The Derosia Team

A half-million more visitors toured the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2012 than during the preceding year. Figures released by the National Park Service showed nearly 9,686,000 people entered the park during last year. That compares with just below 9,009,000 the year before. Park officials said a mild winter and spring during 2012 helped boost tourism in the nation's most-visited national park.  More people were able to travel into the park and be outdoors due to the lack of ice and snow on the roads and trails. The mild weather in the colder seasons and warm summer set the tone for visitation as every month of 2012 saw an increase of visitors over those recorded in 2011. December 2012 Park entries were 480,527 compared with 471,603 as seen in December 2011. This is a 1.9% increase over December 2011. Newfound Gap Road between Gatlinburg, TN and Cheorkee, NC was closed due to ice and snow on all or part of 6 days during December, but the holiday season brought a large nu...

Jodi Derosia, the youngest daughter of Phil and Darlene and younger sister of Phillip, is spearheading a senior project for DECA to raise money and awareness for SafeSpace . For those who are not familiar with SafeSpace , it is a non-profit organization that provides safety and support to survivors of domestic violence and their families.  The primary purpose of SafeSpace is to provide emergency shelter, crisis intervention, court advocacy, resource referrals, and counseling to victims of domestic violence.   SafeSpace believes in empowerment.  They are there to provide information share skills, and support victims of domestic violence who choose to be self-reliant and leave their abusive situation.  Domestic Violence Is More Common Than You May Think: An act of domestic violence occurs every 12 seconds in the US. Each year in the US, more than 4 million women are battered by their partners. 97-99% of victims are women; 1-3% are men. Battering is the sing...

I might be happy about the warm winter but it does affect the skiers. Gatlinburg is probably one of the most southern states you can go and still ski but sometimes  old man winter just will not cooperate. Ober Gatlinburg closes early, offers discount to customers

Well, it has been a while since we have blogged. We are not a great bloggers and we break all the rules about consistency and content. Our goal is too get better at both of these issues. To start this first blog back we will make it personal. We have been blessed 6 weeks ago to welcome a new grandchild into the family. Makenzie Belle is Phillip and Kim's first child and she is such a doll. She is not spoiled at all! Ha! Ha! She joins our 2 other grandchildren Kayla 9 and Hannah 5. Aren't grandchildren great? You can love them, play with them, feed them junk, spoil them and then at the end of the day when they are tired, they go back to their parents! The old adage "If I had known how fun grandkids would have been I would have had them first." We look forward to the rest of the year with our family and friends.  Please continue to follow us as we try to reach are goals of becoming better bloggers.  We look forward to bringing you updates on the Smoky Mountain Re...