Peace

An eye for an eye makes the whole Earth blind. May you all have a peaceful Solstice.

the Snow that wasn't

The Big East Coast Snow storm petered out by the time it reached Western Mass.

That's ok, there's more to be had and it ain't even Winter yet.

Mountain-to-Sea Trail

Just read about this new trail in North Carolina. It goes the length of the state from Clingman's Dome (tallest point on the Appalachian Trail) to Jockey's Ridge on the Outer Banks (sea level).

check out the trail at http://www.ncmst.org/.

Buy a live tree this season

Instead of killing a tree for the holidays, but a live one. Then replant in the spring and enjoy the live again. Now, you won't be able to get a 8 footer, but that is OK, Try a 3-4 footer.

Don't have a place to plant it? Ask a neighbor or relative. It might cost a bit more, but the fact that you can plant it and enjoy it year after year, will make all the difference.

What' with the Ticks in November?

Gosh, I am pulling off these tiny ticks from my dog. Ticks in November? Gosh, I know it has been a mild fall since I have yet to turn on my heat, but ticks in November. This is something I can do without.

183 references and counting for Medical Tourism

The Medical Tourism Research Bibliography is growing by leaps and bounds. Send me your references on medical or health tourism and help us grow even more.

tis the Season of Craft Fairs

Support your local craft fair this holiday season. Be sure to buy homemade items and not manufactured junk. You will be helping this local economy and can use the items for gifts. I am sure you can find one this weekend in your town!

Appalachian Trail Corridor Monitoring today

Hiked some of the Appalachian Trail today to do some corridor monitoring. You know walking (bushwhacking) thru the woods to find these monuments. Had a blast with my friends Dan and Robert.

If you are interested in volunteering, click on the title link for more info.

Winter travel can be a bargain

I've noticed that there are some fantastic deals for winter travel (especially) to warmer climates.

Free nights at hotels, free cars with the room, credits for food and spas. And this is for the typical high end islands like the Caymans, Turks and Caicos and Antigua and others. Consider booking your trip now, since I am sure these deals are limited in numbers. With international tourism down 20%, destinations are competing for visitors.

Urban parks mitigate Urban Heat Islands

I have a class project this semester and we are looking into the urban heat island effect in Westfield MA. The students are blanketing the city tomorrow morning before dawn to measure the air temperature in this 40 square mile city. Some task, eh?

Left over candy? Give to the local food pantry

I'm going to the local food pantry and in addition to soups, veggies and mac & cheese, I am taking over the left over candy from the weekend. I certainly don't need it and it will make some kid smile!

You got one nearby!

Night of the Living Dead TONIGHT

folks, I am showing Night of the Living Dead tonight at the WSC Campus Center at 9 pm. Direct from a 16mm print, it has all the scratches and hisses you remember when you saw this at a Midnight showing 30 years ago.

Great fun!

Medical Tourism Bibliography updated

Gosh,
we're up to 174 references on Medical Tourism on our web page (http://www.wsc.ma.edu/medicaltourism) See the links page. We are working hard on the paper for Tourism Review, so some more data should be published shortly.

I guess we could have found one more to make it 175, but hey, that's for the next update!

sure you should give out Candy ...

Halloween is all about kids. And some kids are pretty old. So while you might give out those candy bars to the neighborhood kids, don't forget about taking some good food to your local food pantry. Just "google" your town and "food pantry" and I am sure you will find a pantry needing your can of soups, mac and cheese, canned veggies and other non-perishable food items.

MT Greylock Ramble Columbus Day 2009

Yep, I can't imagine a better day to be out hiking. The weather will be crisp, and the views aplenty. So head on up to Mt. Greylock, Massachusetts tallest on Columbus Day 2009 and go for a hike.

Great Outdoors America report available

A free report can be downloaded from http://www.orrgroup.org/report.html. This report is published by the Outdoor Resources Review Group and worth some time reading. It has been some time since a large scale report was written (with the exception of Forest Service documents). Maybe the last was the President's Commission on American Outdoors (1986 and available on Amazon for $1.79!) Check it out.

a great resource for AT corridor monitoring

Check out this link on (http://www.atcboundary.blogspot.com/) for information on Appalachian Trail corridor monitoring. More on this volunteer work to come.

a teaching moment

While certainly NOT a fun topic, the current seismic activity in the Pacific is causing some problems in the world. (see http://earthquake.usgs.gov/). Amazing thing is how much the announcements let the folks on the North American west coast know they are out of harm's way, when countless deaths can be directly attributed to the Tsunami. In class this morning, I tried to link to some other tsunami website, but can imagine the heavy traffic looking for the same info.

