Economic Stimulus We All Deserve

  It’s officially summer vacation season now, a date not recognized so much by school calendars, vacation calendars or seasonal calendars as by the prices at the gas pump.  Yep, last week, they popped up a good 50-cents over what they had been.

   That was just in time for me to make about an 800 mile round trip to southern Illinois for a graduation event,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

followed by a visit to the highest point in Missouri – Taum Sauk Mountain State Park – while doing some scouting work for one publication that shall remain nameless at this point.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Fortunately, that publication reimburses my mileage at the government-allowed 55-cents per mile – a really nice perk not always offered travel writers.

   And that’s good for another reason:  I’m taking off this week on another scouting expedition for this publication, driving into South Dakota to explore some state parks, go kayaking and poke around in a few art studios.  The outing should put a couple thousand miles on the little red Cougar, always my favorite mode of transportation.

So I’ve got my hiking stick packed, along with the new Off clip-on bug repellent (I’ll let you know how that works out) and my favorite little traveling companions.

It should be a fun week.

 

However, if I weren’t heading north on I-29, I would certainly consider heading to Brown County Indiana, a great place because it has more log homes per capita than any other county in the US, and of course, Bruce and I want to live in a log cabin some day and this week, Brown County is having a log cabin open house and tour.

And then we would probably head down to the Smoky Mountain National Park because June 15 is the 75th birthday of that beautiful natural resource and well, you just can’t get enough of those great silent places.

  Or, we would head west on I-70 to Telluride Colorado for any of the many blues, jazz, food and doo-dah festivals that makes Telluride so much fun.

So we’ve done stories on all, so I hope you’re clicking on those little highlighted lines and making us lots of money.

  But in the meantime, get your road map out and figure out where your vacation, your work, your dreams and your favorite mode of transporation will take you this summer.

   It’s our patriotic duty to stimulate the economy and our spirits - one tank of gas at a time.