Go Figure!!

First of all, I have to tell you 2 stories before I write about this past weekend! 

So, a year ago, on a whim, DH called the Hippensteal Mountain Inn to see if they'd have a room for Saturday night. Of course not! People book a year in advance. No wait, there'd been a cancellation so we got to go for one night a year ago. It was fun. Getting away isn't usually an option for us so being able to go up in the mountains to a beautiful place and having breakfast as well was wonderful. So we booked for 2 nights for this past weekend. Couldn't get Friday night, so we booked Saturday and Sunday nights. 

The other story I need to tell you is that the whole time I was up at my sister's home in Canada, I kept saying, it can't snow until I get back to Knoxville. I hate being stuck worrying about whether I'll be able to get out or not. It didn't snow. I had a wonderful time with family and friends while up there. We did go through Mom's room and got it pretty much moved to where she wanted things to go. She will turn the room into her sewing room which I think Mom would have approved of, maybe even been jealous of!

So that brings us to this past Saturday. I'd flown back in Thursday evening and Friday was shot. I was exhausted and just trying to catch up on a thing or two! Saturday morning we packed, had an obligation for the morning and left about noon for Seymour and across to Sevierville. We drove through Pigeon Forge and then crawled into Gatlinburg(traffic is always nuts this time of year). Oh yeah, snow appeared by the road halfway to Gatlinburg. We kind of knew we may have an issue with the roads but it looked like it was already starting to melt and we'd brought the old jeep so we knew we could get up the long, very narrow driveway up to the Inn.

Turns out they had 6 inches of snow overnight. The clouds were still very low when we got there about 4pm Saturday afternoon. No mountains in view, but sure could see snow, tho.

 The kicker was that they had no power!! It's a fairly small Inn with about 12 rooms in 2 buildings. We ended up in the main building on the third floor, in a very nice room with comfortable chairs that would have been awesome to do handwork in except no lights or heat. We were fortunate because our part, the main building, had a generator that worked. The smaller building, the one we stayed in last year, did not have any generator. We had water, warm water! They had nothing. Oh yeah, we also had one emergency light in the bathroom. They didn't. Flashlights were handed out to everyone but we didn't need them as much as we'd thought because of the emergency lights they had planned for in the construction. It was chilly. They have gas fireplaces but it didn't warm up that much. We spent the evening in the main room with most everyone else just staying warm and chatting. Everyone went to their rooms early. You know, without power, the evening is really long!! Thankfully the beds had warm blankets so we can't complain. Plus, the water worked and their water heater is gas or propane so we had warm showers in the morning. We really couldn't, and didn't, complain.

Yesterday morning we woke to sunshine although it was still hovering around 32 degrees.

 The view from our room was just awesome. Would have loved to sit on the rocking chair and enjoy it but we opted to stay in the room and look out awhile!

 The stoves worked Sunday morning because they were gas as well so we had a very good breakfast and the hot chocolate was to die for!

 We went out for the afternoon yesterday to visit some craft shops owned by friends. We got back at 6pm to power on everywhere. It had just come back on. The new people checking in were just glad they had missed it. We were the only ones that stayed over from the night before but everyone that had been there already signed up for their time at the Inn next year again.

Breakfast this morning!
It is an amazing place. They've been in business about 25 years and some people, I think, have come every year. The ones checking in last night have come about 19 years in a row, same weekend, most staying 6 nights. They vacation with the same people each year. People they met at the Inn. It is interesting!
I think we need an Inn for weavers where we can come, go to the library to browse fiber books and recharge our batteries!

I told my sister about the snow. She laughed. It's melting now and there are fewer chain saws cutting trees that fell but it will be awhile before it's all back to normal. The mountain you can see in the photo above is Mount LeConte. There's a lodge up there that usually has about 53 people each night until mid November. People were up there when the snow fell and had a time coming down. I think some may still be up there. They had 22 inches of snow. The only way up is to hike there and back!! I'm just glad we weren't up there but I'm sure the ones there have stories to tell as well.
We were in luxury even if it wasn't as warm as we'd have liked and we could drive out!
So, you never know what's around the corner when you plan a vacation. We enjoyed ourselves and booked the nights for next year again. I don't think history will repeat itself. We're bound to enjoy our time there again next year!
Until next week, keep weaving. I'm going to be doing alot of handwork on pieces that need to be ready for the Foothills Guild Show in a couple of weeks!
Carol