Need a laugh

I used to check out the various video sites (before YouTube) and caught this funny flash mob dancing to Hammer. It makes people laugh and that is good.
http://www.stupidvideos.com/video/song_dance/Hammertime_Flash_Mob

Nuttin' like a bad SCI FI film to round out the summer

So folks, you see, we show 16mm films in the backyard. Typically these are classic Drive-in favorites that you probably saw from your parent's car in the sixties or seventies. You know the type, films that have monsters that either make your skin crawl, or the kind that make you brake out in laughter. Well, anyway, last night, we showed "The Brain that Wouldn't Die", a classic that I picked up from Greg out in Sinister Cinema. (check out his website for thousands of titles on VHS or DVD, see http://www.sinistercinema.com/).

What a way to wrap up the summer. It was chilly last night so folks went after the hot tea and coffee over the cold drinks.

I wonder how many people show 16mm films in their backyard during the summer. I bet a lot!

getting to know the students

In my Quantitative Methods class I asked the students about their hobbies, music and film tastes and some background academic information. It was all to get to know the students a bit more. Out of a class of 18, two stated that "The Shawshank Redemption" was their favorite flick. What are the odds?

For my taste, one student claimed "Cool Runnings" and "Nosferatu", both high on my list of great films.

I downloaded the trailers from YouTube, and will add these to my PowerPoints.

back to school today

OK, I'm back to school today and in the classroom. Haven't taught for a few years, so it should be interesting. I'll teach Recreation Geography in the spring, so in the meantime I'm doing Physical Geography and Quantitative Methods. The quant class will do an urban heat island study of our city park, so I will keep you up to date.

Medical Tourism is not growing as fast as predicted

While this AP article by Tom Murphy (dated 22 Aug 09) emphasizes the lower cost of overseas medical treatment, one interesting bit of information noted that Medical Tourism is note growing as fast as predicted. Instead of 6 million folks travelling by 2010, it has been recalculated to be more like 1.6 million. Still a healthy number of tourists seeking more affordable health care, but I wonder if the medical tourist brokerage firms will suffer the dot.com death suffered earlier this decade. Time will tell. This would be a good research project for a grad student!

NEW ENGLAND - SAINT LAWRENCE VALLEY GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY

yep, the annual meeting is coming up in November 2009 at Salem State College. Check out the website for more details and consider visiting Salem (after Halloween, of course). See:
http://www.nestval.org/

It is a good conference and one where you will meet all the local geographers. Conference details are found here http://dgl.salemstate.edu/nestval/

News from the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries

I just posted some news from OTTI on RTS Listserv. You can subscribe to this news by visiting this website. http://tinet.ita.doc.gov/tinews/subscribe.html

(it is a tad slow this morning, perhaps from the news yesterday?)

August 18, 2009
Economic Downturn Continues to Weaken Tourism Industry
Accelerating Job Losses, Sharp Declines in Spending

Avoid the Caribbean during hurricane season.

whew, just missed the beginning of hurricane season, at least for the Atlantic. We are in the Turks and Caicos just two weeks ago. Some head down to feast on lobsters (starting 1 Aug), but we just enjoy the beach. Anyway, now is the time for all you recreation geographers to become amateur meteorologists. See http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ for help!

The Recollection Phase of the Recreation Experience

Ok, so now you are home, hopefully unpacked, and downloading all the pics and videos to you computer. You dump all the crappy ones (maybe). You know, the ones where you didn't wait for the camera to adjust temperature from the air conditioned room or car to the natural hot and humid air and this caused the lens to steam up. Darn.

Anyway, I am now starting to create a DVD of the photos and video from TCI. I have uploaded a few to my Facebook account, Panoramio (hoping for Google Earth acceptance) and email some to friends.

This is all part of the recollection phase of the recreation experience. I am reliving the experience through the photos, remembering the sights, sounds, smells, the heat, the taste of the great seafood consumed...you get the picture.

enjoy.

Tourism Up in Nicaragua!

Yes, it is true. According to Nica Times (www.nicatimes.org) tourism is up for this Central American country. "In the first five months of 2009, tourism in Nicaragua grew by 11 percent, even as most of the world experienced a downward trend". (See Nicatimes Friday 24-31 July 2009.

Could it be a more affordable destination? Could it become the next Costa Rica?

