Good Times in Townsend

Since we came down from Mt. LeConte Wednesday, we have been staying in a great place on the Little River in Townsend, TN. The family "compound" is owned by a family who is staying in our place in Montana this week. What a neat home exchange for us!! In addition to the main house, there is a 3-bedroom log cabin and two fishing cabins along with about 1000 feet of riverfront footage on the Little River. The log cabin, where we are staying, and the two fishing cabins are shown in this picture to the left. The porch on the log cabin, as you can see below, is within a stone's throw of the river and is furnished with rocking chairs. What a great way to spend the day.

By the way, we always have a celebration dinner the night we hike down from LeConte. Most years, we go to The Peddler in Gatlinburg and have a big old steak. This year, since we were in Townsend and didn't want to drive the 20 miles of winding road from Gatlinburg to Townsend after dinner, we took our host's recommendation and had dinner at the Dancing Bear Lodge. The property is beautiful, the accomodations quite luxurious (think kingsize featherbed) and our dinner was of gourmet quality. And, best of all, their rates are really competitive, so we would be very quick to recommend them for a weekend retreat. We think it's Blackberry Farm on a budget, so check out the link.

Marci & Ryan got here on Thursday night late. And, since we had the room, we put out the word that we were here. Sort of the "if you build it, they will come" strategy. So, on Friday Molly and Mark and their 1-yr old daughter, Loretta, joined us. If you were at Marci and Ryan's wedding in 2005, you will probably remember Molly as one of Marci's bridesmaids. Molly and Mark got married in December after Marci and Ryan's August wedding, and Marci was in their wedding.

Ryan wasted no time getting in the water. However, with a water temperature of 75°F and daytime highs of 95°F, the fish were pretty sluggish. So, Ryan and his friend Bill decided to look for the wild trout upstream to Elkmont inside the Park this morning - early - 5 am??? No - none of us got up to see them off. At this posting (6 pm) they have just returned and have had such good results that they are going back out while there is still daylight and the fish are biting.

The water temperature felt just fine to Jimmy and Will, so they took off in the tubes to float down the river. Three hours later they were waterlogged, and Will is still recovering by taking a rather lengthy nap. Jimmy slightly resembles a lobster - the sun was out all day and was very bright.

Late yesterday afternoon, our friends, Connie & Dennis, from Chattanooga called to say that they were in Knoxville and wanted to come over to see us. They had their 4-yr-old granddaughter Ryleigh and Napoleon (Nappie), their 4-lb papillon, with them. Since we had an extra fishing cabin open, they spent the night. Will and Ryleigh had a great time together. Their rare quiet moments were spent playing computer games on PBSKids.org. Otherwise, they were chasing each other and being typical active pre-school kids.

We said goodbye to Connie, Dennis, Ryleigh and Nappie this morning, and the rest of us will go home tomorrow. We have had a fun family week and we are grateful for the time we have together.