Greetings from Snowy Gatlinburg

That's right - I'm writing this from the sunroom in Smoky Mountain Tower. Phyllis and I drove in last night, arriving about 9:45 pm. We came from Charlotte, so that means we had to detour around the rock slide on I-40. We chose to get off at exit 27 and take highway 19 through Maggie Valley to Cherokee, then take highway 441 through the National Park.

We were pleasantly surprised. This route only added 20 minutes to the normal time of our trip. Of course, it was Sunday night and there wasn't much traffic. But it was an easy trip.

We got to Smoky Mountain Tower just a few hours after our weekend guests, Mark and Nell and their teenage children had left. These lovely folks are from central Tennessee. Mark wrote to me today: "We had a great time. We got there about 9:30 Friday night and woke up to a winter wonderland on Saturday morning. I'm sure you've seen it before but I've attached a few photos of what it looked like. It was just a couple of inches and it never really stuck to the roads so it was the perfect snow."

I thought you'd like to see Mark's pictures, so here they are:

Thanks, Mark and Nell, and all your wonderful children. We hope you'll come back again!