Donna Griffin: I am "new" to this, so please bear with me. I work at U.T.-Knoxville, and regularly go to Sevierville/Gatlinburg/Cosby, but isn't May really "short notice" to plan/organize a retreat? U.T. and Knox County schools start back in August..
I am "new" to this, so please bear with me. I work at U.T.-Knoxville, and regularly go to Sevierville/Gatlinburg/Cosby, but isn't May really "short notice" to plan/organize a retreat? U.T. and Knox County schools start back in August..
May 2012 is a whole year away Donna. Why do you feel that is short notice?
Griffin, GA
I checked out Tuckaleechee Retreat over in Townsend today. The largest of the lodges (Elk Lodge) would be the best bet as far as a large enough common area for our sewing. Elk Lodge rents for $900 per night in May / $1200 per night for Oct. The really nice thing is that Ruth told me that since I was thinking weekdays not weekends, she would give us four nights for the price of three. In other words check-in on Monday at 3 p.m. --- check out on Friday by 11 a.m. For 20 attendees, that would work out to around $180 (plus tax probably) for an Oct. get together / $135 for May. Website is www.tuckaleecheeretreatcenter.com
Woo, hoo! We're back to talking about October. That's 2012 everyone!
This is sounding very good, Marge! I can't wait to hear everyone's accents! ;-)
On the banks of the Mississippi River in north central Minnesota (Brainerd lakes area)
Marge ,that sounds reasonable to me,, for that many days ..and Oct..Barbara
EAT!! SLEEP !! QUILT!!
I'm still interested in the 2012 SE quilt retreat. I would be game for about any time that everyone else can go. Oct. sounds great for the fall colors. Either place that you have scoped out looks great. I'm not much help in the decision making from my comments, but Others have more time restraints than I do, so I will go along with the majority.
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Marge and everyone
The Hidden Mt resort would work out to about $70 per day per person if we have 20 people going. That is even doing a rough estimate with the most expensive lodging. I agree with Marge though that if you want this resort for an October retreat we will have to at the least have deposits from everyone to be able to guarantee the site. This area of the state gets extremely busy during the fall and lots of the "resort" places fill up sometimes a year or more in advance. We might want to consider going late Sept. and see if the prices are a little better and room availability being easier.
The NW retreat that is this Oct is running about $70 per night as well.
Vinton, Virginia
Nana, I will be happy to go with the majority here , I do not know the eastern part of the country well and have never really been to the smokies so I'm just game for where ever,,,
Now for just a little good news from me I applied for disability earlier this year due to my knes and legs being so messed up and it was approved,, I have only been working one day for past several months ,due to the legs just will not support me well anymore and I just couldn't do any more days. I was amazed it went thru on the first try...this is sure a big weight off my shoulders now knowing that ther is some money comeing starting next month ...Barbara
Wonderful news Barbara . I know that is a huge weight off your shoulders.
Hi Marge,
Wanted to let you and everyone know that there are a couple quilt shops not too far from Townsend. One in Greenback and one in Maryville. I go to the one in Maryville often and the one in Greenback when I'm going with DH to his gold panning places. I can contact them next month when I do the local shop hop about discounts or demos, etc. if Townsend ends up the choice.
Hope you've had a pleasant holiday,Marge. It was nice meeting you and hope when DH wants to go Dahlonega, GA for gold panning, we might be able to meet up somewhere.
Diana in East Tn.
Another thing to consider in weighing the pros and cons of the two resorts. At Hidden Mountain, you have three levels in all of the cabins so there are a lot of steps. After Diana and I went through the first one completely together, we started saying - "You check out the upstairs, I'll check the downstairs." We definitely got our exercise. :o) Also, the quilting venue is in a seperate building that we would have to drive to and is accessed by going down a flight of stairs. I wanted everyone to be aware of this as I know there are some that have health issues that may not be able to handle all of the stairs. Also, you would be sharing beds. I can't remember which of the cabins had them, but there were bunk beds in several of them - a single on top and a double on the bottom. Also, I am not sure if the price goes up here for Oct. We were only talking about May with Kay Green.
At Tuckaleechee, with 20 people in Elk Lodge, we would each have a queen bed to ourselves. There is still the issue of stairs but there are only the two levels there. The quilting venue is on the second floor of the same lodge building we would be sleeping in. The cabin at Tuckaleechee is as nicely appointed as the ones at Hidden Mountain. One thing - I almost forgot since it didn't bother me as a non-drinker ---- NO ALCOHOL on the property at Tuckaleechee. If you wanted wine or a mixed drink, you would have to have that when we are out somewhere eating. No restirctions on chocolate though!!! :o)
Holloway's, I think is pretty much out of the question because of it's size. It just couldn't handle the size group it looks like we would have.
No one has weighed in yet as to how many days we want to play together. If we go with Tuckaleechee, it would definitely benefit us to take Ruth up on the "pay for three get the fourth free". I think having four nights and three days sounds like a pretty good plan but if the general concensus is three nights, two days sewing, that's fine with me. I'm flexible.
Diana - is the one in Maryville Pappy's??? Ruth at Tuckaleechee recommened that one. She is a newbie quilter. I told her about QCA and she said she might have to check us out.
Marge, I'm all for the elk lodge building, I don't want to have to drag my equiptment back and forth every time we leave..so It gets my vote...and 4 nights for the pice of 3 is a good deal....Barbara,I'm gonna be driving from along way anyhow's and it really lokked like a wonderful place from the web site...Barbara
Well I wanted to mention the steps because I was thinking you would be one of the ones that might have concerns about all of the steps. I want everyone to enjoy themselves. I would hate to have someone not come because there were too many steps to negotiate.
I'm not sure but I think we would be able to leave our stuff set up at the cconference center at Hidden Mountain but I myself wouldn't be too keen on leaving my stuff there and sleeping way on the other side of the resort complex. I have too much hard earned cash invested.
If I fly, I'm not sure how much I can even bring, certainly not as much as I would if I drove down the road to the local retreat. It will be an excellent excercise in packing light.