My congressman, Mark Meadows, is one of the 94 representatives who has sent a letter to Jonathan Jarvis, director of the National Park Service with some questions about that agency's recent activities.  Meadow's district, NC-11, includes Smoky Mountain National Park and a large section of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Early October is peak tourist season here as visitors come to enjoy the fall color.  My favorite question is this Initially, NPS logo signs were posted at each of the closed memorials indicating that the area was closed due to the government shutdown.  On the second day of the shutdown the signs were removed and replaced with new, non-logo signs simply stating that "This site is closed".  Why were the original signs replaced and who requested the change? How much did it cost to remove and replace these signs? It sound like someone was trying to do damage control on the NPS's reputation.  Too bad they hadn't thought of that before the...(Read Full Post)