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October 2015
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Vol 8, Issue 5 |
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Doug & Jodee Sellers
877-231-6574
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From Devils Courthouse on Blue Ridge Parkway
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The leaf season is nearly finished. It was a little muted in some places and spectacular in others. Jodee and I drove the Blue Ridge Parkway to Devil's Courthouse on the 24th and agreed that the trees were as colorful as we have ever seen. As the leaf season comes to an end, folks will soon be thinking about their holiday travel. Now is a good time to make your reservations. There is more to do than ever before. We love the Asheville holiday traditions like the Winterlights at the NC Arboretum, the Christmas decorations at the Biltmore Estate and the gingerbread houses at the Grove Park Inn. Asheville is a great place to do your shopping with the unique stores downtown, Biltmore village and now the Outlet Mall just up the
road from us. The huge Field and Stream store opened since our last newsletter. When the leaves and crowds drop off I am always impressed with how the forest opens up. So remember it is still a good time for winter hiking and biking. For you flyfisher people, from now till March is delayed harvest season, a great time to dress warm, put those waders on and find a trout stream. I had a great day recently but my fishing buddy said he would have to kill me if I told a soul so I best not say where it was or how many we caught. For more information on Holiday and Christmas things to do
click here.
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Winter Lights at Arboretum
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Make Asheville Community Theatre a Part of Your Visit
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We also spent a sunny Sunday
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| Photo courtesy of Asheville Community Theatre |
afternoon
at the Asheville Community Theatre watching the musical adaptation of Mel Brooks' funny cult comedy, Young Frankenstein. What a monstrously fun time! We attend ACT's shows whenever we can and have enjoyed everything from the dramatic, To Kill A Mockingbird, to the silly, The Great American Trailor Park Musical. Each time we have been amazed at the quality of the acting, directing and production of this company, they are a real Asheville treasure. As one reviewer said, "...as good as the best NYC has to offer." This December from the 4th to the 20th they are putting on The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It is the story of the six Herdman children, who are the terror of their town, and what happens when they end up as leads in the annual Christmas pageant. Their interesting interpretation of the story (which they have never heard before) helps everyone rediscover the meaning of the holiday. We saw this last year and highly recommend adding it to your holiday visit if you have the time. Click on the photo for more info.
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It's Not A Pretty Picture But...
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We have NEW WiFi! You can't see it, except for the ugly little receiver disc strapped to the chimney, but it may be one of the best improvements to the lodge in a long time. I know you didn't complain much but I could feel you muttering when it took 30 minutes to open your web mail and another half hour to see that new picture of your only grandchild. And when you did bring it to my attention that the internet was down, trust me there was nothing I enjoyed more than going around turning off all my routers and computers and hoping that a "reboot" would perform its miracle of bringing us back to the early part of the 21st century again. Skyrunner is bringing in the internet connection through a radio transmitter to replace the weak little DSL line we had. For you techies, we are getting 31 mbps download and 23mbps upload which means, you won't have any trouble watching cute cats doing chin-ups on youtube, downloading a boarding pass, or Skyping a colleague.
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Our Email Address Has Changed
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In related news to the above, since we are no longer using Earthlink as our internet service provider we decided it was a good time to finally change our email address. We have been using
bentcreek@ioa.com
since our first email message back in 1998. The ioa stands for Internet of Asheville, which was bought and sold about 4 times and eventually became part of Earthlink. We kept the ioa because: A: Like loe-D and Leona, we're old and don't do well with change B: We didn't want to send out change of address notices C: If it ain't broke don't fix it D: All of the above. However, the time has come to make the change, otherwise we have to send an extra $7.50 to Earthlink each month just to keep the address.
You might notice that this is our website's domain name so hopefully we won't have to change it for another 20 years. So please change us in your address book and use our new email to contact us. You can send us a note by clicking on the addresse.
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Alaska Vacation
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Jodee and I took a vacation to
Alaska back in August. A few of our guests, even our handy man, gave us great information on routes to take, places to go and where to stay. Thanks especially to Cliff Jones for his handwritten map and suggestions.
The advice was a tremendous help. Briefly this was our itinerary. We flew directly to Ketchican. Took the Alaskan ferry to Juneau. (The ferries are a great way to see how Alaskans commute but beware, the schedules can change at the last minute.) We ended up getting off the ferry at 1:30 am so we could jump on a little plane to fly to Anchorage at 7:00 am. Please don't ask Jodee to fix you breakfast at 1:30 am - she is a wreck!!!
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Jodee declaring, "I'm not going
there", just before she did. |
There we rented a big, old Ford Expedition and drove east to Gakona. We stayed with true Alaskans, Homer and his son Patrick at the Riverview Bed and Breakfast, our favorite place to stay. We took a day to travel on the Denali highway to see the tundra, picnic and fish. Then it was off to Kennecott and McCarthy which includes 60 miles of an unpaved, potholed road. What an adventure! Then it was a beautiful drive to Valdez. Next we took a fast ferry to Whittier and drove to Seward. We were there the same day as President Obama. Then on to Homer (the town) and back to Anchorage.
It was all fantastic but Kennecott and McCarthy stand out as experiencing Alaska in an untamed state. You can click on the picture to see more of our Alaskan photos.
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|  Doug & Jodee Sellers
Bent Creek Lodge
1-877-231-6574
Remember Bent Creek Lodge Gift Certificates make great gifts and they are now available for purchase on our website.
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