What an excellent way to learn more about the Appalachian area and its people! Lee Knight shares his knowledge of and love for this culture and involves participants in developing such an appreciation for themselves. The program involves a good balance of "sit down learning" and physical activity, along with just enough free time to explore on one's own.

Just completed the trip--week of 10/21-26. We had GREAT weather. Enjoyed Lee's leadership, music & Campbell Craft School, especially!

My week just completed in the Smokey Mountains and Appalachia continues a string of 3 programs all excellent and very worthwhile. I look forward to more.

The program was accurate in its description and educational. The best part was our instructor Lee Knight !!

Lee the leader really makes the program. His broad knowledge and ability to convey information in a captivating way are outstanding. The variety of topics and activities is fascinating, and Lee keeps them from being disjointed by showing common threads. He intersperses his talks with music, which adds both variety and continuity between subjects. He also provided good additional instructors on two of the field trips. A word of warning about the Appalachian Trail hike: The activity level for this part of the program is NOT moderate. The trail is very steep and rough, so equip yourself appropriately. However, even those of us who turned back early really enjoyed it.

I attended the May 13-18, 2012 program with my husband and two sisters. This is a great program -- informative and fun. The Ridges Resort and Marina is beautiful with a "lodge" feeling. Our room faced the lake,lawn -- a lovely view. Our Leader (Lee Knight) is outstanding as a facilitator and teacher. He is a talented musician and singer and his lectures were interspersed with music and song. On the free afternoon the quaint town of Helen is about 20 miles away. It is a little difficult to get to Hiawassee from the airport, but it is well worth the effort.

Enjoyed the trip(May 13-18, 2012). Leader was good (Lee Knight), knowedgeable and interesting. The Ridges Resort and Marina was a very nice place. The food was pretty good. Breakfast was continental breakfast offering the usual but not bad. There were fresh baked chocolate cookies every day. Visited two Cherokee museums. The train ride would have been better in a first class car. But after some rafters disembarked, we were able to move into the open car. That was very enjoyable. Scenery of wooded mountains I love.

This was a unique experience. It was different than most of the Road Scholar trips. We enjoyed the leader and the trips learning historically about the Cherokee and their area which is beautiful country.

Just a word about the food, in general meals were good. The breakfast offerings were not so good!! Mostly all carbs, no protein, and seating was tight most days. Our bus driver, Doug, was very good and gave Lee extraordinary help.

Our program exceeded our expectations in so many ways! The facilitator, Lee Knight, was the perfect person to introduce us to this area and the culture here. His knowledge, his musical gifts and his ability to tell the story added such depths to our time in the Appalachians! We will long remember this one! Virg and Selma

This was a marvelous program. The leader is very musically talented and makes history come alive!