Screw You Elon and DOGE

President Franklin D Roosevelt said, “There is nothing so American as our National Parks…The fundamental ideas behind the Parks…is that the country belongs to the people.

One of the things we enjoy most about being On The Rhoda is visiting National Parks. So far, we've visited 15 and one of our criteria in planning any camping trip is making sure we can visit as many National Parks as possible. On this adventure to the Pacific Northwest, we plan to go to six Parks, a record number for us in a single trip.

Since January 20th, we have watched in horror as the imbecile Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have dismantled critical federal government departments and services without regard for the disasterous consequences faced by countless Americans. As an unelected interloper, Musk is not accountable for his actions and the only people who seem to be benefiting from his actions are his fellow billionaires. People will suffer and die from what Musk and his cronies have done. Hundreds of thousands of government workers have lost their jobs, salaries and benefits. Now that they are unemployed, they are likely to lose much more.

A government entity hard hit by the indiscriminate DOGE slashing is our National Parks. Today, we witnessed the impact on just one of them. Last night we stayed at a campground 10 minutes from Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. We went to Lassen’s website to make plans for today’s visit and were shocked to find out that only 1 of the 30 miles of road inside the Park is open.

That was great news for Gizmo. Dogs are allowed only in paved areas of National Parks. Never one to miss an opportunity, Gizmo took full advantage, strutting his stuff in all the paved areas he could find.

Seriously, Lassen’s only Visitor Center which until this year was open 7 days a week, is now closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. For most people, Visitor Centers are typically the starting point for visits to National Parks. Rangers and staffers provide critical information about the unique characteristics of their Park, areas to visit, recreational safety, current conditions and special events. Visitor Centers are the place to go to find out everything you need to know when visiting a National Park; they are necessary and vital.

Compared to all the heinous things DOGE has done, what we witnessed today was pretty insignificant. But screwing up our National Parks…what novelist Wallace Stagner referred to as “…the greatest idea we’ve ever had” infuriated me so deeply, it took over my blog. Sorry NOT SORRY…from our crew On The Rhoda.