A trip nearly blown away before it started!
I’ve taken five trips so far toward my goal of visiting every National Park unit. For every one of them, the trip I ultimately took was not the same as the one I had initially planned. From simply adding one additional stop (trip 1) to cutting a trip short (trip 3) to delaying the start due to illness (trip 5), it seems I can’t just stick with my original itinerary.
I thought trip 6 would finally be that trip. I planned it out months ago, made hotel reservations, and had all stops laid out. With a week to go before departure, I finally had a trip with no changes.
Then came Ian. Of course, I refer to the massive hurricane that struck southern Florida during the final week of September. At one point, the track had it passing directly over my home! Thank goodness (for me) it went over 100 miles to the south of here. Given the terrible damage that it did where it crossed the state, I fear my house may not have survived.
We did have a steady rain and wind ranging from 25-40 mph. The worst thing we suffered was loss of primary Internet for about two days. Fortunately, I have a hotspot capability on my cell phone, so I was able to keep my sanity. However, I did not want to leave with Internet out or it having just been restored. My mother lives nearby and I did not want to leave until I was also sure everything was working for her.
So… once again, a trip is delayed. This time, it was just for two days – long enough to get everything back to normal here.
As I write this, I will be leaving tomorrow to visit Group 18, mostly in Missouri and Kansas. There are 15 sites scheduled to visit on this trip, which will bring my total to 65. Of the 15, I have only visited one site place before – the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. However, when I visited it, the site was called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Now it is Gateway Arch National Park.
Personally, I have an issue with this being designated a National Park. Of the other 62 National Parks, all but Hot Springs are primarily dedicated to natural beauty. An argument could even be made that Hot Springs exists because of the natural springs in the area. But Gateway Arch is purely a manmade structure in a manmade park. It should be properly designated as a National Monument or National Memorial.
What’s even worse is the name change from Jefferson Expansion, which recognized the history of the area; Lewis and Clark started their journey from here as did many settlers. To change the name to simply reflect the structure trivializes the entire history of the area.
Off my soapbox now!
This trip offers a nice variety of sites. There are a few historical forts, some Civil War battlefields, sites remembering those early settlers – both white and black, homes of historic people, and a river system.
Once again, I will try to get a new blog post out each evening concerning the day’s visits, but no promises.
Steve