Here is some general information from the WTTC:
http://www.wttc.org/eng/Tourism_Research/Tourism_Economic_Research/Country_Reports/Nicaragua/

While 20 years old, here is a link for a open source book for your reading pleasure:
http://www.archive.org/details/PoliticalHospitalityAndTourismCubaAndNicaragua

the travel-from phase of the recreation experience

Yes, returning home after a vaca can be a bummer. Weather causes a lot of the headaches with storms in the winter and summer delaying flights or worse. Last night our connecting plane was late getting in and while I waited (and searched for the Starbucks) I came across the rebooking area of AA. There must of been 200 people trying to get a new flight home or to their destination. We were lucky and I was in my bed by 3:00 am.

I won't bring up the "almost" accident I had in a turn-a-bout in the Turks and Caicos. And to think I was becoming a pro driving on the left.

The pic is from Grace Bay, Provo.

Tourism is down in the Caribbean

From a small sample of conversations with residents and businesses in the Caribbean, tourism is down 10-30%. Even in the slow season, tourists are either staying home (staycations) or seeking more affordable travel options.

If you are in the market for a second home, sales are slow and prices are dropping to more reasonable prices.

Interesting note, while some flights are booked, others (namely the weekly runs and not the daily runs) may have plenty of seats available. And given that this is the hurricane season, try booking at the last minute to get some great deals. How about $1000 for six nights in a hotel and flight? I sometimes use lastminute.com for ideas.

it's hot in the Turks and Caicos

duh, of course it is hot. The sun is over head, and except for coconuts, the tallest vegetation is one meter high so there is no shade. According to a sample of one, tourism is at 90% of what it normally might be. Lots of new construction, but lots of empty new stores.

The on-site phase of the recreation experience.

the On-site phase of the recreation experience

So we have thought about our trip, traveled to it and now we are here (or there). Folks typically think that this is the trip, but the anticipation phase and travel to phase are darn important.

Enjoy the experience, try something new, greet new people and you will find that there are good people all around the world (or country if you haven't picked up that passport). Enjoy the moment.

The travel to phase of the recreation experience

I got really good at reading this map while in Vienna. The abstraction of Subway Maps is an Art.

Funny thing, I bought a day pass my first day there and never used it. They have some kind of honor system there. But if you get caught without a ticket there is a big fine to pay.

International Visitor Spending in the United States Down Markedly in May

No kidding. And to boot, I was at the post office yesterday waiting in line behind a woman trying to get a Passport in less than 3 weeks. Come on folks, don't wait until the last moment to get the paperwork going. The post 911 period means more difficult travel for all. ESPECIALLY for our foreign guests. So "travel to US is down."

The Anticipation Stage of the recreation experience

We can thank Clawson and Knetsch (1966) for describing the entire recreation experience in five unique stages. Let's start with the anticipation stage. Here people of planning the trip, scouring over tour books and maps, making travel arrangements and getting prepared for the experience.

Travel books are a great way to explore the world from your arm chair. And so is Google Earth.

Even if you are not traveling, consider thinking about it. It will be fun.

Finally summer here in the Northeast!

Unlike those folks in the midwest, that are enjoying triple digit temps (see http://blogs.wlfi.com/2009/07/02/wlfi-climate-summary-for-june-2009/) summer finally arrived yesterday with warm temps and the humidity. Ahhhh the humidity. Now all we need is the steamed crabs for a great Maryland picnic.

Been a tad lazy the last couple of days

as I get ready for my fall classes. I'm teaching Physical Geography and Quantitative Methods. It has been five years since Phys. Geog and about three for Quant. So I am re-learning much of the subjects and having a blast.

Skype is my friend

Well, I really want to thank the Skype folks for allowing me to speak with my wife whilst 4000 miles away (six time zones). Every evening at 11 pm my time I would call my wife (5 pm her time) to chat and talk about each others' day. And all for free! Thanks Skype!

NOT Michael Jackson news

If you rely on CNN or BBC for news, you would believe the entire world lives for MJ. At least EURONEWS only displayed the service as an inset window while they reported REAL news.

For recreation geography news today, I presented our research on the sustainability of health tourism at the 15th International Symposium on Society and Resource Management.
See our website for additional information (www.wsc.ma.edu/medicaltourism).

More news from a sample of the conference delegates indicates that travel to the ISSRM next year in Texas will likely be low since foreign nationals face numerous hurdles. While the Vancouver conference had record numbers, the US places so many restrictions for our society and natural resources guests, that some simply say "screw it."

