Not every chair is content to stay home. Some are born to wander.
When innkeeper Beth Colt rescued a red chair from a junkyard in the summer of 2010, she had no idea she would end up as its travel agent. But after Colt tightened some screws, added furniture glue and painted the chair the same color red, the Red Chair began catching the eye of guests at the 14-room Woods Hole Inn in Massachusetts. (508-495-0248, woodsholeinn.com).
In January 2011, after Colt shared a photo of the Red Chair on a frozen pond on the Inn’s Facebook page, it became a popular photographic subject, and Colt began blogging about her four-leg attraction. Innkeepers began asking the chair to visit. And in 2012, the chair visited inns in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.
In June, the Red Chair embarked on a journey across America, where it will stay at more than 100 Inns and B&Bs, ending in Santa Barbara, Calif., next spring. Follow the adventures at redchairtravels .com, where Colt chronicles the travels.
The Red Chair typically travels in the back of a station wagon from one innkeeper to another. On the cross-country trip, innkeepers may choose to ship it when the drive is too far.
“If so, it will be well wrapped with bubble wrap and cardboard and likely go by UPS,” Colt said.
Innkeepers say they enjoy driving an hour or so away to meet another innkeeper. And they’ve told her it’s fun “to wander the streets with a chair and have people approach you as if you are holding hands with Brad Pitt,” Colt added.
What does the chair miss most when it travels?
“I think the chair misses the fog horn of the Vineyard Ferry, which sounds each morning at about 7 a.m. as the first ferry heads off to the island,” Colt said. The Martha’s Vineyard ferry is steps away from the Woods Hole Inn.
