Sorry Folks....

Park's Closed!

The moose out front should have told ya.

I never thought that one of the funniest lines in the movie, "Vacation" would turn out to be so true!

My best friend, T and I are gearing up for our two-week camping trip out west. We are heading to Glacier National Park, Mt Rainier National Park, Olympic National Park, then we will drive down the coast of Oregon and California into the Redwood Forest. We will make our way back east via Moab, Utah and Arches National Park, then hit the Rocky Mountain National Park before heading back to the Great Lakes State.

The problem is... we are running into a bit of a snag at Mt Rainier... most of the roads and trails have been damaged by severe flooding that occurred last November. The NPS has been repairing a lot of the damage, but there are still major roads that are closed and will be until further notice.

There also are some problems with the roads in Olympic National Park due to flooding. They have many of these problems fixed, so there will only be a few areas that we will be unable to venture into.

We are still determined to see as much as we are able to... but these closures put a lot of question marks into our trip. I guess we will just take our trip day by day... and make the most of what we do get to see.

I am just preparing myself for when I get to the park gate... and unfortunely hear the words that John Candy so eloquently spoke... "Sorry Folks, Park's Closed!"

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OPPS!! I got all caught up in my travel woes that I forgot about Fun Monday!!

Today's is being hosted by Jenni at Prairie Air. Your mission, should you choose to accept it:Share one or more of your favorite summertime memories with us. It can be a childhood memory or more recent. The memory can be a vague conglomeration of how you spent summers past (catching fireflies, playing outside till dark, watermelon seed wars) or it can be a detailed memory of a specific event. You may write a poem or short story or just tell it like it was. The main idea is to communicate the essence of summer and what symbolizes the season in words and/or pictures.

Well... I'll keep this short and simple. Some of my fondest summertime memories are fishing with my grandpa. My grandparents lived on a small lake in northern Michigan for many of my childhood years. There isn't any amazing story to tell... it was just having that undivided attention... sitting on the dock with him. Watching his hands bait the hook... I loved his hands. Then we would walk back up to the house through the woods... nibbling on any wintergreen berries we could find. Great memories...