Two years ago, September of 2009, I watched Ken Burn’s documentary masterpiece The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. I’m usually not a documentary fan, but this one was different! I actually watched the whole thing, which is saying a lot because a Ken Burns documentary is usually very long, this one being no exception! It started Sun night and ran at least an hour and half (or maybe it was 2 hours) each night that week! Thank goodness for TiVo! I TiVoed the whole thing and watched over the course of several months!
Rather than starting with Yellowstone, the first National Park, and going through a chronological listing of how the parks came to be like I was expecting, Ken Burns started with an overview of what the parks are and why they are special. The whole first episode talked a lot about Yosemite and John Muir. At the time Yosemite wasn’t really on my list of places to go, and while I’d heard of John Muir (I’d visited his woods outside of San Francisco) I had only a vague idea of who he was. The first episode of the Ken Burn’s documentary suddenly made me want to go to Yosemite and sit in the meadow in the shadow of Half Dome and read everything John Muir wrote!
That’s exactly what I’m going to do this summer! Tomorrow evening I’m heading to California for 2 weeks to explore Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park! I was thrilled to learn that most of John Muir’s writings are free on Kindle! Yes, I did have to purchase a Kindle (which I love), to read my free books, but I think it will be worth it!
Mom and Dad, after some debating due to Mom’s sciatica/back pain, left Williamsburg on July 3 and have been driving like crazy all week are currently about 400 miles from our campsite in Dorst Creek Campground. I’ll be flying into Oakland and after a night at the Holiday Inn I’ll pick up my rental RV and head down to meet them.
I’m extra excited about my RV rental this year! Mom found a company that rents small class B camper vans! I have seen these on the road and checked them out online and they are very appealing in terms of purchasing one! Easy to drive and park yet they have all the comforts of home! I’m a bit worried about how small it’s going to be, maybe too small, which I why I’m excited about renting one before I decide if it’s something I want to buy!
So for the next two weeks I will be “Living in a van, down by the river” and thrilled about it!
Stay tuned to this blog for updates and pictures as much as the internet connections allow!
Oh and if you are interested in watching the episode of the Ken Burns documentary that inspired this trip go HERE. If you have AmazonPrime it’s even free! You can also view video clips on the website linked above.
No comments:
Post a Comment