Today is January 13, 1998

I knew that the U.S. National Park Service is seriously underfunded and undermanned. I just didn't know it was this bad. My wife and I visited Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee today, steering clear of the two major tourist traps - Ruby Falls and Rock City - yeah, there is more to Lookout Mountain than just those two attractions - there are also some good Civil War historical monuments.

At the point that overlooks Chattanooga is a National Military Park. There is a fee, and it is collected by a machine at the park entrance. Like a good responsible citizen, I fed a bill into the machine and waited for the change. The machine spit out what looked like Chuck E. Cheese tokens. It took a minute to figure out that they were dollar coins.

Then the machine gave me my ticket - dated January 13, 1998. It gave me the privilege of staying at the park until closing ten years and two months ago. The ticket and the pizza tokens are pictured above.

Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.