"...it had apparently become a Ritter Family quest to visit all the parks he sang about." - Stuart Ritter
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During a National Park visit some years back, on a whim, I picked up a CD for the kids called Songs for Junior Rangers Volume I. It turned out to be an incredible collection of different music genres (from rap to polka to spiritual to Navajo) about a variety of National Park sites. Entertaining and engaging, the kids memorized many of the songs.
I came home from work one day and said that I was going to be taking a business trip to Colorado. One of the kids started singing, “In southern Colorado there’s a place I know” – the opening lines of “Beach Party at High Altitude” (a song about Great Sand Dunes National Park). They then asked if they could come with me so they could visit the park. The timing worked, so we shipped the whole family to Colorado and a very memorable trip to Great Sand Dunes.
We also had a chance to visit Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument where, it turns out, the Ranger who created the CD is based. Ranger Jeff Wolin, in addition to being a whiz about fossils and an amazing songwriter and performer, is just an incredibly nice guy.
The next Spring, I had a business trip to Phoenix during the kids' Spring Break. Since Saguaro National Park is there, and the topic of “Arm’s Up” on the CD, we planned another family trip. Half in jest, I emailed Ranger Jeff to let him know that it had apparently become a Ritter Family quest to visit all the parks he sang about.
And then we decided it should be. We’ve been to Mammoth Cave National Park, Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Monument, Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, and New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park.
We have met Krishel Augustine (the Navajo singer of Junior Ranger), and gone to all kinds of other places we otherwise wouldn’t have visited. We even got to see Ranger Jeff again when he came to Washington, DC to give a concert (and fulfilled our visit for “Down on the Mall.”).
Songs for Junior Rangers - Volume II came out recently. When you take out the CD out of the holder, right there on the liner, you’ll see the picture we took of the kids with Ranger Jeff the first time we met him in Colorado.
Songs for Junior Rangers Volumes I and II are available on Amazon and from eParks. I receive no compensation for sales of either one - except the opportunity to share some amazing music – and a picture of my kids - with more people. :-)
How about you? What is your quest? Share a story!
Stuart Ritter is a financial planner and a very (funny) good (knowledgable) public speaker. And, like Ranger Jeff, Stuart is just an incredibly nice guy.
