A last resort

A lot of rich people aren’t smart, but at least they know a little bit about money. After all, they are rich. If they don’t, pretty soon they become un-rich.

Like Stephen R. Smith. He’s the jillionaire (maybe former jillionaire) who poured a ton of money into a resort in West Texas. As much as $80 million.

The resort — actually, now it’s a former resort — had a 92-room hotel, fancy golf course, private air strip, etc. More goodies were planned — condominiums, a gated community, etc. — but they never happened.

The problem, as realtors say, was, “Location, location, location.”

The resort is squished between the Big Bend state and national parks along the Rio Grande River. The nearest big town is El Paso, and it’s not really near. It’s 300 miles away.

If you know anything about the geography of West Texas, it is basically a large, barren, sun-baked desert. Words like “desolate” and “Godforsaken” have been applied to it — quite accurately.

Back to the resort: It went bankrupt from a distinct lack of customers.

Last week, it was put up for auction. It didn’t sell.

Now I’m no expert in these things, but I have a hunch that the reason nobody wanted to pour any more money down that rathole is the same reason that the “resort” went bust in the first place, which of course is that …

IT IS IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!!!

Just another one to file under, “What were they thinking?”