Hey all - I am really looking forward to this event and meeting you guys. There are @ ten of us so far getting together, and it promises to be a lot of fun!

As to motel accomodations, four of us attending will be staying at the Sleep Inn in Bryson City (828.488.0326). The rate for a room with two double beds is @ $75/night, with a continental breakfast thrown in. The manager has agreed to let all of us use the breakfast nook for evening get-togethers, fly tying, "there I was" tales, etc., which will do fine given the size of our group so far. (His meeting room is being remodeled, or we could use that).

CAMPGROUNDS: In trying to keep things kinda centrally located, for those of you camping or with campers (Buna, Chris) I recommend the Tumbling Waters campground (www.tumblingwaters.com, 828.479.3814) which is located @ five miles west of Bryson City off of Highway 28. I have camped there MANY times and have always been treated extremely well. The owners, Joe and Carolyn, are the nicest people you could want to know, and their campground is a first-rate operation. In fact, Panther Creek flows next to the campground, and I have caught many nice fish right there in camp! (They also have cabin accomodations for those who want to go that route)

There are other campgrounds and motels in the area, of course, and if you want to search for one on your own go to [url=http://www.greatsmokies.com/sitemap.html:3b071]www.greatsmokies.com/sitemap.html[/url:3b071] for information on the surrounding area. If you can't find it there, it ain't there!

It's probably time to start getting a tentative list of activities together so I can begin to prepare some maps, etc. If you have any druthers, please make them known to the group so we can discuss it. Alternatively, if the group just wants to fish and do other stuff on their own, that's fine, also. Let it be known!

I posted a tentative fishing schedule in a previous post, and posted a suggested list of flies to tie/get - if you can't find 'em I'll list 'em here again in this thread.

I,for one, have a taste for Eye-talian food, and Bryson City has one of the best Eye-talian restaurants in the SE USA - Pasquallino's - whose chef, guess his name, hardly speaks english, but his food speaks volumes! I plan on one evening's meal there!

Well, let's talk it up and get some idea of what we all want to do.

TL,

Dave