Aren't we welcoming?

ISSRM in full force

Ok, we had a great time last night in the Rathous (City Hall). Definitely not in Kansas anymore.

While riots in China and Hondurus and other places continue, it is nice to find a group of academics working together to link the social sciences with the natural sciences.

These are my current thoughts before I head to the poster session at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences.

Light travel this 3rd of July

A TSA guy at BDL said he heard on CNN that holiday traffic was done 64%. From what I see at BDL and RDU, he is right. BTW, RDU is a nice brand new, clean and fairly small airport. I'd fly through again.

Take care and have a safe fourth of july!

at least 36 papers on recreation at ISSRM 2009

I did a quick search by title using the word "recreation" and found 36 papers with the recreation in the title. From my experience, this conference is heavily attended by recreation and tourism folks and this small number may not accurately total the interest. Check it out to see the research presented at http://www.issrm09.info/

ISSRM this weekend

Happen to be in Vienna, Austria this Sunday? Stop on by the Austria Center Vienna for the 15th International Symposium on Society and Resource Management. (My favorite big conference, 400 papers). Can't make if, see the International Association for Society and Natural Resources for more information (http://www.iasnr.org/)/

Evans City PA and the Night of the Living Dead

While at the Bash, you might want to take a short road trip to the cemetary that the Night of the Living Dead begins with. Use Google Earth to find this location and find the stones our characters stumbled over.

It is off of Franklin Road.

Don Reese says GO CHANGE YOUR PANTS!

I saw Don at the Monster Bash and bought his CD. He is a great comedy act and one that is suitable for members of the entire family. If you don't make the Bash, see his website for his touring dates http://www.donreese.com/ We can all enjoy a good laugh.

Conrad Brooks at the Monster Bash

Well, I guess you can call me a groupie. There are a few folks in the entertainment business that I enjoy talking to. And fellow "Balameran" Conrad Brooks is one of them. If you are near Western PA this weekend, check him out at the Bash. Ask him for an autograph, buy some of his DVD's and chat with him. He is a real nice guy.

Oh yeah, that's me on the right wearing a Night of the Living Dead t-shirt.

Monster Bash 2009

Yes, it has been a few years since I went to this classic horror movie convention in the Pittsburgh area. And planned to go this year, but travel plans got into the way. But if this is interesting to you, check out the Bash at http://www.monsterbashnews.com/bash.html for a weekend of old movies, great speakers and a fantastic dealer room.

The Recession Doesn’t Spare Travel & Tourism

A report from the Wall Street Journal states travel is down. Duhhh! People are looking for deals and ways to save money on lodging (cheaper motels, family and camping), meals (making their own), entertainment (cards) and travel (stay closer to home, staycations).

When someone has to choose between eating and travel, guess what goes first?

Post your photos on http://www.panoramio.com/

There are a bunch of websites where you can post your photos, but Panoramio let's you map them on Google Earth. I use Google Earth as a way to explore places I have visited, plan to visit or wish to. Google Earth has made people all Photogrammetrists! See http://www.panoramio.com/user/2492564 for my photos.

thank you .... YouTube

There is nothing like a Grateful dead show. Period.

Favorite Weather Website?

Weather is real important in recreation. You want snow for snow skiing, a good rain to plant your garden and before you paddle a dry river, and sunshine for a hike. Well maybe. For a decent weather website for the non-meteorologist, I go to the Weather Underground at http://www.wunderground.com/. It provides a bunch of useful information about the weather conditions around the world including star charts. Check it out.

RTS Discussion List

Here are the instructions to log into the Recreation Tourism and Sport Speciality Group of the AAG.

"The Recreation, Tourism and Sport Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers sponsors the RTSNET e-mail discussion list. It is managed by Alan A. Lew and exists to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information among geographers and other scientists or practitioners who are interested in leisure research, especially that with a spatial (geographic) component. It is open to all interested parties, not just RTSers. It is not moderated, meaning that the messages are not screened."

Jing

Just found out about this cool app where you can create a video with your voice describing something. For example, I pulled up an animated map showing the weather patterns in the Caribbean and described the movement of the storms across the region. This is saved as a Flash file and can be uploaded to a website or emailed to a friend.

