FLORENCE, S.C. (AP) - Take an energetic 8-year-old, two parents and 47 state parks and you have a recipe for adventure.
In the past two years, the White/Boklage family has traveled across South Carolina, visiting every state park at least once. Hitting every park wasn’t their initial goal, but when they heard about the park passport program, they were intrigued.
Dad Ron White said they already spent a good deal of time outdoors, so the passport program just added to the fun.
“You buy a passport and bypass any other fees to get in to all of the state parks,” White said. “They also have ’The Ultimate Outsider.’ You collect a stamp in your passport from all 47 parks , and when you do that, you get the title of ’Ultimate Outsider’ and a commemorative shirt. We like camping, and the program just kind of grew on us; we really fell in love with it.”
Mom Kelly Boklage said they had visited several parks before hearing about the program.
“The first state park we visited as a family was Poinsett State Park, but we hadn’t started getting our stamps at that point,” Boklage said. “We were at Musgrove Mill, headed up to Table Rock to camp, when one of the rangers told us about the program.”
White is a stay-at-home dad and Boklage works at McLeod. Because her job includes working long nights - she is on for six 12-hour night shifts in a row - Boklage often needs to sleep during the day. During those times, White and daughter Zsa Zsa sometimes pack up the car and hit the road for a day of fun at the state parks.
Zsa Zsa - named after a family member, not actress Zsa Zsa Gabor - said some of her favorite excursions included visiting parks that had dress-up clothes and games in their exhibits.
“I really liked dressing up like a colonial person,” Zsa Zsa said. “I also played a colonial game with my mom that had two long sticks and two hoops. We had to throw the hoops to each other, using the sticks, and them catch them on our sticks.”
Animals were, of course, another favorite for the small adventurer.
“I’ve seen a bald eagle, which is the national bird,” Zsa Zsa said. “I got to touch a snake during one of the ranger programs. We’ve also seen turtles and alligators and raccoons.”
While they completed the passport program as a family, Zsa Zsa also was involved with the Junior Park Ranger program. At each of the 24 Junior Ranger designated parks , there are activities to complete.
Some of the activities in the program include finding and identifying plants, learning park safety, recycling and interviewing a park ranger to find out more about his or her job.
Zsa Zsa also has shared her state park fun with friends on several different occasions.
Boklage said visiting state parks doesn’t take a lot of money but can create a lot of memories and learning experiences.
“You feel like you’re giving your child an education taking them to the state parks,” Boklage said. “If we take her out of school for one day, which we did for her birthday, we don’t feel so bad , because she is learning so much. She is getting so much to step on as she becomes a young lady. She is learning an appreciation of what nature is, what we have to preserve.”
On her birthday , Zsa Zsa got a hiking stick from her parents. She decorated it with several bird feathers that had been discovered on their excursions and plans to add more as they find them.
They have also collected sand dollars and other trinkets to bring home as memories of their time together.
The family said they have their sights on visiting some of the national parks across the United States , but they probably will make it back to all of South Carolina’s parks as well.
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Information from: Morning News, https://www.scnow.com
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