Will Bridges

Yendis and I had a great time at this little retreat in Smithville, TN called Evins Mill. It was great. The food was gormet and the people were wonderful. Let me describe the experience a bit.

First, we drove about an hour from Nashville to Smithville. It’s small and kinda in the middle of what appears to be nowhere. We drove up this large hill that reveals a mill and a very old log built structure that houses the main office, the kitchen and the central hub for the retreat. We were greeted by the cook, who quicly took his apron off and asked if we needed any luggage taken to the room. We didn’t because we brought very little in the way of stuff to the retreat. It was a couple hours after lunch but they had our lunches prepared so we grabbed our lunches and the cook/bellboy showed us to our room which was quite nice for the middle of nowhere. It didn’t have a phone but we didn’t need one because I got cell reception (thanks Cingular). The room had a large vaulted ceiling, a view of the water pouring over the mill’s dam and a large and comfortable king sized bed. We ate our lunches and got ready for that evening’s four course dinner. Lunch was okaybut it was a boxed lunch so you could tell it had been in the fridge a while. We were told about the Carmac Falls (a 90 foot waterfall) which was about a 30 minute walk from the main lodge but we didn’t want to attempt it because of the rain and cold.

Anyways, we finally got ready for dinner and went to the main lodge. The dinner started with a Mushroom Strudel as a small appatizer. I nibbled on that for a while and they brought out some rolls for Yendis (she doesn’t eat mushrooms, her loss!). We chatted for a while amoungst the candle light and the wood/gas open fireplace. It was a very romantic scene. Only three couples were there for dinner. We chatted with one of the other couples while we relaxed. Then a soup came out that was ‘Ginger Carrot and Cocconut Milk’. Yes, it sounds strange but it was very delicious. After the soup came a wonderful fresh salad with bits of blue cheese and rasberry vingarette dressing. Then, finally the main course. They offered a choice of Hawiian Sea Bass, Ethiopian Coffee cooked Beef Tenderloin. Yendis had the tenderloin and I had the sea bass. Both were delicious. After dinner we had some fudge brownie cake of some kind that was very good. This was all included in the stay. They even gave Yendis an extra piece of cake!

The portions were just good enough to fill and not to overfill. So, after eating we talked with the waitress a while and drank a couple beers on the couch in front of the fireplace. After a couple hours we decided to go to the mill (which they turned in to a game room and conference center). We played pool, ping pong and listened to the radio till late in to the night. We then went back to the room and…. hung out… (that’s all you need to know) till much later in the night. We watched a movie (they had movies in the main lodge you could take to your room) and went to sleep. In the morning (kinda, 11am) we woke up and got dressed to go to the main lodge. We missed breakfast, but no worries, the cook still made us a fresh breakfast at 11:30am! We talked over breakfast (which was delicious) and then went back to the mill to play some more games. Yendis is much better than me at ping pong but I beat her a lot at pool so it kinda makes up for it. Anyways, we didn’t leave till about 3pm and nobody hastled us to hurry up and go. It was great! Will definately return. The price was about $250 a night with everything included.