Geography? Tracking my coffee shipment

Check out this tracking list for my Costa Rica coffee:

7593503492 - Detailed Report
Date Time Location Service Area Checkpoint Details
May 29, 2009

15:33
San Jose - Costa Rica Shipment picked up
May 29, 2009

20:30
San Jose - Costa Rica Processed at San Jose - Costa Rica
May 29, 2009

20:56
San Jose - Costa Rica Processed at San Jose - Costa Rica
May 29, 2009

21:06
San Jose - Costa Rica Departed from DHL facility in San Jose - Costa Rica
May 29, 2009

21:33
San Jose - Costa Rica Processed at San Jose - Costa Rica
May 29, 2009

21:35
San Jose - Costa Rica Arrived at DHL facility in San Jose - Costa Rica
May 29, 2009

22:25
San Jose - Costa Rica Processed at San Jose - Costa Rica
May 29, 2009

22:58
San Jose - Costa Rica Transferred through San Jose - Costa Rica
May 29, 2009

22:59
San Jose - Costa Rica Departed from DHL facility in San Jose - Costa Rica
May 30, 2009

01:29
Panama City - Panama Processed at Panama City - Panama
May 30, 2009

03:15
Panama City - Panama Departed from DHL facility in Panama City - Panama
May 30, 2009

14:28
Miami, FL - USA Arrived at DHL facility in Miami, FL - USA
May 30, 2009

14:28
Miami, FL - USA Clearance processing complete at Miami, FL - USA
May 30, 2009

14:36
Miami, FL - USA Processed at Miami, FL - USA
May 31, 2009

06:59
Miami, FL - USA Departed from DHL facility in Miami, FL - USA
May 31, 2009

10:58
Wilmington - USA Arrived at DHL facility in Wilmington - USA
May 31, 2009

13:03
Wilmington - USA Processed at Wilmington - USA
May 31, 2009

17:02
Wilmington - USA Departed from DHL facility in Wilmington - USA
June 01, 2009

07:11
West Hartford - USA With delivery courier
June 01, 2009

07:14
West Hartford - USA Scheduled for delivery
June 01, 2009

17:00
West Hartford - USA Shipment delivered

Geography Trivia

Something to pass the time. Also useful for a game of Balderdash or Cranium. Check it out before your Saturday Game Night! See http://geography.about.com/od/lists/Statistics_Lists_and_Triva.htm

Summer Re-runs, what better reason to get outside!

Now that the re-runs are in force until November or so, why not get outside and hike. After supper, there is still a few hours of light so hit the trail and get some badly needed exercise. Here is a really cool site for predicting sunrise and sunset and hours of daylight anywhere in the world. See http://www.gaisma.com/en/

Say you just arrived in Anchorage to do some camping. The sun would set tonight after 11:13 PM and rise tomorrow at 4:42 AM! Time to get up early to do some fishing.

Isn't this cool? I have a Phyical Geography Lab assignment that calculates this.

Where do you get your camping gear?

I was a "Complete Walker" fan, so if you have read this must-read book, (the orginal), you might know what pack and sleeping bag I got. Gosh, is that store still open in California? I don't know.

AP: As economy worsens, neighbors buy and share gear

See this link for a "feel good" article from AP.




As economy worsens, neighbors buy and share gear

AP-GfK Poll: No vacation this summer for the kids!

Times are tuff now, so says a recent poll by Associated Press and GfK. Gotta' save that money to pay that hundred dollar cell phone bill, the cable HD TV and other "necessities" of the American Dream. Maybe it is time to downsize a bit? The full report is found at this link: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com/pdf/AP-GfK_Poll_Travel_Topline.pdf.

enjoy

College Graduates need jobs (and experience)

Got that $100k job lined up? Or do you owe $100k for that piece of sheepskin that you sweated over for the past 4 years.

Well, if you don't have the job of the lifetime lined up, consider volunteering in the parks. In this crappy economy, parks are likely to suffer when budgets dwindle.

Try http://www.nps.gov/volunteer/ for one source of experiences that you can add to the resume. Type in volunteer opportunity in GOOGLE to see what pops up. Visit your local park and ask what you can do.

It will be a great experience helping the park, and you get a great tan. It might even land you a full time job.

Think about it.

Outdoor Recreation Research Page by Yu-Fai Leung

This is an excellent web reference for everything Outdoor Recreation. My colleague Yu-Fai Leung has maintained this page since 1995 (about the same time as the birth of the WWW). I frequently visit the page to check references or find information about Outdoor Recreation. Visit his page at http://www4.ncsu.edu/~leung/recres1.html

NERR Proceedings available

The Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium Proceedings for 2008 are now online at
http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/17101.

