Back at The Swag

 Each year Trish and I spend two weeks as Experts In Residence at The Swag, The Great Country Inn Of The Smokies.  During those weeks we lead walks through the woods in the adjacent Great Smoky Mountains National Park and I tell stories before dinner each day.

Every morning we take a picture looking out over Haywood County, my childhood home, as every day is unique and different from every other one.

Before the season starts each year, David and Annie Colquitt, have all of the Experts in for a weekend all together.  Our job is to stay in all the guest rooms (seventeen of them this year) and be sure everything is in order for opening, give the kitchen a chance to practice before the season, be together to learn about each other, and give the owners feedback about what we have learned as Residents in past seasons.  It is a weekend of spoiling.

This year it was an extra treat to have with us Deener and Dan Matthews, the creators and original owners of The Swag.  Now retired and living in Asheville, some of the later Residents had not met them though I had the privilege of working with Dan and Deener for a dozen years before Annie and David’s ownership.

We will return for another weekend later this month for a special Friends of the Smokies weekend, then we have a full week in May and another week in October.  It is the kind of job that spoils us completely.

Dinner with the Matthews.