We need your help!

Phyllis and I are going to disappear for a week to celebrate our anniversary. While we're gone, we are asking you to put your thinking caps on and help us with a Smoky Mountain Tower question.

As you saw in our last post, we now have a very large empty wall that our guests will see when they first arrive at Smoky Mountain Tower:



Here is our question: What should we put on that wall?

Some things to think about:

• It shouldn't look too 'commercial.'
• It should fit into the neighborhood.
• It should be a 'welcome' to our guests.

What are your suggestions? You've got a week to get back to us (either by email to dave@smokymountaintower.com or reply on Facebook. Our daughter, Angie, will be watching over things while we're gone and may post this again as a reminder. Or, she may post something else - you know, 'while the cat's away...'

We can't wait to see all the good ideas you come up with!

Something new at Smoky Mountain Tower

We've teased you long enough. We're now ready to show you what's happening at Smoky Mountain Tower.

This is the way the front of Smoky Mountain Tower looked before last Monday:


Look closely at the area just to the left of the cabin. If you've been there, you'll remember the walkway that went down several steps, then up some steps to the back deck. It looked like this:


As of Monday, all that is gone - and so are the big overgrown bushes in front. Our good friend, Mark Kalinowski is building a walkway that goes from the driveway to the main deck - with no steps! It's not quite finished, but here's what it looks like as of this morning:


And, as you can see, the big bushes are gone, too. So if you were to drive in to the driveway today, this is what you would see:


(Sorry, it's a cloudy day - we'll get more pictures when the sun comes out.) We have some small holly bushes to be planted in the front. And we have lots more to show you about the process of building the new walkway. When it's all finished, we'll come back with more pictures - and some other plans for the front area. Meanwhile, please let us know what you think about this. Hope you like it as much as we do!

Partly personal

Okay, I might as well tell you. In about 10 days, Phyllis and I will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. Somehow, our Gatlinburg property manager/cleaner, Ingrid Nelson, found out about this. When we told her we were coming to Gatlinburg on Monday, she said, "You're staying at Smoky Mountain Tower - and don't eat dinner before you get here."

We arrived on Monday about 5:30 pm - and this was waiting for us outside by the front door:


It even plays music (I should make a video so you can hear it)! But we were blown away when we got inside. This is what awaited us:


In the refrigerator, we found a feast:


There was even a bag of 'instant-light' charcoal waiting for us. So we lit the charcoal, cooked the baked potatoes that were all wrapped and ready for the oven, and - for the first time ever - sat at our own table and enjoyed a wonderful meal!


Thank you, Ingrid. You are really special and we very much appreciate all you do for us. Tomorrow, I'll show you what's going on outside Smoky Mountain Tower.

We're in Gatlinburg!

Yep, we arrived about 5:30 pm at Smoky Mountain Tower. You HAVE to see what Ingrid had waiting for us.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that I can't show you until probably tomorrow. We found out that the Internet has a problem at Smoky Mountain Tower. It's a Charter issue, and they're coming out to fix it tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, I ran over to All Decked Out just so I could check email and load this message. This is a "warning." We have a LOT to tell you about what's going on at Smoky Mountain Tower. As soon as we get a good Internet connection back, we'll try to get some pictures uploaded. So please keep watching. I'm sorry to tease you like this - but we'll get more information to you as quickly as we can. Thanks for being patient.

More decorations at All Decked Out

We're continually updating both our cabins. But on our last trip to Gatlinburg, we concentrated on All Decked Out. Here are a few more of the decorative items we added.

You will now be "seeing stars" in the main floor bathroom:


As you can see, we added these two big stars on the wall, along with a decorative towel holder by the sink.


And we finally got something over the bed in the main floor bedroom!


Phyllis found (and refinished) the perfect rack for a couple of "antique" phonograph albums, along with a patriotic bear and some ceramic doo-dads.


There's more coming. Next week, we're heading to Gatlinburg. New pictures at both All Decked Out and Smoky Mountain Tower are at the top of our "must-do" list, along with a very special surprise at Smoky Mountain Tower. So please check back to see the progress we're making.

We have the VERY BEST guests!

If you've been following us for awhile, you know that last March, we completely reworked All Decked Out into am "Americana" theme. Everything is red, white and blue. We hung a flag quilt over the mantle that Phyllis had made, and we put a couple of little knick-knacks on the mantle. When we left in March, this is what the mantle looked like.


A couple of weeks ago, we made a very fast trip to Gatlinburg, primarily to install the new daybed and trundle at Smoky Mountain Tower. But we spent the night at All Decked Out. When we walked in the door, we noticed something was different. There were MORE knick-knacks on the mantle.


That's right - not one but TWO guests had bought little Americana things and put them on the mantle. They wrote in the guest book something like, "We really loved your cabin and we saw this little thing that we thought would look good on your mantle. We hope you don't mind!"

Phyllis burst into tears when she read that. We've spent 15 years workingand giving and doing everything we can to make our cabins nice. This was the payoff. Our guests don't take things from us - they bring us gifts! THAT is what makes it all worthwhile! THANK YOU!

We had already planned to add a couple things to the mantle. Phyllis loves Byers Choice Carolers, and we found these two at Cracker Barrel.


So now, this is what the mantle looks like.


We added some more decorative items which we'll show you in later posts. And we plan to go back to Gatlinburg next week. There are always things to do, but the first thing on our list for this trip is new pictures - so everything will be up to date. Keep watching for the latest. And please tell us what YOU would like to see in our cabins.

Changes at Smoky Mountain Tower - part 2

As promised, here's "the rest of the story!" We told you before about the removal of the sofa-sleeper. In its place, there is a new daybed and trundle. Here's how it got there!

Our great maintenance guys, Mark and Darren, brought the trundle in first. You can imagine how much 'fun' they had getting it up 4 levels!


Then, the guys from Carl Hatcher Furniture came with the daybed frame and mattresses.


In no time, they had the frame assembled.


The only problem was that they forgot to bring one of the mattresses, and we had to leave before they got back with it. So we don't have pictures yet of BOTH the daybed and the trundle. But here is how it all looks when it's made up and ready to go.


And here is a side view.


The trundle is under the daybed. It just wheels out. Then you squeeze a lever and it pops up into place. So you have two twin beds with brand new mattresses!

We plan to be in Gatlinburg in about two weeks and will take more pictures that show both daybed and trundle. Meanwhile, we hope you'll stay with us so you can experience our new beds first-hand!