Check out the great papers!

Gym memberships are for people who don't have yards!

Gym memberships are for people who don't have yards!

'nuff said.

National Trails Day 2009

Need a reason to hit the trails? Try National Trails Day 2009 in June. Click on http://www.americanhiking.org/index.aspx for details and a trail near you.

Better yet, help the trails by doing some service. For the Appalachian Trail in Massachusetts see this link http://amcberkshire.org/files/2009_Project_Schedule_0.pdf for the summer projects.

Medical Tourism Survey results posted

We have posted some of the results from our medical tourism survey on our website found at http://www.wsc.ma.edu/medicaltourism/. The perception questions and evaluation of sustainable tourism practices have been omitted for further analysis.

Free access for Sage Journals ('til 30 Ap 09)

Every once in a while you get free online access to journals. And Sage Publications is one to do immediately. Visit the home page at http://www.sagepub.com/home.nav and then click on "Sage Journals Online" for temporary access.

This is a great opportunity for all you Recreation Geographers!

Recreation and Geography Linked

If the Library of Congress links Geography and Recreation, who am I to argue?

Recreation, Tourism and Sport Speciality Group, AAG

Perhaps you stumbled across this page in your search for recreation or geography information, but a great site for everything recreation, tourism and/or sport geography can be found at Alan Lew's website for the RTS Speciality Group of the Association of American Geographers. See http://www.geog.nau.edu/rts/ for details.

Westfield River Trail Guide

I gave a talk at the Annual Westfield River Symposium last month and talked about trail opportunities in the lower watershed. See this website to download the trail guide http://robertbristow.home.comcast.net/. It had been available on the river.wsc.ma.edu site but this site is no longer online, so I mirrored the data on my personal site for your hiking pleasure. It is raining right now, but since the temperatures are getting warmer, now is the time to get outside!

Enjoy.

Westfield River Whitewater Races!

A fantastic day yesterday on the river. A friend joined me for one of the Westfield River canoe clinics and we paddled down the river. Great air temps; not too cold and not too warm! The river was flowing about normal. See <http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt> for the stream flow information of your favorite river and get out this spring.

The Westfield River Whitewater Races are the oldest continuously run can race in the US. See this website <http://www.westfieldriverraces.com/>for details about the race and photos!

So for the recreation geography part we have some guys, paddling their canoe on the Westfield River (people participating in some activity at some resource).

Maybe I'll see you canoe day on Saturday 18 April 2009!

Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium

Just got back from the annual NERR conference at the beautiful Sagamore in Bolton Landing NY. This event typically coincides with the AAG annual meeting but given a chance to present in front of 30 interested colleagues during 3 or 4 concurrent sessions compared to 10 colleagues and 5o concurrent sessions you can see the attraction. Papers are published by the USDA Forest Service and retrievable from http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/.

Did I mention the Sagamore? Under new management, they still do their best to make you feel special.

If you are a recreation geographer, plan on NERR 2010 (3/28/2010 - 3/30/2010), where the weather might be sunny and in the high sixties or a blizzard. But it will always be an enjoyable time!

rsb

Recreation Geography Defined

Sure, you might know what recreation is. And you probably had a geography class back when you were 13 years old. But what is Recreation Geography?

re-cre⋅a⋅tion 
–noun
1. the act of creating anew.
2. something created anew.

ge⋅og⋅ra⋅phy
–noun, plural -phies.
1. the science dealing with the areal differentiation of the earth's surface, as shown in the character, arrangement, and interrelations over the world of such elements as climate, elevation, soil, vegetation, population, land use, industries, or states, and of the unit areas formed by the complex of these individual elements.
2. the study of this science.
3. the topographical features of a region, usually of the earth, sometimes of the planets.
4. a book dealing with this science or study, as a textbook.
5. the arrangement of features of any complex entity: the geography of the mind.
(source Dictionary.Com)

Well, combining the two terms we come up with my definition:

Recreation Geography is the study of humans participating in some leisure pursuit at some setting. That is, people, activity and park.

People are categorized by the socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Activities are what people are doing and the park could be the Grand Canyon, the neighborhood, or your couch!

In this new blog, that premiers on April Fools' Day 2009, I hope to inform the readers about what recreation geography is all about and hopefully illustrate, as the definition implies, that recreation geography is all around us.

If this is something that floats your boat, bookmark this page for future reference. If not, go back to Google!

rsb