Great Escape: Bed and Breakfast at The Ragsdale Inn in Dallas

Your teens are holding a car wash at the high school Saturday. The grandparents volunteered to take the younger children to a movie Sunday afternoon. Your tweens take tap on Wednesday evening. It’s your time. Take it.

Each week, we’ll tell you about great ideas to give you a much-deserved break and make your life a little easier—maybe a whole lot easier.

A special free event coming up Friday will be a concert from 7 to 10 p.m. at The Ragsdale Inn, 103 Ragsdale Place near downtown Dallas.

Flat Pickin, Inc., a local bluegrass band "with a new sound," will be performing on the lawn.

Anyone attending is asked to bring a lawn chair "and relax a while under our shady trees," says co-owner Jackie Crum.

Food and beverages will be available for purchase.

For more information, contact Crum at 770-443-3440.

Built in 1905 as a private home, Paulding's only bed-and-breakfast inn also serves as a special-event facility.

At first, the Ragsdale Inn was the home of Col. A.J. Camp, mayor of both Villa Rica and Dallas. For $1,000, Camp bought 25 acres from Roland Russom.

In 1918, the Camps sold their house to Col. Sanders Walker Ragsdale, an attorney and a state representative who died tragically in 1939.

Then the house was sold to his oldest son Howell Ragsdale, according to local historian Jason Lee Edwards on The Ragsdale Inn website. Howell Ragsdale was married to schoolteacher Ola Hitchcock who lived there until 1999.

In 2001, the house was sold to Joe and Fay Stacknik and Crum who began a full restoration in 2002 and who named the home in honor of the Ragsdales.

Trip Advisor reviews have given the inn 4-star ratings by each reviewer who stayed there.

Their last three governmental food scores all have ranked 100/A.

Among the amenities are free coffee, tea, hot chocolate and sodas at all hours; fresh-baked goods in the evenings; free breakfast; free high-speed Internet; and free parking.

Rates are the Travelers' Room at $79.95 for two guests; the Family Room at $99.95 for four; and the Bridal/Romantic Suite at $119.95 for three guests. Each room comes with hair dryers, alarms, a full bathroom with shower and a flat-screen TV.

Contacts: 770-443-3440, text at 770-490-7630, email at theragsdaleinn@aol.com or visit the website at www.ragsdaleinn.com.