California park officials are planning to speed up the park entrance process by installing ATMs that will allow visitors to pay fees by debit or credit cart. Funding for the new equipment was set aside by legislation which provided $750,000 to “modernize the system in hopes of increasing revenue.”
From the article:
Plans call for the automation to be installed soon at about a dozen locations, including Emerald Bay State Park at Lake Tahoe, Point Mugu in the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area near Pacheco Pass. The machines are equipped with encryption devices to deter ID theft, Stearns said.
The new machines will allow park visitors to pay for admission hourly or part days.
You can read the whole article HERE.

Lauren Indvik is reporting on Mashable that Nook has unveiled a new program, Nook Snaps, that offers short subject ebooks of 5,000 words for $1.99. These ebooks are 60-day Nook exclusives, which seems similar to Amazon’s 90-exclusive Select program.
Bob Pratte wrote an article that appears today on the PE Bloggers website about the changes taking place in Big Bear, where the Big Bear Valley Trails Foundation working in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service and the International Mountain Biking Association have been building out the Skyline Trail.
Katia Hetter posted an article in the Summer In The Park series on the CNN.com website.
Vacation. The time to let go, relax, and enjoy the scenery. Go where you want, eat what you want … no, wait, can’t to that anymore.