As I go back over my photos I am overwhelmed by what we did and where we went. It is almost too much to grasp. We traveled  almost 12,000 miles through 19 states and 4 Canadian Provinces. We stayed at 36 campsites and I disposed of I don’t know how many poop bags. In the 70 days we were gone I wrote 42 posts and  took hundreds of images.

Looking at my images, I realize the amount of wildlife we saw–brown bears, black bears, elk, moose, deer, antelope, bison, stone sheep, mountain sheep–all the different birds–eagles, sea gulls, white faced Ibis, a variety of sparrows, magpies, trumpeter swans and more. We experienced all kinds of weather from snow to rain storms to 60mph winds to 107 degree temperatures. We drove through the mountains from the Appalachians to the Norther Rockies, across the plains of the midwest , through deserts and over bumpy dirt roads. We saw incredible scenery all over the US, Alaska and Canada. What a vast, diverse and beautiful country North America is.

Would we drive to Alaska again? Probably not. However, we would return and probably rent an RV for a couple of weeks while there. We accomplished what we set out to–to see Alaska and our old home and to visit the Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument in Utah. Along with this we saw and experienced so much more.

We left Cades Cove on Sunday, July 31 and got home in the early evening. It really was nice to be home. However, both of us were pretty disoriented moving from the small confines of the motor home to a 4000 square foot house. I didn’t even make it upstairs until the next day.  There was food shopping to do, mail to sort, clothes to wash, the motor home to empty and family to call. We’re slowly working our way back to normalcy.

I did get to Cades Cove that morning for sunrise. Though it was not a spectacular sunrise, the mist and the deer did not disappoint.  Here are some of the images I took.

Deer eating flowers

Buck posing

Mist in the valley

2 deer

It has been a lot of fun and work keeping this blog going. There were times I felt like I had to meet a deadline. If I skipped a couple of days friends would email me concerned about where we were and if we were OK. I have gotten so much wonderful feedback from so many of you who followed our daily exploits. And I thank you for your comments. It’s almost sad to bring this to an end.

But, just wait. Next year we plan to go to Nova Scotia and  Newfoundland. So get your woolies on and get ready to ride with us.