tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-374320792008-07-31T07:47:34.078-07:00Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-61763859817683560732008-07-23T14:18:00.000-07:002008-07-23T14:25:29.580-07:00

My wife is one of those women who would risk her life to run out in a road and retrieve a turtle and help it across the road. I am convinced though that people like her ultimately put them on the wrong side of the road, making life more difficult and stressful for these reptiles. There was a turtle in our yard recently. Sarah and Pence took it down to the nearest creek, probably the one it

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-32870598852241393672008-07-23T14:09:00.000-07:002008-07-23T14:17:33.459-07:00

Here are some pics of our Fourth of July. When I first came to Fontana and heard we had a show I imagined a backwoods display of roman candles and bottle rockets. When the show started, I was blown away. We have one of the greatest in Western NC! People come from all over to see our display of exploding color.

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-66440993677806062622008-06-17T13:02:00.000-07:002008-06-18T09:40:26.498-07:00

Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine has an issue just before the summer on spots to jump off rocks into the water. Without the water it's not that fun. I think they have chosen two spots that friends and I frequent and have actually named. I've included a video by Jym Davis so you can get the feel of them.

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-14463551058348865892008-06-05T08:09:00.000-07:002008-06-05T08:25:45.794-07:00

I had a great season of forging Morels this year. Found various new patches to supply all our wild edible needs next spring.

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-16456146102205311652008-06-03T13:49:00.000-07:002008-06-03T13:57:39.125-07:00

I am working on a project called Fontana Stories. I will be interviewing people in the area about varies topics in the Appalachian Mountains. It's a growing project and I have lots of ideas. check out the first one by clicking on the "Podcast" button.

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-41314313825473352052008-05-02T21:10:00.000-07:002008-05-02T21:28:13.997-07:00

A little over a month ago I received a phone call from Blue Ridge outdoor Magazine asking if I knew of any good places to go hiking away from crowds. I told them I did and I would love to take them. So a few weeks after that two of their staff, a friend of mine, and I went out into the Park for an intense three day two night hike. This month's issue of BRO has the article and a little piece I

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-63537753880317893612008-03-08T19:54:00.000-08:002008-03-08T20:02:47.312-08:00

The last two NPS sites we visited were Kings Mt. and Cowpens National Battlefields. They both were educational and great to experience. I'd love to write more, but I'm on dial up and Sarah is trying to go to sleep over my overbearing thumps on the keyboard. Maybe I'll add more later to this post.

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-64435596279039680732008-03-05T19:56:00.000-08:002008-03-05T20:37:01.618-08:00

I would have loved to have stayed at Congaree NP longer, but there just wasn't that much time.  With an hour and a half we took in the amazing interactive museum and then went on a quick hike on the boardwalk trail.   I look forward to coming back and seeing each of the 20 champion trees within the Park.  I will try to visit the area by canoe in one of the flooding periods that happens 10 times a

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-23915681075299420272008-03-05T18:06:00.000-08:002008-03-05T20:56:41.828-08:00

While vacationing in Savannah we stopped at an amazing National Monument called Fort Pulaski, name after Casimir Pulaski, who also has a holiday named after him in Chicago, which just so happens to be an AMAZING song by Sufjan Stevens because of an event that happened to Stevens on that day. The Fort is quite an amazing piece of architecture! A battle at the fort in 1862 marked a turning point in

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-33091312395642350782008-03-02T18:16:00.000-08:002008-03-02T18:42:04.103-08:00

After visiting the Carl Sandburg Home we headed south to Ninety Six NHS. Ninety Six has been the site of two Cherokee War battles, and two American Revolution battles. One of the many significance of this site is that the first American casualty of the Revolution in the South. After going into the visitor center and watching a brief film on the area. We headed outside for a mile walk around

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-89783979387758231152008-03-02T17:36:00.000-08:002008-03-02T18:59:41.784-08:00

Today my family and I took off from Fontana Dam and headed towards the general direction of Savannah. We took a few stops along the way... One of my hobbies is the National Park Services' many establishments. We stopped first at Flat Rock, NC. Here we saw the home of author, biographer, poet, folk singer, and overall genius of Carl Sandburg.  The Carl Sandburg Home takes you into an intimate

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-85376887624396035552008-02-23T13:46:00.001-08:002008-02-23T14:02:56.483-08:00

Today was quite the hike.  From the Cheoah Dam the group head along Slickrock Creek Trail.   About a mile in FHC member Gary had a "water shoe" that jumped out of his pack, how on earth this happened I have no idea.  I guess they were good water shoes because they were headed down a very steep slop to the Little Tennessee River.  WE all watched as the shoe tumbled down the cliff saying are good

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-35549394460474735652008-02-16T13:24:00.000-08:002008-02-16T13:41:11.801-08:00

