AS you make your travel plans for 2011...

[VernM]

From around the web;

All across the United States, conditions at many state parks, recreation areas and historic sites are deplorable at best. Some states have backlogs of repair projects that are now over a billion dollars long. The following is a quote from a recent MSNBC article about these project backlogs....

More than a dozen states estimate that their backlogs are at least $100 million. Massachusetts and New York's are at least $1 billion. Hawaii officials called park conditions "deplorable" in a December report asking for $50 million per year for five years to tackle a $240 million backlog that covers parks, trails and harbors.


All over the nation, asphalt roads are actually being ground up and are being replaced with gravel because it is cheaper to maintain. The state of South Dakota has transformed over 100 miles of asphalt road into gravel over the past year, and 38 out of the 83 counties in the state of Michigan have transformed at least some of their asphalt roads into gravel roads.

Source; Survivalblog.com

[Mike]

So Garmin was right after all?
"Avoid unpaved roads" makes sense now.

There's no such thing as a "bad park" to a boon docker, only bad parking.

If it's only some states, and it may be a budget issue, as it appears there's no money for park upkeep and
improvements, and the basic infrastructure is crumbling, you have to ask why? There are other states whose
parks appear to be well kept, and the roads are, for the most part, paved. Perhaps the states involved need
to re-examine their fiscal priorities?

btw, I think we drove that 100 mile stretch of gravel road in SD last October. It runs straight south from
Bismarck to Pierre.

[Woodgrain]

They're doing the same thing in Saskatchewan.They don't have the money to improve the infrastructure.

Woodgrain