ROF 24
Tracks of the StoneBear Copyright MCMLXIII Uncle Hargus ALL Rights reserved
ROF= Ring of fire Odyssey MEF-H = Marine Expeditionary Force- Hargus
NP= National Parks Journey
July 23, 2015
National Parks. State Parks too!
The true treasure of America is it's National Parks.
One of my favorite places is the north gate entrance "arch" at Gardiner, Montana going into Yellowstone. I have to go back into the archive pictures but I'll paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt's quote; "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people". Now that is a guy that knows how to lead a country.
Middle class people, working class families, need a place for recreation. Get away from work and refresh your soul. A place to take your kids, family, and connect with the outdoors. I see a lot of Americas urban kids in trouble. Small town kids too. No direction. No understanding of the biological world we live in. Some time in a National, or even State park is what a lot of kids need; some time away from the media crap to learn something about the world,... and themselves.
?Who is going to teach your kids how to fish? ... if you don't do it. ?You want someone else to teach your children how to fish? ?You want their life memories to be about spending time with someone else? ?You want the life memory of your child's first fish catch to be with... someone other than you?
There is a group of people, and I think you know who we are talking about, that want to "privatize" US government agencies including the National Park Service. My first thoughts are "?Have you lost your mind?" ... the answer is... pretty much.
The NPS rangers and staff workers I've talked with have a genuine love and appreciation of nature and the outdoors. They have a heartfelt interest in the outdoors, opposed to hospitality career management people that are geared to occupancy rates for management reports. These are different mindsets and the latter doesn't fit well in our National Parks.
The NPS has already contracted management of some of Americas larger tourist number parks to private companies. Yellowstone is run by a large company. These numbers are several years old, 2010 ect... so bear with me making these points. The hotel rates at Yellowstone were $177.00 a night; we drove an hour south to Williams, Arizona for affordable motel rates of $89.00.
Jenny Lake Lodge in The Tetons was $585.00 a night in 2008. Not many working class families can afford that rate. Ruby's at Bryce Canyon, not a national park, had a motel room for $77.00 a night. ... and your kids should see Bryce Canyon in their lifetime! Bryce is a phenomenal outdoors spectacle. Hike down into the Canyon.
This mentality that we need to "privatize" government is NOT in the best interests of "the people", our citizens. Our ancestors, our Great Grandads and Great Grand-moms have built this country with their blood, sweat, and real tears,... for centuries of generations. ALL their hard work and raising generations of families to have a country better than they had and our great country is NOT for sale, on the cheap, for ANY price! to ANYBODY! This is OUR country. It belongs to all us citizens, NOT privatized interests.
The stupid simpleton mentality of "we want to shrink the federal government down to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub"... ?are you nuts? The country that doesn't have a functional government looks like Somalia. I'm sorry, but that's not what we worked so hard through generations of families to build this country,... so it will look like a 3rd or 4th world country like Somalia. We are not going to let this happen to our country.
These National Parks are for our citizens! ... and at affordable rates FOR our citizens! These National Parks are NOT for exclusive rates for the wealthy privileged.
With a National Parks "Senior" park pass we booked 4 nights for $52.00. This is what President Teddy Roosevelt was talking about on the arch. The regular overnight campsite rate is $26.00; a bargain. A "Senior" pass is a 50% cost.
The National park campgrounds have bathhouses, dump stations for RVs. There are many RVs in these parks but I often see families camping in tents. ... and those kids in those families that camp in tents have as much fun camping in the outdoors... maybe more fun than the people in the big RV bus thing.
A personal observation... the kids... young and teenagers in these campground seem to be more healthy, respectful, and balanced. They connect with nature. I don't see any gang tattoos on the campground kids; their parents are active in these kids lives in good settings.
I hear talk about making America great again... America has ALWAYS been great; you just have to get out into the National Parks to see it. And state parks too. And the real secret of Americas outdoors is there are several national agencies that have woodland, wilderness and outdoor campsites. The BLM - Bureau of Land Management, NFS- National Forest Service, COE- Corps of Engineers ( usually water & )reservoirs, National Reclamation projects (like Flaming Gorge reservoir Utah), Dept of Agriculture,... and I'm sure there are more I left out but all have campgrounds in some really neat places. I heard an ad that The US has some 16,000 campgrounds available.
You never drink twice from the same stream.
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