What a great day we had for a hike! After sharing stories on the boat of how we met our significant other, we docked on the North Shore of Fontana Lake.  The group of 15 hikers made way to campsite/old spring where I told the story of how E.H Oliver and Zina Farley met and fell in love on a warm Sunday evening.  AT the Calhoun house the group split.  Some headed to Proctor cemetery and the

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-51498176153531478942008-02-12T07:05:00.000-08:002008-02-12T07:20:33.526-08:00

This weeks hike was quite the exploration, although not as much as expected. We took a short .5-mile ride from the General Store/Outfitter to the Lookout Rock trailhead in the back of the Village. The first mile of hike is a kicker, but after you reach the ridge the climbing isn’t so bad. We took a quick little trip to Lookout Rock. A few of us got on the large rock for a photo op of the

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-82187405958564955942008-02-07T06:14:00.000-08:002008-02-07T06:28:30.778-08:00

Last week I headed out to Shuckstack with a local named Byron. Byron is a great man who knows much about the area and is very helpful. We had a great trip and he taught me a lot about the area. I pointed out to him the Eagle from Shuckstack fire tower. I have been telling people about this for sometime. The picture you are looking out is from the tower. The head on the upper portion of the

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-28558480433092667592008-02-01T20:27:00.000-08:002008-02-01T20:38:04.476-08:00

Becky Johnson, staff writer for Smoky Mountain News, wrote a nice piece on the hiking club. Check it out here. I like how we are "filling a void..." I hope the great press continues. For more info on the club visit this blog frequently or email hike@fontanavillage.com. The only thing I don't like about the online article is it doesn't have the giant photo of me like the paper did. Dang it!!!

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-8597433502110036242008-01-21T09:28:00.001-08:002008-01-21T12:33:11.941-08:00

Well, the hiking trail wasn’t too sure where to hike. The options were Slickrock Wilderness or Great Smokies. We decided on in between them by way of the Benton MacKaye.  After dropping off the first vehicle at the Cheoah Dam (Fugitive Dam) Dick, Byron, and myself carpooled to the NC/TN state line at Deals Gap (not to be confused with the motorcycle resort.)  Somewhere near May Apple Gap,

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-55299967609900721322008-01-18T12:17:00.000-08:002008-01-18T12:25:33.655-08:00

Sarah, Pence, Autumn and I went to the always overwhelming Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area. We did a little shopping and got some great deals. The best purchase on this trip was a great book on the area called “The Wild East.” I read it a while back ago and have wanted to add it to my library for some time. The real fun of this excursion was riding through the National Park and going on a little

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-35421009144820214122008-01-18T11:53:00.000-08:002008-01-18T12:23:34.412-08:00

“It’s been a long time, a real long time.” Since I wasn’t able to keep up with post for December I will give a quick little run down. Sarah has been learning our digital camera and playing around with photos. I liked this photo she took. Autumn’s position in this photo is so funny. Believe it or not she did not fall over. This was one of her fist times sitting up. We decided to go to

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-24898951520424766332007-12-24T09:09:00.000-08:002007-12-24T09:34:48.009-08:00

The FHC pre Christmas hike was of historic proportions.  Once we reached Black Gum Gap, for the first time the sun exposed himself (sounds weird doesn't it.)  Rick commented that it only happened because it was the first hike he didn't bring his sunglasses.  You can see what we hiked in the image.  We began at Yellow Creek and ended at Fontana Marina.The club wishes everyone a festive holiday

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-53155600547352159042007-11-15T14:39:00.001-08:002007-11-23T08:51:28.860-08:00

Fontana is starting a hiking club. Check out our schedule.

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-572515207257849802007-11-14T10:00:00.001-08:002007-11-14T14:14:12.506-08:00

The November/December issue of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's magazine, known as A.T. Journeys, has an article written by me about Fontana Village Resort. I'm real excited about it since it is my first published article. Please check it out. The photos in the article were taken by my fellow employee/Florida Cracker friend Craig Litz. I'm happy with the way it turned out and excited about

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-89358610574679808122007-11-11T08:10:00.000-08:002007-11-11T09:28:49.216-08:00

On the way back from Florida we decided to stop at the nearest National Park Service spot off of I75. Where we ended up going was Andersonville National Historic Site. This site once was the largest Civil War POW camp for Union soldiers. During the war over 45,000 soldiers were held captive here, and 12,920 of them died while imprisoned. Today you can visit the Cemetery of those who died.

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-81085262345583266802007-11-01T17:14:00.000-07:002007-11-01T17:20:24.458-07:00

Trying to get my cache numbers up. It's easy when you have so many around you. This is a photo of the Paved Pink Streets Cache, on the southern most part of St.Pete.

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37432079.post-4294519557257446462007-11-01T17:09:00.000-07:002007-11-01T17:12:54.112-07:00

Pence had a blast getting candy. I had a fun time too. Especially when we stopped at a house that had hot dogs and beers for the parents.

Jerry Spanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09996146615254950248noreply@blogger.com