Prince Goes Camping

The pop star known as Prince again is going camping. Well not the kind of camping that you and I do. In fact, his tent is going to br bigger than my house, or maybe even 5 of my neighbors homes put together. He’s got 21 concerts planned in London this summer and has asked the promoters to erect a giant tent inside the 02 Arena, where his concerts are going to be held.

It really will be the most extravagant tent that has ever been built,” a source revealed to one British newspaper. “It will have luxury bathrooms, kitchens and huge living areas as well as living facilities for staff.

Mmmmkay! He’s not exactly roughing it now is he?

See the entire story here.

camping, Prince

Wisconsin To Ban Firewood

If you’re planning on doing any camping in the beautiful state of Wisconsin this summer, plan on not bringing in your own firewood. To control spreading diseases that wood can sometimes carry, you have to purchase your wood at the campsite, which is cut from trees grown no father than 50 miles from the camp ground. At least the Department of Natural Resources was kind enough to send postcards to the 110,000 families that camped in state parks a year ago, warning them of the new restriction.

Read entire story here.

firewood, wood diseases, campfires

Orlando Area Hiking

It’s odd how all you hear about is DisneyWorld when you hear about Orlando. I was curious to see if there was any hiking in the Orlando area, so I looked it up today and found a whole site with tons of hikes to do while you are in Orlando. With places like Blue Spring State Park, Daubenmire Trail, Econ Loop Trail, Geneva Wilderness Trails, and the Seminole State Forest, who needs a vacation home Orlando, when you can hike and camp in the great outdoors.

Orlando hiking trails, vacation home Orlando

Samantha Larson

If I ever hear Michael say he won’t be able to do his Everest climb that he’s dreaming about, I’m going to remind him of this story.

On May 17th, Samantha Larson, 18, climbed the Seven Summits at Everest making her the youngest non-Nepalese person to ever achieve this. In 2002 at age 13, Samantha became the youngest person to climb the highest peak in South America, 22,841-foot Mt. Aconcagua. A year earlier she climbed Africa’s highest, Mt. Kilimanjaro.

You can read about her entire adventure here on her blog, and see more pictures on Samantha Larson.com.

Good job Samantha! What an amazing feat you’ve accomplished.

Seven Summits, Everest, Samantha Larson

Are We Losing Lake Mead?

About 96 percent of the water in Lake Mead is from melted snow that fell in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming. This is commonly referred to as the “Upper Basin” states. Each year an alloted amount of water is released to serve the needs of Nevada, California, Arizona, and Mexico. This all sounds just dandy now doesn’t it? Well it isn’t.

The amount of water needed for these places is exceeding the amount of water that Lake Mead has, and it’s not going down. In fact millions of homes and businesses are being built here, that demand more water. The need for water increases every year, but the Upper Basin isn’t supplying more. Do you see where I am going with this?

This picture clearly shows what is known as the Lake Mead Bathtub Ring. Yes, that is where the water level use to be, and where it is now.

The water levels at Lake Mead are currently at 1120 feet which puts us in the “Lower Basin” on a drought alert. The news is reporting that the lake is loosing a foot of water every week. That means Lake Mead will be dried up in 21 years, assuming no water ever flowed into it again. It’s time to wake up people, and take this drought seriously. Are your luscious green lawns really that important? Is your sparkling clean car absolutely necessary? Really. Think about it.

Photos courtesy of National Park Service.gov, and Nasa.