It's time to think about 2011

Greetings from Gatlinburg. We arrived last night and we're staying at All Decked Out - and getting some minor maintenance issues taken care of.

I was looking at our reservation calendar this morning and realized that we have very few dates available for 2010. So it's time to start thinking about 2011.

Here's the good news. As of now, we are not raising our rates in 2011. Of course, that may change as we see how the reservations come in. But if you book your 2011 stay at Smoky Mountain Tower or All Decked Out this year, you will still get our 2010 rates.

Frankly, we don't know too many other people who are keeping rates at the same level next year. If our cleaning costs go up, we'll probably have to increase our rates, too. So we encourage you to book now, while the rates are still this low. And in case you forgot, our rates have never been this low in the 14-year history of renting our cabins!

It's easy to make your reservation online. Just go to either of our Web site and click the "Book Online Now" button. Enter your arrival and departure dates, and go on from there.

To make it easy, here are links directly to our online calendar:
-Smoky Mountain Tower - www.SmokyMountainTower.com/availability
-All Decked Out - www.SmokiesRentDirect.com/availability

We look forward to having you stay with us in 2011!

Smoky Mountain Tower Queen Bonus Room

If you've been to Smoky Mountain Tower this year, you know that we made the second level Bonus Room into a Queen "bedroom." We've always had the big chemical bottle lamp that my dad made many years ago. Now we've added another bedside lamp and a clock.


The room doesn't have a closet, but we added some shelves and hooks for clothes.


Of course, we put in a big wide-screen 32" TV. It's great to just be able to lie in bed and watch your favorite shows.


The biggest problem we had was the door. The opening is configured so it's impossible to add a regular door. Our first attempt at privacy was a set of vertical blinds. But we soon discovered they were pretty fragile and kept falling down. I tried taping them up, but that didn't work, either.

Then Mark, one of our great maintenance guys, told me about an accordion door. So we bought it and Mark put it up. Now, here's what the entrance looks like:


The only thing this room doesn't have is an attached bath. You have to share a bath with the occupants of the Master King Suite or the Master Queen Suite (up or down one level), or use the half-bath in the Tower Room. But so far, our guests seem to like it. We hope you'll check it out for yourselves and let us know what you think.

Tracking the fall colors

The leaves are just starting to turn a little bit. When we were in Gatlinburg a week ago, we just started to see some slight color changes.

Like you, I'm always watching for a good site to track the changes. I think I've found one. Just click here. Or, here's the whole link to copy and paste into your browser:

http://discoverpigeonforgecabins.com/fc2010/fall_colors_2010.htm

We've got a few nights open still in October at All Decked Out so you can enjoy the colors first-hand. Click here to check our calendar and make your reservation online, before somebody else gets your dates. And how about this! We're offering a special 15% discount for any available date from now through November 7 - just to encourage you to enjoy the colors. You'll find all the details here.

We hope you'll join us for God's great fall color show.

There's a garage at Smoky Mountain Tower

If you've been to Smoky Mountain Tower, you know there is a garage! So far, we've been using it for storage - mostly things that need to find a new home. Here's what it used to look like:


But our good friend, Darren, came by recently and took all the unwanted stuff. Now it's looking better:


Those cabinets are going to be installed on the back wall. There are a few other things that need to find a new home. But our goal (we hope, we hope) is to get everything done by winter so we can offer the garage as a place to get your vehicle out of the snow! Please watch our Web site for details - www.SmokyMountainTower.com. We'll let you know right here when the job is done!

Yes, there are bears!

We stopped by Gatlinburg on our way to Illinois today, just to drop off some things and check on several things. One thing we had heard about was that, apparently, a bear knocked our trash bin down the mountain at All Decked Out.

We didn't realize what a mess he had made. But see for yourself:


Here's a close-up of the metal "bear-proof" container:


And this is where the container used to be - about 100 yards away, at the top of the hill, right on the edge of the road:


If you look carefully, you'll see one of the metal legs still stuck in the ground. Apparently, this broke off in the fight! Hopefully, we'll get it all picked up and put back together in the next couple of days. Meanwhile, BEWARE OF THE BEARS!

A wedding at Smoky Mountain Tower

Who needs a wedding chapel? Not Randy McIlwain and Cheryl Bowden from Alabama. They were married in the sunroom at Smoky Mountain Tower a week ago today (Saturday, September 4).


Randy and Cheryl were joined for the ceremony by family members who came from Texas and Mississippi.


After the ceremony, everybody gathered for a family picture.

Then, everybody celebrated.


Congratulations, Randy and Cheryl - and thank you for choosing Smoky Mountain Tower to start your life together. May you have many years of blessing and happiness.

Fall colors are coming...

It's been about a week since we were in Gatlinburg. But one of the things we noticed is that fall is coming!

The leaves on the trees just outside the sunroom at Smoky Mountain Tower are starting to show some signs of changing colors. Take a look:


Here's a little closer view. The dogwood especially is starting to get its red fall hue.


We hope you won't miss the colors this year. From everything I've seen, it's supposed to be a pretty good year for fall colors.

Please check our Web sites for availability (just click on the name to go to our calendar):
Smoky Mountain Tower
All Decked Out

See you in the Smokies!