America The Beautiful? - Blythe Roberson

When I was looking for books for this season of Cover to Cocktails, I wanted to find some non-fiction to add to our list. I read fiction almost exclusively so it's good to broaden my horizons! In my search I came across America The Beautiful? and thought it sounded interesting. Add that to Jen's previous job experience and love of the outdoors, I thought this would be perfect.

The book starts with Blythe realizing one day that she wants to quit her job and spend the time travelling around America. She tells a story about her step-dad, known as TB to Blythe and her friends, when he took a group of kids camping one year and the experience let to a life long love of nature. After telling her family and friends her plan, they are concerned about a woman travelling alone and keep telling her that she would be murdered along the way and even provided ideas on how she would be murdered. She later discusses this with another lone female traveler whose friends told her the same thing!

Undeterred, Blythe borrows her step-dad's Prius and sets off on her adventure. She plans to visit National Parks where she hasn't received her Junior Ranger badge (I did not know this was a thing and quickly checked if Canada has a similar program and we do, it's called Xplorers and you get a dog tag when you complete the activities, though it doesn't seem to be available for every National Park. My kids are now determined that next time we are at a National Park....likely Banff since that's our closest one...that they are doing it!).

The trip starts in Michigan at Isle Royale National Park (Jen will update us when she goes to this National Park and gets her badge), and continues through the Plains. By the end of the book, she has been to parks in the Plains, the Intermountain West, the West Coast and the Southwest (honestly I didn't know America had so many different names for parts of the country). Unfortunately, the schedule Blythe has created for herself doesn't leave that much time to spend in each park, sometimes only a few hours.

We both really enjoyed the stories about the parks and park rangers. Some of them were very serious about the Junior Ranger program and asked follow up questions before providing the badge. Some of them flirted, and some like Ranger Lucas told her he "would be around" when it was time for her to get her badge....and then wasn't. There was also Ranger Brooke who kindly mailed the badge to Blythe after she couldn't get back in time before the centre closed.

We also enjoyed the chapter where Blythe spent time in the ghost town her friend Eileen was restoring. Eileen had come across the town during a trip and tracked down the owner of the land. After doing some math, it actually made financial sense to sublet their apartment and move to the ghost town. While she was there, Blythe helped restore a camper for an artist's residence.

And I just have to call out Buddy, that guy Blythe hooked up with in Portland. What a jerk. And I'm glad that she wrote about this in her book after she told him she wouldn't post about it. Nice move!

What I didn't enjoy as much was the many rants about climate, oil, rich old white guys, and excessive tourists. Blythe was driving around the country and stopping for very short stays in national parks, something many others were doing, bemoaning the fact that people are destroying the parks by visiting them. It was a bit hypocritical, which she also stated herself multiple times. I kept wishing for more park and road trip stories and for the whole book to be more like the introduction where I thought Blythe's humour shone. This didn't bother Jen as much as me, but we both wanted more stories from the parks.

Overall we both enjoyed much of this book. I did a bit more research into National and Provincial parks near us and we are making some weekend plans to go visit some this summer. Fun fact, Saskatchewan and Alberta both have sand hills like the one Blythe visited (The Great Sand Hills, and Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park to name a couple). Jen and her husband are much more outdoorsy people than me (I am an indoor cat) and they have been to quite a few National Parks in the US and Canada. They have not been collecting Junior Ranger or Xplorer badges though, but she has assured me she will start collecting next time they are at a National Park....photographic evidence will be shared to our blog!

We hope you enjoy this book!

Jen 📘📘📘📘

Until next time, have a drink, read a book, and be happy!