The "heavy wet" part told us that there was a temperature inversion above,
because ground temp was only 24F. The snow was falling through a layer of
warmer air that was between 3000 and 6000. Tops at 15, no iceing above 6,
we flew at 11 and only found light snow.

Yep, Opryland Hotel. We stayed there 15 years ago for our honeymoon, this
was an anniversary trip. You're right outrageously priced. $200 and $300
rooms, they actually make you pay $8 per day to park, mixed drinks $6-$7...
TAX on 2 $6 mixed drinks = $2.47 !! Resort tax & state tax...printed right
on the reciept.

Nice relaxing weekend away from Wisconsin's snow and ice plus flying topped
off with a very happy wife.... priceless.

You needed two more seats?

The rear seat in our Aztec is a bench. The seatback of the bench seperates
the cabin from the rear baggage compartment. The seat rails for the center
bucket seats extend all the way under the rear bench. So several Aztec
owners have field approvals to remove the rear bench and put buckets in the
rear row. This allows you to remove one of them for extra baggage and
allows access to the rear baggage from the cabin. It also makes carrying
skis and more than 4 sets of golf clubs easier.

We found higher gas prices the further south we went. Granted, we didn't
take the time to shop, we simply didn't have time to divert. One nice thing
about having 140 gal tanks is when we are close to cheap fuel, we try to
plan to get as much as we can.

Jim