ellen 
Happy Presidents’ Day! Today we reflect and honor our past and present leaders. I often find myself thinking of FDR and his New Deal in relationship to our present economic stresses. In 1933, Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) who planted over 3 billion trees from 1933-1942, improved National Parks (with public and fire roads, as well as picnic shelters and campsites), and expanded protection of natural wildlife habitats. For the first time in American History, FDR used Federal money to purchase land for parks and their expansion. Take a moment today and be glad he was one of our leaders.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
One of my favorite books is Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. It’s a great read that reflects on the wilderness that America once was through Bryson’s adventures with the Appalachian Trail (a footpath over 2,000 miles long that crosses 12 states from Georgia to Maine), AND it’s pretty damn funny.