Naturalizing your family: The camping way to see America;

              The Camping Way to See America
By Charlton Ogburn, Jr.
MY
Most Americans, if they set out to ex-plore their country, would find four-fifths of its landscape as exotic as Africa's. They would also find them-selves wonderfully rewarded. At least that was my belief oil returning home from a 9,600-mile transcontinental driving trip which a writing assign-ment required me to take two and a half years ago.
The United States is a lot to en-compass—how much, only one who has
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toured it can hope to comprehend. Yet that may be. all the more reason for getting to know as much of it as time permits. Only one who has traveled it can begin to grasp what its settlement must have cost, or appreciate what a miracle it is that one popularly-elected government can administer a land of such immense congregations of hu-manity, of such pulsing energies, of such limitless stretches of farmland, forest and desert. Only one who has seen for himself can have a true (if still inadequate) idea of its physical diversity, the grandeur of its moun-tains and sweep of its plains, the beauty that remains despite all we have done to disfigure it.
For the family with children, the reasons for getting out and seeing are all the more impelling, it seems to me. If it is true for adults, it is at least as true for youngsters that excursions abroad in the land, planned with the capacities of their age-levels in mind, can give them an awareness of their homeland and arouse ill them an ex-citement about it that no amount of reading or instruction will.
But granting these things, there re-mains the question of practicalities.
Let us note to begin with that a member of a national firm like II a skins & Sells with 60-odd offices starts out
with advantages in the form of pro-fessional acquaintances all around the country. They can tell him about local attractions that can multiply the re-wards of a trip. They can also inform him on local conditions, (Are roads to Crater Lake snow-free by mid-June? Is southern Arizona tolerable in Au-gust?) Ho has someone who can put him on to a doctor, dentist, or reliable garage if need arises.
A trip by car may be planned to take full advantage of motels and res-taurants, Being waited on is agreeable. So is air-conditioning in the summer lowlands and a dip in the motel pool. But these amenities come high—as
Charlton Ogburn, Jr. is a writer whose books and articles reflect his deep interest in the conservation of America's natural heritage. He is the author of The Forging of Our Continent, The Winter Beach, and a novel of the Amazon, The Gold of the River Sea. His account of World War II jungle fighting in Burma, The Marauders, was a best seller that was made into a motion picture.