Hunt's Lodge Updates

Perfect weather this weekend...

Lori — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:19:28 GMT

It is absolutely gorgeous in south east Tennessee this weekend - low humidity, highs in the mid 80's, clear & sunny weather - just about as perfect weather as you can get for riding. I took advantage of it this afternoon and took the Interceptor out for a little jaunt. It needed the exercise, and I thoroughly enjoyed the day, too.

And... we're going to have a cookout for all guests who are here the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. We had one over the 4th of July weekend and it went over well, but it was a last minute thing and nobody knew about it. So, here we are, giving folks a heads up this time. :o) Come on out if you can make it!

Happy August!

Lori — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:24:31 GMT

Wow, the summer sure is flying by fast! The schools around here started back today, and I'm sure most others will start back within a month or so. Fall will be here before we know it!

Speaking of fall, if anybody is planning on coming in during the leaf peep season and would like to stay in a cabin, I would suggest making your reservation early. The peak of colors ranges from the last week of September through the middle to end of October, depending on what elevation you're at. This whole area is absolutely stunning in the fall. We already have one weekend in October that is booked up, October 17-19. The others are still fairly wide open, but that can change with one phone call.

Jack and I have spent some time out riding recently, and have come across a killer twisty road in NC - Wayah Rd. between Hwy 19 and Hwy 64. We went from the north to the south. The northern half is nice, nothing too wild or exciting, sort of a "Ho hum, this is pleasant" kind of road. Then, all of a sudden, you're in twisties that allow you to read your own license plate. Wow.

I'm working on what I call "A Most Excellent Twisties Route" - it will take you over to Wayah Rd. first, then bring you back by way of the Hellbender and the Dragon. It will make for a full day of riding that will have you grinning from ear to ear throughout most of it.

Everyone take care and have a great day!

Safest bike in the county...

Lori — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:08:32 GMT

While we were at Lowe's yesterday, we saw this:

Yes, it is parked right smack in the middle of the concrete posts. I guess the owner didn't want to take a chance of it getting run over. I don't blame the owner, it's a beautiful bike, but it isn't as if UT orange is in any danger of getting hurt around here... :o)

Don't forget that tomorrow is "Ride to Work Day"!

Take care and ride safe!

Next Wednesday is Ride To Work Day!

Lori — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:36:07 GMT

Ride to Work Day Mission Statement:

To advocate and support the use of motorcycles and scooters for transportation, and to provide information about transportation riding to the public.

More information about the Ride to Work organization can be found at www.ridetowork.org, or just click the logo above.

In Hunt's Lodge news, not a whole lot going on at the moment. The June bugs are hatching out, so we've got a small army of them buzzing about a foot off the ground. You never see them land anywhere, and they're clumsy little boogers. I'm still trying to figure out why they're called "June" bugs when we don't see them until July.

That's just about all for now. Everybody have a safe and happy weekend. Go ride somewhere!

Happy 4th of July!

Lori — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:23:24 GMT

Hope everyone has a wondeful and safe holiday filled with fun, friends, and festivities! We're going to do our part at the campground with a last minhte decision to have a bb-q for our guests. I have about 20 pounds of pork in the smoker now for pulled pork later... mmmm

In other news, we have two more roofs done on the cabins, and the metal purchased to do the last two. Yeeha!

One Roof Down, Four to Go & Credit/Debit cards

Lori — Sun, 25 May 2008 15:46:01 GMT

And the first cabin to be re-roofed is finished! I must say, I am very pleased with the results.

Our goal is to have them all re-roofed by the end of summer, then build a couple more complete cabins next summer.

In other news, we are now able to accept credit and debit cards! Yay!!!

Work starting on the cabin porches & parking sheds

Lori — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:15:06 GMT

Hello one and all!

Well, summer is just about to spring up on us, and we're ready! Work started today on Cabin #5's porch and parking shed area. Our goal is to do them one at a time, as we can, and have them all completed by the end of summer.

