{"id":757,"date":"2021-08-27T16:00:03","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T20:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/?p=757"},"modified":"2021-08-27T16:00:03","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T20:00:03","slug":"a-return-to-almost-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/2021\/08\/27\/a-return-to-almost-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"A Return To (Almost) Normal"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week from now I hope to be traveling through some of America’s national parks again. There was a PBS series a few years ago by Ken Burns, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.”<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Video

Ken Burns’ “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” available for purchase in various formats.<\/p><\/div>\n

I couldn’t agree more.\u00a0 I’ve written before (I think) that on my 60th birthday I drove to Great Falls Park<\/a> and purchased a lifetime senior pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"NPS

National Parks Lifetime Senior Pass for 60+<\/p><\/div>\n

I still maintain that was the best birthday present I could have given myself!<\/p>\n

The COVID pandemic caused innumerable lockdowns and travel restrictions.\u00a0 Cruise lines halted operations, and getting into and out of countries became a game of chance.\u00a0 The nastiness isn’t over yet, but there seems to be some semblance of normalcy returning.<\/p>\n

I said, “Some.”\u00a0 I have been alerted that I will need to wear a face diaper (mask) during my air travels, and when required in public areas.\u00a0 My trip will take me to California, so I can expect to have to wear the darn thing a lot, despite being fully vaccinated.\u00a0 I don’t like it, but I’m not going to let it be a deal-killer, because my travel bug has bitten me, and I must go.<\/p>\n

This will be my seventh Road Scholar<\/a> trip.\u00a0 A few months ago, I saw that the company had once again started their in-person study tours (like everyone else, they had gone to Zoom<\/a> during the lockdowns).\u00a0 The trip is titled, “Four Jewels<\/a>” and encompasses Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite and Death Valley.\u00a0 Believe it or not, it was the Death Valley mention that sold me!<\/p>\n

\"Road

Road Scholar image: Death Valley<\/p><\/div>\n

I have already begun my preparations.\u00a0 I’m making sure my camera<\/a> is fully charged, I have plenty of storage (a 32GB SD card has done me well on other photo trips), I bought a new pair of 5.11 Decoy Convertible pants<\/a> (lightweight, SPF 50+, packable) and am deciding what apparel I need (weather in the parks can go from hot to cold in the span of hours).\u00a0 But that’s part of the fun!<\/p>\n

I expect to have photos and observations to post here upon my return.\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A week from now I hope to be traveling through some of America’s national parks again. There was a PBS series a few years ago by Ken Burns, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.” I couldn’t agree more.\u00a0 I’ve written … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":759,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}