The rain had stopped and the clouds were breaking up as we packed the car. On the downside, the new hiking boots Curt had bought the previous day were defective. A small strap holding a lace tore. We had breakfast at Earth Fare before returning to the mall and exchanging his boots.

We made a forty minute drive to our next destination, the touristy amusement park Ghost Town in the Sky in Maggie Valley. The place has seen its better days, it seemed to us there was a huge investment made in it once but since then it has generally coasted. Most employees were unenthusiastic, the rides and attractions seemed old and worn, and several parts of the park were in need of repair. Still, since crowds were extremely light (the place would close for the season a couple of weeks after our visit), the park was almost at its most attractive to us. One over-priced admission ticket ($18 for an adult) gets one in for all rides and attractions; though arcade games and food are additional costs.

One starts a visit to Ghost Town by riding an incline railway or chairlift 3,364 feet up to the top of a mountain. Eric opted for the train both ways, Missy chairlifted up and Curt rode the chair down descending past a soaring hawk on the way. Atop the mountain sits the main area of the park. Here's an overview of what we saw and did in each part of the park:

Ghost Town - This part of the park is a recreation of an 18th century western town. We watched two gunfights, a can-can show in a

Eric gets a little leg while a beautiful, tattooed can-canner piques Curt's interest.

western saloon (with an impressive pianist but only two dancers as this was off-season), and we wandered the town. The ambience of being "out west" in the old days was Curt's favorite part. Eric fit right in as he had brought his cowboy hat, holster, and gun. It took a half hour to be served a lousy lunch of French Fries and water.

Kiddieland - Small merry-go-round rides for little kids only. Eric was too big for any of the rides in this section so we passed them all by. We didn't see anyone on any of these rides that day.

Mile High Rides - Big kids and adult rides. With a little coaxing, Eric rode a kid-sized roller coaster but declined to ride any of the scarier looking rides. Curt and Missy rode a centrifuge ride and nearly got sick; which left them unable to try any other mile high rides.

Fort Cherokee - A western fort which contains a country music hall and Indian Dance Pavilion. We watched the Cherokee dance exhibition and were amazed by the seven hoops dance done by one young man. Before descending this uppermost part of the park, we popped our heads into the Country Critters Jamboree. This show consisted of a bunch of poorly maintained "robot" animals playing instruments and singing songs a la Disneyland's Country Bear Jamboree. The show was pathetic and we left after two minutes.

Mining Town - Another collection of grown-up rides and arcade games. We skipped the centerpiece ride, the Black Widow roller coaster (we only saw it operate a half dozen times all day), but Eric enjoyed the haunted mine. The best part of this section was the bumper car ride. With small crowds there was little wait and sometimes extra long rides as the operator would wait for a queue to form before cutting off the power and ending the ride. We had one driving/bumping stint of about 10 minutes. During this time there were only five cars in motion.

During our visit to Ghost Town, we frequently crossed paths with a group of about 20 Amish people. This may have been a single extended family, though there might have been two families. Most of the group were children, five to sixteen years old, all of them were beautiful and well-mannered. Is there a harsh discipline in their parenting practices? Curt heard one woman quietly threaten one of the youngest kids with a spanking for what seemed to be a mild infraction of poor behavior. What is the long term cost for "good behavior"?

We had dinner at an authentic Mexican restaurant in Maggie Valley. It was clearly authentic in that the waiters didn't speak English. The food was fabulous! After eating, we drove thirty miles to Lakeview Cottages in Bryson City. Lakeview's secluded cottages are nestled on a mountainside and surrounded by nature. Since we were going to be there for five weekdays--only the last of which would be busy-- we got a two bedroom cottage for the price of a one bedroom ($70 per night). The cottage had no phone or TV. We welcomed the seclusion as appropriate for this nature-oriented vacation. (The lack of phones can be traced to the history of these cottages and this area. The cottages were built in the 1950's; just after electricity was made available to the county in 1954. Phone service was not provided until 1967.)

Our car parked in front of our cottage and the streaming Eric

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