Wildlife at Smoky Mountain Tower

Yes, there are bears and racoons and other wildlife that show up at Smoky Mountain Tower on occasion. But when we were there last week, our neighbor told us, "The screech owl is back."

Sure enough, he was in a hole in a dead tree just two houses up the road from Smoky Mountain Tower - about 200 feet from our front door. This is the tree:


From the top of the tree, look down to the spot where the first big branch goes off to the left. Just opposite that branch, on the right side of the tree is a dark spot. That's the hole where the owl lives.

Here's a little closer picture. The owl is just below the darkest piece of the tree on the right side of the trunk.


But he's still hard to see. So here's a close-up (yes, he was asleep):


You really need to stay with us at Smoky Mountain Tower. You never know "whooooooooo" you'll see!

Foosball at All Decked Out

As mentioned in our last post, we have successfully moved the Foosball table to All Decked Out. Take a look at the new family/game room layout. You can see the foosball table, the shelves with games, the table for games, the steps coming down from the main floor, the queen sofa-sleeper, and the pool table in the foreground.


Here's a closeup of just the foosball table:


We're still hoping to make the air hockey part of this set available. But I have to find a workable hover puck. Stay tuned!

Game Room Changes at Smoky Mountain Tower

We've made some changes in the Game Room! Since we could never keep the hover puck working for the air hockey game, we had to shut it down.

But we just found a "new" (to us) 7-foot air hockey table in very good shape. It is now installed in the Game Room. Take a look:


Here's a view of the whole table:


We still have to get some new pucks and pushers for the table, but they should be in place by mid-September. The current ones work, but they're ready to be relieved of duth.

What happened to the foosball table? We decided to "share the wealth." So it's going in the family/game room at All Decked Out. When we get it installed, we'll show you some pictures. We're also hoping to find a workable puck for that air hocket game.

Okay - you don't like surveys!

I guess our last post was a "bust." The only person who took our online survey was me! So I won't try that again for awhile.

But now that we're almost completely booked for August, it's time to start filling up the rest of the year. In fact, we're already getting inquiries for 2011. So we are working through some questions and answers for the remainder of 2010 and into 2011. That's my job for today. If you have any thoughts, now's the time to make your voice heard. Just pop me a quick e-mail to Dave@SmokiesRentDirect.com.

Thank you! I really hope to hear from you!

Today's post is a very simple survey. We'll do more of these in the future. But this time, we just want to know how you found us. Here's the survey:


To contact us directly, just write to Dave@SmokiesRentDirect.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Happy (Friday the 13th) Anniversary

Today - Friday, August 13 - is the 21st wedding anniversary of our daughter, Marcia, and her husband, John (Russell). John wrote about their planned celebration in a column that was printed in today's Nashville Tennessean. Here's what he wrote:

"Certainly for more years than I have been alive, Friday the 13^th has held the blame for being the clearing house day for all things, well, evil in the world.

"Some people are so traumatized by the prospect of something bad happening to them on these days, that they purpose to not even get out of bed. As if evil would rather chase you through your day, than to just find you waiting for it in bed, with the covers pulled over your head. Evil might be lazy, but it's not stupid!

"In stark contrast to the rest of the world, my wife and I always look forward to Friday's the 13^th. She and I met on a Friday the 13^th, we got engaged on a Friday the 13^th, and we even got married on the 13^th. It wasn't a Friday though, but that's because my wife-to-be at the time, thought two years was too long to be engaged and didn't want to give me the opportunity to delay things any longer. Sheesh! I even have the number 13 engraved in my wedding band, as a reminder of what good fortune Friday the 13^th has brought to our marriage.

"Over the years we have broken mirrors, stepped on cracks, owned black cats and prayed for patience. None of which has ever brought us any of the associated misfortune.

"Unfortunately, you missed two Friday the 13^th celebrations last year (hiding in bed no doubt), and you only have one chance this year to make things right. So this August 13^th, make plans to change out of your pajamas, get into the world and take one of the many other bed-bound to dinner or something. I promise that you'll be just fine, and you just might make a habit of it.

"My wife and I have both agreed that our ideal Friday the 13^th, would be to have a steerage stateroom on the Titanic II, sailing effortlessly through the Bermuda Triangle, renewing our vows under the arch of an open ladder (properly adorned for such an occasion of course), with my having first seen her in her dress before the ceremony and although she was lovely, she wore nothing old, nothing new, nothing borrowed and nothing blue.

"Our dreams will (sort of) be coming true this year, as we plan to spend Friday the 13^th at the new Titanic museum in Pigeon Forge, TN. If the ship actually sinks this time, it would have to be caused by the museum hitting an icy economic outlook instead of an actual iceberg!"

Their dream did come true, as they were on the "deck" of the Titanic today. We couldn't take pictures inside, but here's a picture of the whole family outside - (from left) Zack, Nathan, Marcia and John.


By the way, we don't usually "do the tourist stuff" when we're here in Gatlinburg - mostly because there's too much work to be done. But we thoroughly enjoyed the Titanic Museum. It's very well done and we learned a lot. So why not come and stay with us - and visit the museum.

God never makes mistakes

Tonight, we arrived at Smoky Mountain Tower to get some things done. I decided to scoot over to All Decked Out for a few minutes before our guests arrived. Imagine my surprise when I found the road blocked and power lines lying all over the place. This is what it looked like:


The problem was that a dead tree fell on the power line down the street, almost a block away. It took out the pole - and the wires - in two directions. Here's the source of the problem:


A close-up reveals that a fair amount of damage has been done to All Decked Out. Take a look:

So why do we say "God never makes mistakes?" Here's why:

• This happened at just the time God knew we would be in Gatlinburg and could take care of the problem.
• We had guests arriving at All Decked Out - but they are friends from our church. So we just brought them over to Smoky Mountain Tower to spend the night.
• Our guests would have been there when the power lines fell, except that God made them get lost!
  
• If this had happened last week or next week, we would have had to pay for our guests to stay in a motel - in addition to what we're already going to have to pay to repair the damage to All Decked Out. Yes, we have to pay, because the electric company says it was an "act of God." They're right! He chose the exact moment for that dead tree to fall - when He knew we would be here to take care of it. There was no wind, no storm - the dead tree just rotted out at that exact moment.
• If this had happened 30 minutes earlier or 30 minutes later, both our guest's car and Mike's brand new car (Mike is a permanent resident across the street from All Decked Out) would have suffered severe damage - none of which would have been covered by the electric company.
  

God does not EVER make mistakes. So we will trust Him to get the electrician we've called to show up tomorrow morning and fix our part of the problem. Then we'll trust Him to get the electric company to come out quickly and reconnect the service. And we'll trust Him to get the cable company out to get all that hooked up. And we'll trust Him to provide the money to pay for the repairs (because it will be less than our insurance deductible). And especially, we will thank Him for making this happen NOW - not last week, not next week, and not when anybody was there who could have gotten hurt.