My Photography Bucket List

Full Time RV Travel is on the horizon once again!

As many of you know, my home is on the market here in Sevierville, Tennessee, and my husband and I are going to be embarking on a new adventure in our RV! In 2015-2016 we sold everything we had in Illinois and traveled the country in our RV for a full year, and then landed here in The Smoky Mountains area of East Tennessee. Well, after 7 years here we are ready to move on once again! As soon as our home is sold, we will be hitting the road in our 45-foot RV, towing my green Jeep and seeing America some more! We can’t wait!! If you know anyone that wants a GREAT house in a great neighborhood in Sevierville, TN, here’s the link to my listing: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/209-N-Riverview-Cir-Sevierville-TN-37862/81464753_zpid/

As soon as we get a contract, we will be hitting the road, as all the closing paperwork can be done online anyways. So, where should we go? Well, that’s the problem – we can’t decide which way to go first! In 2015-2016 we spent a lot of time south and west. We have spent a lot of time south and east since living here. The northeast is sadly lacking – we have never been there. But it’s February and nobody wants to go there right now! There’s a whole host of places that I want to see (and photograph), at certain times of the year:

*Sedona, AZ with snow on the red rocks
*The Tulips blooming in Washington State
*The Lavender blooming in Washington State
*A superbloom out west in California and/or Arizona
*All of Utah! We have been to Arches National Park. So much more to see there!
*Yosemite
*Yellowstone – we’ve been there but it’s been a few years
*Autumn in the Northeast – Vermont in particular
*Alaska! This has been on our list for so many years! We’re ready!!
*Maine – I want to go there and eat ALL the lobster!
*Montana – Glacier National Park
*Oregon – Thor’s Well and Oneonta Narrows in particular, but all of Oregon as well
*Washington – Jade Lake. Sigh…

I feel like when we traveled for that whole year in 2015-2016 that we barely scratched the surface. We went to a lot of places, but oh man, there is so much more to see!! I may never buy a home anywhere again! This list is just a tip of the iceberg of where I want to go, and I will use this list (as well as my travel Pinterest boards at www.pinterest.com/carolmellema.)

Stay tuned! We’re hoping to get this home sold soon and hit the road for more adventure! Come join us! I have made a YouTube channel HERE for our friends and family to follow along on our journey. We’d love to have you along too!!


That One Time A Bear Walked Right Past Me

Black bear walking down the road in Smoky Mountains National Park Tennessee

It was mid-November, and I thought I would go up into the park and shoot some Fall colors. The trees were fading fast and there were not many leaves left to be photographed, so I hopped in my car and headed for the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, which is located just outside of Gatlinburg. To get there, turn out of downtown Gatlinburg at stoplight #8 and follow the signs to the one-way Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. It’s a beautiful, somewhat short drive that makes for a great afternoon of nature appreciation after being in crowded downtown Gatlinburg.

So I had just turned in to the national park, rounded a corner, and lo and behold – this bear is walking directly toward my car!! I got exactly this ONE good picture of her, because I had my 70-200mm lens on my camera, and she was just too close to me to get good focus on her with my zoom lens on!! Notice the bumper of the car that’s coming from the other direction – we stopped and chatted out our windows for a moment as we passed each other, marveling at this site that we were just so privileged to have witnessed.

The rest of the day was pretty much a bust because the leaves were basically gone from the trees, but this one moment was enough to make my day complete!

“The gypsies believe the bear to be a brother to man because he has the same body beneath his hide, because he drinks beer, because he enjoys music and because he likes to dance.”
~Ernest Hemingway