Sorry to have taken so long to blog about my Tennessee trip, but I came home to busy, busy Christmas stuff.

The trip was good, not great. We saw lots of white tail deer in Cades Cove and even a coyote the first day. He was running across a snow covered pasture, but was too far way for a good shot. Lots of 6-point and 8-point bucks were seen (and shot) hanging around in fields with tons of does and few little stubby bucks, and lots of turkeys in the bush area.

The elk in Western Tennessee at Land Between the Lakes NWP were great. Big bucks in fields not too far off the road. The bison were not as satisfying however. The herds stayed on hillsides on the other sides of tree banks and since you aren't supposed to get near them, it made photographing impossible. The evening of the day before we left we ran into three big bucks in a field who decided to pose for us -- heads up sniffing, straight on looks, rearward positions with heads turned back to us. All really cute!

The weather was chilly but not awful and I'm glad we brought along lined jeans and heavy jackets so we could stand outside the car for long periods of shooting time.

Off season in Pigeon Forge meant fabulous prices on nice motel rooms -- $21-25 a night. I don't go in for fancy rooms. All I want is a safe location, good shower, comfy bed and a TV that gets all my favorite channels. Lots of wall plugs for charging various batteries and running the laptop are also important (along with Wi-Fi if we are going to be gone long so I can check email.) I'm planning to buy a multiplug surge device to take with me on my next trip.