverts and maybe
• 25:19
  into yurts would like to
• 25:21
  find themselves curled up
• 25:23
  on a snowy day in
• 25:25
  a structure with a fire and
• 25:27
  a book and probably a cat.
• 25:29
  I don't know if you allow that.
• 25:30
  We do. We allow pets.
• 25:32
  We allow all the pets.
• 25:33
  All the fur babies. I'm wondering,
• 25:35
  you talk about a clientele where it's people
• 25:37
  that are going to be coming and enjoying the park
• 25:39
  and enjoying MDI and coming and staying. Maybe
• 25:41
  families and maybe couples getting together.
• 25:43
  Hey, let's get together. Let's go to Acadia.
• 25:45
  Is there a winter clientele?
• 25:48
  So we do,
• 25:49
  but not right now. Right now
• 25:51
  we are, we close in October
• 25:53
  and we don't open until May.
• 25:55
  But this whole
• 25:57
  difficult process of getting the full approval,
• 25:59
  in that approval, we do have
• 26:01
  some, they're called ocean view yurts.
• 26:04
  And so these yurts will
• 26:05
  be along a cliff
• 26:07
  and we're going to put big windows in them
• 26:09
  so you can see the ocean.
• 26:11
  And these yurts we plan to make year-round.
• 26:13
  So basically the difference is just insulating
• 26:15
  everything so that
• 26:17
  the water doesn't freeze.
• 26:19
  Doesn't happen in Miami too often.
• 26:21
  That's not usually a problem for us.
• 26:22
  So that's the plan. The plan is to
• 26:25
  insulate those so that we can have,
• 26:27
  you know, that basically just means putting the water
• 26:29
  lines deep enough. And I know everything, by the way.
• 26:31
  I could build a city.
• 26:33
  I know everything about
• 26:36
  groundwork, electrical lines.
• 26:37
  That's the cool thing about this project is
• 26:39
  we've been able to do it all.
• 26:41
  We have to get our own water source. We have to
• 26:43
  pull electrical in, put up poles
• 26:45
  and lines and run in the
• 26:47
  ground to each unit.
• 26:49
  And I've been a part of all that.
• 26:51
  So that's been really cool about this project.
• 26:53
  So the new ones will
• 26:55
  allow for guests to
• 26:57
  be able to stay in the wintertime.
• 26:58
  We don't know what that's going to look like yet,
• 27:01
  but we would love to have a space like that
• 27:03
  because look, that's me curled up in a book.
• 27:05
  Cat.
• 27:06
  It looks like Serenity is what it looks like.
• 27:08
  And the park is doing a really good job too. They've got
• 27:10
  cross-country skiing and there's a group of people that volunteer
• 27:12
  and do different things and they film the trails.
• 27:14
  And they're doing a really good job with that and more and more people
• 27:17
  are coming for that.
• 27:18
  Maine doesn't shut down like it used to.
• 27:20
  When I was growing up it was
• 27:22
  pretty desolate. Now it's much, much
• 27:25
  better. So I think
• 27:26
  there's a lot to offer up here.
• 27:28
  It's still very beautiful. So we'd
• 27:30
  like to be a part of that for when people come up for sure.
• 27:33
  So in that way you're kind of ahead of the curve.
• 27:34
  Yeah. I like that.
• 27:36
  I like that.
• 27:38
  So you talked about the Oceanview
• 27:41
  yurts that are coming. I know that there
• 27:42
  were phases and I know it started with the
• 27:44
  nine yurts and now Luxury Tents
• 27:46
  opening in the summer of
• 27:49
  2026. That's right.
• 27:50
  So tell us about, I guess, what the next
• 27:52
  step is and the next phases
• 27:54
  we're going to see in the evolution of Acadia
• 27:56
  Wilderness Lodge. Yes, yes. So
• 27:58
  we have the village and the village has been open
• 28:00
  for five years
• 28:02
  and it's been wonderful.
• 28:04
  And so we're expanding
• 28:06
  now onto, like I said, I
• 28:08
  have the 40-something acres.
• 28:10
  We're expanding onto that part
• 28:12
  and this is when all the really
• 28:14
  cool stuff kind of starts to
• 28:16
  take shape because we're going to have
• 28:18
  like a little check-in building, like a
• 28:20
  little cafe. We're going to have a
• 28:22
  playground. We're going to have a picnic
• 28:24
  pavilion with like an outdoor like
• 28:26
  seated area with fire, like a community
• 28:28
  place with like fireplace and
• 28:30
  grills and have a
• 28:32
  dog park going in like that's
• 28:34
  fenced so you can like let your dog
• 28:36
  get their zoomies out. You can just let them loose
• 28:38
  inside the fence, you know,
• 28:40
  before you check in for the night. And then
• 28:42
  there's these amazing trails. So
• 28:44
  I actually got a piece because you
• 28:46
  know how you're doing construction and everything
• 28:48
  kind of looks like crap because like it's all
• 28:50
  dug up and there's lines everywhere and it looks horrible.
• 28:53
  Right before it snowed,
• 28:54
  I was working with the guys and we started
• 28:56
  putting our walking paths in
• 28:58
  and I started to get a piece of what
• 29:00
  it's going to look like.
• 29:02
  When I tell you, like so
• 29:04
  amazing. Like I'm not even like
• 29:07
  exaggerating. Like I
• 29:08
  was excited. Like I was like,
• 29:10
  this is beautiful. Like it's beautiful.
• 29:13
  So I can't wait for people to see that.
• 29:14
  Could you see it? Because he saw it.
• 29:16
  He wasn't even there.
• 29:17
  No, he saw it.
• 29:21
  Could you envision it?
• 29:22
  Yeah. I think, you know, and she's right.
• 29:24
  So I've been doing around construction for a long time and
• 29:26
  there's this phase that you go through that when you're
• 29:28
  in the middle of it, you look and it's like, oh my God,
• 29:30
  what is this mess? And then kind of at the
• 29:32
  end, it kind of pulls together. So we got a glimpse
• 29:34
  of it. It's going to be really nice when it's done. That's good.
• 29:36
  A couple of years ago, I had to go to a conference at a
• 29:38
  place in Southern Washington.
• 29:40
  I'm forgetting the name of the town, but it was
• 29:42
  the Skamania Lodge and
• 29:44
  it had luxury
• 29:46
  yurts and it had
• 29:48
  luxury tents
• 29:50
  and it had tree houses.
• 29:52
  And I thought to myself, walking
• 29:54
  around that area, this
• 29:56
  is Kenya's vision. It's different.