Memorial Weekend - Part 2

Well, me and my big mouth! Just about 2 hours after I put up the last post, we booked Mountain Tower for Memorial Weekend. We have a lovely family from Florida coming from Saturday morning through Tuesday morning.

But we still have some space in May. And we're getting more inquiries for June, too. So don't wait. We REALLY want you to experience Mountain Tower, so book now before your dates are taken.

Memorial Weekend

Can you believe? Here we are in May already! Last year at this time, I was getting ready to go with my son-in-law to the Indianapolis 500! This year, I think we may be staying with Drake - our youngest grandchild.

But what really shocks me about this point in the year is that one of the biggest holiday weekends in the Smokies - Memorial Day weekend - is less than three weeks away and Mountain Tower is still available for rent! I don't think it will last long (I got an inquiry phone call about it this morning). But some family is going to have a great weekend in the Smokies at a really cheap price - less than $450 for three nights.

Hope it will be you. Just go to www.SmokiesRentDirect.com/MT and click on the "Book Online Now" button. To get that cheap price for three nights, add the coupon code "3nite" in the box provided. I hope YOU will be the folks who can join us for this prime weekend!

More pictures from last week

We thought we might get to go through the Park and enjoy the wildflowers on our way home from Gatlinburg. Alas, we had too much to do before we left. However, here are a few more pictures from our trip last week.

Mt. LeConte at sunset - taken from the Tower deck

Sunset looking toward Ober Gatlinburg

The dogwood along the foothills parkway. This picture doesn't do it justice because it was the most spectacular we've ever seen.

And, while this isn't really Gatlinburg-related, we want to show you the azaleas in our "woods" at home in North Carolina (about a third of our lot is woods).

One more thing - we've added a link to Smokies Rent Direct on the right side (how did we miss that before?!). Please keep visiting our Web site regularly, because we're hoping for some big announcements soon.

The dogwood is out!

(Written from Mountain Tower)

We've been coming to the Smokies for years, but have never seen the dogwood in bloom like we're experiencing it on this trip. We probably have close to a dozen dogwood trees on the property. Some are very large, some are small. There's one right at the end of the driveway that's very old, and the blossoms are almost the size of my hand. Take a look:

This is the sunroom and tower, with just a corner of one of the dogwood trees.

There are two large trees just outside the sunroom, just covered with blossoms.

This is the view from inside - looking out the west sunroom windows.

Looking down from the tower deck, just before sunset.

And for those of you who like pink dogwood, this one is just at the entrance to our driveway at Mountain Tower.

There are more, but this is enough for now. I'll try to get some other photos up by the weekend. Hope you enjoy these. You definitely should make plans to be here in late April next year, because the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage is also going on at this time.

Big Changes

I learned a long time ago that the only thing constant is change. So we are announcing a pretty big change - at least for us. If you've been following our blog, you know that we have owned All Decked Out for almost 13 years. You also know that All Decked Out has been on an overnight rental program for that entire time - most recently being rented directly by us.

Now, if you look carefully, you'll see that All Decked Out is not shown on the right side of our blog. That's because - as of today - we have removed it from our rental program. We still own the cabin, but it is now going to be just our "vacation home," for use by family and friends.

Why? It's a long story. If you really want to know, write to me - Dave@SmokiesRentDirect.com.

Meanwhile, Mountain Tower is still on overnight rental. And we hope you will come stay with us. For details, visit our Web site at www.SmokiesRentDirect.com.

National Park Anniversary

This is a big year in the Smokies. We're celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park! You definitely will want to participate. For more information, check out the anniversary Web site at http://greatsmokies75th.com/. We'll try to keep you up to date on some of the big events taking place. But there is one coming up later this month - the Wildflower Pilgrimage - April 22-26. If I can find some of my wildflower pictures from past years, I'll post them here.

Our Favorite Blogs

We just added another "gadget" on the right side - a list of our favorite blogs. Here's why they're our favorites:

Andy's Fragments - Andy Beal is a great friend with whom I worked at ServiceMaster. He's still there - as the Business Development Manager with ServiceMaster Clean. Although ServiceMaster is headquartered in Memphis, TN, Andy and his wife, Nancy, live in Littleton, CO. Andy's blog covers everything from his family to life in the Mountain West to some great musings on life.

GOSmoky - Last fall, Raymond Owens called and introduced himself. Raymond is a super-fan of the Smokies. While he lives in South Carolina (and works nights as a producer at a local TV station), his hobby is the Smoky Mountains. He even produces an online radio show in which he interviews people from all over the Smokies. You definitely need to check out Raymond's Web site and his blog (just click on each link separately).

Hickory Cove Bible Camp - This is "our camp!" We moved from Memphis to North Carolina 9 years ago to help run Hickory Cove. While we're no longer on the staff, Dave still serves on the Board and we both volunteer for a variety of jobs at Camp. If you're looking for a great place to send your kids for summer camp, check out Hickory Cove.

Working Mom's Cookbook - If you've been reading through our blog, you know that reservations for our Smoky Mountain cabins are handled by our daughter, Angie Jones. In addition to working full time, being a full-time wife and mother, and a bunch of other stuff, Angie loves to cook. So she just started her own blog for working moms who want to trade recipes. Check it out!