The Journey is the Destination, Part 1

 Home...finally.  Our summer adventure which began May 17th included driving  more than 10,000 miles  through 22 states before bringing us back to our  home in Northern Virginia on July 1st.   Seems only yesterday we were excitedly planning; researching the National Parks, calculating mileage between "must see" sights, making campground reservations for the nights we were in the rented RV with three of our grandchildren and hotel plans for the remaining nights we would be alone and traveling by car.  Now we have the memories...and the photographs.

The chronicle of indelible sights is long.  Notwithstanding the natural wonders seen as we traversed this beautiful country of ours, the brief time spent with the grandchildren, though dampened by a bout of stomach flu, will be high on that list.  Each day brought a new adventure, occasionally involving a long drive, while others were spent exploring the area where we were based. We explored 13 National Parks, crossed untold rivers, climbed up and over countless mountain peaks, crossed the continental divide numerous times  and even stood as did Lewis and Clark in the same historically significant site where the Madison, Gallatin, and Jefferson rivers converge to form the Missouri River. We witnessed a buffalo hold up traffic in Yellowstone National Park and a modern day Buffalo Bill in a shoot out on the streets of  Jackson Hole Wyoming.  We were blown away to watch skydivers jump off the Perrine Bridge,  486 feet above the Snake River just north of Twin Falls Idaho and enraptured as hot air balloons took off in the early morning sun outside of Denver Colorado.  We had dinner with an old friend at a rib joint in Kansas City(where else) and spent a weekend with my brother photographing the Palouse, our furthest westward point.

Life is a journey, you never know what will be your next destination.  Here are a few images from ours.

Roadside IA

Cathedral Falls, WV

Flint Hills, KS

Great Sand Dunes National Park CO

Arches National Park UT

Lanesville IN

Missouri Headwaters State Park, MT