On the recordApril 23, 2018
Mr. President, I thank my distinguished colleague. I want to join with the chairman of the Subcommittee on National Parks of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Senator Daines, to support this resolution which was adopted unanimously last week recognizing this week as National Park Week in this country. When I left office as Governor of Maine in January of 2003, my family and I the next day took off in a 40-foot RV to see the country. My children were 12 and 9 at the time, and we basically circumnavigated America over the next 5\1/2\ months. Just before coming to the floor, I went down the list of the parks we went to. The point I want to make is--and I get a bit emotional about this. This was the greatest experience of my life, to have taken my children to these parks with my wife, Mary; and to have seen and experienced them and experienced the people at the parks was just an unbelievable life-changing experience. We went to Arches--I am doing them in alphabetical order, not geographically--Bad Lands; Big Bend in Texas, which, by the way, is one of the most beautiful places in the country and one of the least visited national parks; Bryce Canyon; Canyonlands; Capitol Reef; Carlsbad; the Grand Canyon--of course, every American should see the Grand Canyon.…
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