My FEMA Rant

Camping World Hurricane Harvey Clothing Collection Alert

Just a quick alert that all the Camping World Superstores are collecting clothes for Hurricane Harvey victims. Thousands of south Texas residents have lost everything and need your help. Click HERE to find a Camping World Superstore near you. Also, Camping World is accepting Red Cross monetary donations at each store.  Camping World will match all donations up to $2,000,000 until Labor Day.  So give now and donate those clothes for Hurricane Harvey victims.

Until next time, be safe in the sun and have a great day in the great outdoors.

National Park Water Bottle Ban Reversed

Update this weekend - The Trump Administration has reversed the Obama ban on bottled water in our National Parks to reduce plastic litter.  The bottle water industry has lobbied hard to get this over  turned.  Looks like they have succeeded.

Click HERE of a NPR article on the ban reversal. Click HERE for another article. 

I have always used refillable water bottles like AVEX water bottles.  But there have been times when I did not have my AVEX bottle with me.  When I used a purchased bottled water I always packed out the empty bottle.

Until next time be safe in the sun and have a great day in the great outdoors.

National Park Deferred Maintenance Tops $11 Billion

America's National Park System is one our national treasures.  Visitors from all over the world come to visit our 417 National Parks. The Parks are operated and maintained by just over 19,000 employees.  Because of the huge backlog of deferred maintenance at National parks ,the entry fees are going up as is the Senior (Over 65) lifetime pass.  The current cost of the lifetime pass is $10.00 until August 28 when the fee will be $80.00.  So if you are over 65 and you want a pass, you need to act now.  Click HERE to go to the National Park webpage where you can purchase your pass online or visit your closest National Park to purchase.  For the third year in a row, the National Park System broke attendance records with 331 million visitors.

Since the Park System started keeping records in 1904, more than 13 Billion visitors have enjoyed the American National parks.  With that many visitors, our parks are under sever stress to keep the parks safe and beautiful.  That is why funding the deferred maintenance budget is very important.  Just take Florida for example.  The deferred maintenance funding is estimated to exceed $273,000,000.  Just the other day an email was circulated notifying Floridians that the visitor fees at the Everglades were going up.  The fees are going up because of the $78,000,000 in deferred maintenance.  I did a little research and number crunching.

The Everglades National Park gets about 1,000,000 visitors a year.  The fee increases depending on category are from $4.00-$5.00 each.  Many of the fee categories remain unchanged.  See the fee changes below.  Even if all of the $30.00 fee for a Private vehicle 7-day pass went to deferred maintenance at the Everglades National Park, there is not enough money to go around.

The solution to the huge National Park deferred maintenance shortfall is for Congress to fully fund the maintenance of our amazing National Parks System.  Just take a few billion from the Department of Defenses' shown below.  Instead of adding $52.8 Billion to the base, just add $31.8 Billion and put the $11.0 Billion in National Parks Service's deferred maintenance budget and do all the backlog work.

Until next time, be safe in the sun and have a great day in the great outdoors.

2017 World Rowing Championships Come to Florida

Not often does Florida host a world championship that will bring thousands athletes from 60 countries to the Sunshine State.

Starting on September 23 through October 1 the World Rowing Championship will come to the Sarasota-Bradenton to the newly developed Nathan Benderson Park.  This park was especially design to host FISA (World Rowing Federation) international rowing competitions.  The park has a 2,000 meter course that meets all FISA criteria.  In fact the Nathan Benderson Park is first FISA-Certified course in America.

FISA has 151 National Federation members, as well as National and International Olympic Committees.  In addition to rowing events, the park can be configured to host kayaking and running events.  

The week of international rowing competitions start on September 23 with the Opening Ceremony at 5:30 PM.  The opening event ends with a great fireworks show.  The Opening Ceremony is free but you will need a ticket to attend the actual competition.  Click Here to visit the 2017 World Rowing Championship web page to purchase tickets.  

Depending where you live, it may be worth while to make hotel reservations right now.  Taking into account the long driving distances from major Florida cities, it will be a very long day for some event visitors who drive from home. Knowing how driving I-75, I-4 and I-95 can be dangerous at times, staying over night at any of Florida's west coast hotels will make one's visit to the 2017  World Rowing Championship a pleasurable event.  If you are planning to stay in the Sarasota-Bradenton area for the whole week, click Here the Visit Sarasota web page and Here for information on vacationing in Bradenton and the Gulf Isles.  With 49 days to go, you do not have much time to plan to attend the 2017  World Rowing Championship.  Hope to see you there.

Until next time, be safe in the sun and have a great day in the great outdoors.

Kayak Slide Show 2017 01

New Ice Mule Cooler Backpack at 2017 ICAST

As my anticipation for the start of ICAST nears each year, I try to imagine what new updates I will see.  This year Ice Mule exceeded my expectation because for the past two years, other than new colors and their Pro Cooler with straps, there were no, what I would call a big change.  At this year's ICAST Ice Mule rolled out a backpack cooler.  The new cooler design has thick insulation on all four side of the cooling chamber. The backpack closure is the same design as on all the other Ice Mule Coolers. This cooler has been tested extensively and will keep items cold for an extended period of time.

There are three pockets that have zippers that allow contents to be cooled.  The backpack has a padded waist strap with comfortable backpack straps.  When I tried on the empty backpack cooler it was comfortable to wear. I did have a problem with the waist strap.  I could not close it. I needed  about 6 more inches. That should not be a problem for average sized people. You can see below that the waist strap should fit perfectly. You see my pants belt is more than 6 inches longer than the waist strap on the backpack.

My bad, not a Ice Mule design issue.  I recommended that a waist belt extension be added as an accessory for people with large waste lines like me.  The new Ice Mule Backpack Cooler will be available next year.

I have been using my Ice Mule Cooler for over two years.  I take it everywhere. It works great when I take it into hotels.  It can easily be filled at the ice machine and it rolls up tightly and can fit into your luggage.

A great travel buddy. You can find Ice Mule Coolers on Amazon or other online outdoor recreation outfitters.  Get yours today.

Until next time, be safe in the sun and have a great day in the great outdoors.