I’d wanted to go to Yellowstone National Park ever since I was enticed by my first visit to Yosemite and picking up on murmurings that if I thought Yosemite was good I should really see Yellowstone because its quite something. So in my year or so seeing all the places I’d dreamed of from behind my grey desk, I tentatively added Yellowstone to the list. With ten days to kill between Vancouver and a play date in Chicago it was the perfect opportunity to get to this tantalising park.
My second trip to Yosemite in 2008
But it wasn’t to be. As I kept half an eye on the news as US threw around words unconstitutional and Obamacare in the same sentence it was clear, even for the sensationalist American news outfits that something was not quite well with the American political system.
1st October 2013 and the US government had been shut down because the congress had failed to pass a budget and therefore the government had no money. Bemused by news casts and a lack of understanding of a system which apparently means if a group of people don’t like a law passed years ago they can hold the country to ransom, in a story that unfolded more and more like a pantomime. I know virtually nothing about US politics but the behaviour of some of the politicians on display over national media was akin to toddlers having a tantrum because they couldn’t wear their favourite fancy dress outfit to a family wedding.
Toddler having a tantrum
Coming from a country where healthcare is FREE at the point of delivery it bewildered me that anyone would want to stop any kind of universal healthcare being implemented ANYWHERE and certainly seemed incomprehensible that they would go so far as to shutdown a government to stop this happening.
Over the first few days the news coverage got more and more bizarre s the media and public opinion turned on the republicans and their speaker, a congressman appealed to the media that the speakers feelings had been hurt and that it wasn’t helpful that people kept ‘calling him out’. While 1000s of Americans went on leave without pay, concerned less with name calling and more with paying mounting bills without an income.
Disneyland: Still Open
So because the government was shutdown so too were the national parks, that’s right iconic places such as The Grand Canyon, The Statue of Liberty and of course Yellowstone were now all closed until the situation was resolved. One of the most ludicrous situations I’d ever come across. Further bewilderment as I watched some spokesperson on the news say how it probably wouldn’t affect tourism much because there was still lots to see and do in America and of course Disneyland was still open (because that’s what everyone wants to see in the US right?)
With no resolution looking imminent I took my SUV and headed towards Canada, where National Parks would be open and the scenery just as breathtaking. (More on that soon).
Yellowstone (the first national park) has been described as America’s greatest idea, surely then logically the congress that managed to shut it down is probably Americas worst. <
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