The framework went up today to cover the porch and add the parking shed. The metal arrived just a little bit ago, and the work crew will be here bright and early in the morning to finish up. Yeeeha! Here's how it looks at the moment:

And here's the metal:

Boy, does that color look familiar! I'll post pictures tomorrow of the finished work. It's gonna' be awesome!

We are also very close to being able to accept Mastercard and Visa. We'll be sure to update the main webpage and our mailing list as soon as that happens. Look for it sometime next week.

Take care and ride safe!

April Showers Bring May Flowers...

Lori — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:20:55 GMT

Or at least, that's what we learned in grade school. :o) Personally, we're hoping the April showers bring May riders through.

Spring has sprung with a vengeance in beautiful SE Tennessee. Trees are budding out and leaves are popping up all over the place, spring flowers are all over the place - crocus, daffodils, flocks, tulips... color everywhere, and the frogs, oh man, the frogs sing a chorus every evening about 8:00 or so. You don't see many of the little guys, but they make their presence known in the evening.

At the campground, we're making preparations for the season ahead. We never really closed over the winter, so we've had a few guests here and there. A couple small groups have come in recently, and a pretty large one is headed our way in a couple of weeks. Jack & I are really looking forward to this upcoming season. Last year was a blast, and we're thinking this year will only be better!

We've added a soda machine to the fold, serving canned soft drinks. The machine says Coke, but we're serving Pepsi products, mainly because we know of a good supply for them close at hand. We added a weather radio to the coffee cart area, and Jack is working on setting up a computer kiosk for use by campground guests to check weather radar and email with. We need a couple more components before that is usable, and we need to build a hutch for it to sit inside to help protect it from the weather. I think we will also store route maps of some of our favorite rides on it too.

That's all for now. Now I'm off to update the webpage and make out some more routes...

Take care, ride safe, and God bless!

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008!

Lori — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:22:42 GMT

Hello again! I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas season and is getting ready for the new year ahead. 2007 has been a great year for Hunt's Lodge. We opened in May not knowing what to expect, if we would be busy or if people would just go on by and not look. We were pleasantly surprised to find that just the right mix of folks stopped in to say howdy and stay a while. We enjoyed meeting everybody, and want to thank everyone we came into contact with this past season from the bottoms of our hearts for helping to make our first season a fun and memorable time. We are really looking forward to finding out what 2008 has in store for us!

We've stayed busy in our time off. The restrooms now have full length mirrors, and hooks abound all over the place, thanks to suggestions we've received. We also mounted cups in the pavilion over the electric outlets so that charging cell phones won't need to be left on the ground anymore. We've given facelifts to 4 of the cabins, with the materials to finish the 5th one. The roofs will get painted until we can get the tin to recover them and put parking sheds off to the side. Here's how they look so far:

Best wishes to all for a wonderful 2008! Hope to see you at the Lodge!

The T-Shirts are Here!

Lori — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:19:07 GMT

The new t-shirts are here! And I must say, they look awesome! Then again, I am easily impressed and probably could be considered just a weeeeee bit biased about their design. :o)

The main website has also gotten a facelift, a guest book, and a page for the campground store has been added. I have the option to replace our logo in the upper right of the main website pages with the same motorcycle fender that is on the upper right of the blog page. Hmmmm.... very tempting..... what do you think?

In campground improvement news, I have the materials to build small tables to go between the beds in the cabins, and lots and lots of hooks to put up everywhere - in the bathroom, in the pavilion, on the porch... just about anywhere you'd want to hang wet gear to dry out. We have full length mirrors to go into each of the restrooms - one of our younger guests pointed out to us that kids can't see the mirrors in the bathrooms (thanks Jacob!) - and also mirrors to mount in the cabins, too.

We're continuing to enjoy wonderful fall weather, and the leaves are really starting to change now. I hope everyone is taking the opportunities to enjoy autumn every chance they get. I made it out for a ride last weekend and just throughly enjoyed it.

I guess that's just about it for now. If anybody is in the area, stop in and say howdy. Take care and ride safe!