Our True Nature

By Audrey Peterman

“Audrey opens up the country to us in a whole new way. She weaves the beauty, history and culture she has found in our national parks into a spellbinding story that makes me want to get out there even more.” — Rue Mapp, founder, Outdoor Afro, California

“Audrey’s love of nature bubbles over in her writing. Her love for the national parks is equaled only by her love for people.” — Juan Martinez, National Geographic Emerging Explorer, Wyoming.

“It’s like reading the Bible. Audrey perceives the special connection between nature and God, and expresses it so beautifully.” — Marie Fabry, educator, New York.

“Audrey’s writing is so vivid, I feel like I am there with her, whether it’s in the wilds of Alaska or the historic town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. This book is a welcome guide for anyone interested in history, beauty, nature, travel, adventure or just understanding what it means to be an American.” — Al Calloway, historian and writer, Florida.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Audrey Peterman
• Release date: Oct 11, 2012

Audrey Peterman

Audrey Peterman is a national award-winning environmentalist. A native of Jamaica and a citizen of the US, she and her husband Frank co-authored the book, Legacy on the Land: A Black Couple Discovers Our National Treasures and Tells Why Every American Should Care. Since 1995 she has visited more than 160 of the 397 units of the National Park System and is an advocate for their continued protection.

Book preview

Ready, Set, GO!

Everything You Need for Thrilling Adventures

"Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps.

The sleeper must awaken."

— Frank Herbert

The first time Frank and I visited a national park was on our 12,000-mile, round the country road trip in 1995 to take in the sights. As we write in Legacy on the Land, with our last daughter just graduated from college we felt free to explore what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives. Frank had fallen in love with Belize in Central America because he’d learned of the enormous respect the Belizean people have for their land and their environment, and their commitment to passing it down unspoiled to their children. We went to Belize to check it out, with the intention of moving there and opening a bed and breakfast.

But the last day before Frank left Belize, he had a fateful exchange with a Belizean man over a beer in a local bar. As they were talking about the cowboy movies they’d both grown up watching in the 1940s and ’50s, (many of which showed iconic scenes from the Badlands,) the Belizean asked Frank what the Badlands look like. Embarrassed, Frank told him he didn’t know as he’d never been to the Badlands. His drinking buddy looked at him in shock and said, But you live in America, right? So what does the Grand Canyon look like? Again Frank had to admit that he’d never seen this world-renowned natural wonder, though it’s in his own backyard.

The Belizean was completely nonplussed, and now that I think about it, he might have believed that America was as small as his native country. When Frank came home and told me that story, he ended it with …so we can’t possibly go to live in somebody else’s country when we don’t know our own. How will it feel when people are asking us about places in America and we don’t know them? How about we take a couple of months off and drive around the country and see the highlights like the Badlands and the Grand Canyon that millions of people from around the come world to see?

And that’s how we came to discover the National Park System. When we reached Yellowstone in Wyoming, I realized I kept seeing the term National Park behind the names of Acadia in Maine and the Badlands in South Dakota, and now here again I was seeing Yellowstone National Park. What the heck is a national park, I wondered.

Suffice it to say that once I found out the answer to that question, I became a missionary for the national parks. Today there are very few places around the country that we hear about on the news or see on TV that we haven’t been at least close to.

On that first trip, we had no schedule and no itinerary, except a loose concept of the highlights we couldn’t miss, such as the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite. We had a full two months so we could be flexible. The adage God takes care of fools and children comes to mind when I think how many times providence came to our aid. We could have benefited from some planning, and reservations in some of the more remote locations would have saved us unnecessary concern.

We often gave up our campsites in the parks on weekends in favor of a motel room in town to avoid the weekend crowds. I don’t know if the hotel chains were offering frequent stay programs back then, but these days we stay in lodging inside the park or, if that’s not available, we choose one of the hotel chains in the gateway city outside the park and sign up for their reward programs. With every stay we’re earning points toward free nights. We also have a preferred airline, and when we have to fly a different one, we sign up for their frequent flyer program as well. It’s amazing how fast we rack up round-trip flights and free checked bags.

A few years ago we took our son, our daughter-in-law and five of our grandchildren on a four-day trip to some of the western parks. We found that renting an RV was most convenient and economical. We asked the RV Company what size vehicle would comfortably accommodate our group, and their recommendation (23 feet) made our travels very enjoyable. The cost of the RV was far less than we’d pay for multiple hotel rooms. The youngsters aged 4-17 thoroughly enjoyed the closeness and vied for the adventure of sleeping on the bunks above the cab. Silly us — we hadn’t bothered to make reservations at the parks’ RV campgrounds, but once again our luck held and we had no trouble getting a