The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) launched the 4th Annual National Public Lands Day Tour from Washington, D.C. First stop: Milwaukee City Parks to visit the Milwaukee Conservation Corps and deliver a $1,000 grant for work they will be doing in various city parks throughout the city. As Director of The National Public Lands Day Program, I am fortunate enough to hand deliver these grants using a Toyota Prius that was recently donated to The National Environmental Education Foundation.
I left early on Tuesday morning from NEEF headquarters. The weather was perfect with clear blue skies with an occasional white fluffy cloud. As mentioned in the title, I only had to fill up the Prius once during the whole trip and I averaged just under 40 miles to the gallon. If I wasn’t such a lead-foot, it would have been a bit more, I am certain.
Since driving all the way to Milwaukee in one day is out of my mental and physical limits, I chose to stop at Harrison Lake State Park, a unit of Ohio’s state park system. It lies just south of the Michigan border and I must not be too far from Indiana which lies to the west. After 9 hours on the road, this park had all the amenities that I could ask for; a shower, most importantly. The park is a bargain at $22.00 for tent camping and a bit more for the R.V. crowd. I was very happy to see the park was humming with activity when I arrived with countless families choosing to spend their vacation time in the great outdoors. As I write this, there are a number of campfires surrounding me and laugher from children having a wonderful time in the great outdoors.
As I was plugging away to get the park ranger to display some National Public Lands Day brochures at the park’s kiosk, I noticed that Ohio Department of Natural Resources has a campaign of their own to get kids outdoors called “Explore the Outdoors.” They have supplemented this program with free booklets for children or their parents to pick-up that challenges families to complete 10 outdoor activities at Ohio state parks and log them at exploretheoutdoorsohio.com. Once logged, the families will receive a certificate of accomplishment. More appealing is that the first 1,000 children to log in and enter their activities will receive a Mini Companion Lantern from Coleman. Not bad.
Speaking of lanterns, I could use one right now, or better yet, a fire. The mosquitoes have decided I taste good. Time to retaliate. Until next time.
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