Virginia Interstate Rest Areas closing; others too

Just come across this press report here in the UK.

“Arnold Schwarzenegger is terminating entry to 220 of California's stunning state parks in a bid to protect the beleaguered state from suffering further in the recession... California can no longer afford to run its parks.”

The Parks must generate millions of dollars. Agree with the comment that he looks like shooting himself in the foot.

Do not know how much of this is political posturing, journalistic licence or is a done deal. Whatever, it doesn’t look good.

Yeah, this was put on the table weeks (months?) ago; no action yet (I don't see any updates in the local papers) but it remains a possibility.

I've warned people off and on on these forums that these closures are a possibility, but quite frankly the amount of money to be saved, even without counting income lost due to closures, is so small compared to the hole the state budget is in that closures would be more symbolic than anything.

Aside: the first photo in this article appears to be Mt. Diablo; a few miles away from home base. Diablo is a great park for hiking, and due to it's unique geography allows one to see more square miles of earth from it's summit than almost any other place on earth. Even though less than 4000' high, it is surrounded by mainly flat ground. You can easily (on a clear day) see the Sierras (including Half Dome with a good set of binoculars), and allegedly if the atmospherics are right.. Mt. Shasta.

So it seems like in some instances it will be back to asking the clerk for the bathroom key if there's an influx of people needing to "go"... which means I can finally see if there's a place out there that has a larger "keychain" than one stop in Pennsylvania a few years ago that had the key on a roughly foot-long 2-inch diameter dowel.

I haven't heard of any rest areas closing in Massachusetts, but then again I don't usually use them. Usually all we hear about is who wants to take charge of the Turnpike this week.

Got a kinda funny story - when I was coming back from San Diego through Utah around the end of last February, I was on UT-12 going from Bryce to Capitol Reef. It was Sunday about 11:30am when I came into Escalante, and I needed gas. The town was absolutely deserted - almost like a ghost town. I pulled into the first gas station I saw, filled my tank, then headed in to go potty. The place was deserted and locked up tight - but the gas pumps were on and the credit card readers worked! I went all the way around the building - no outside bathrooms. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination, but I imagine I made the side of the dumpster smell just a bit worse.