In its monthly research report, Kampgrounds of America reports that last year more people camped than ever. According to the latest research, camping exceeded a record 2021 by 1.5 million households. KOA’s  January 2023 Edition of the report, released ahead of Kampgrounds of America, Inc.’s annual North American Camping Report, available this spring, the latest edition of the monthly report shared that camping is more vital than ever amidst economic and life stressors. 

According to the report, it is estimated that 30% of campers in 2022 joined the activity in 2021 or 2022. While some (13%) share that they began camping as a direct result of COVID-19, most (17%) cite other reasons for choosing to camp for the first time. In 2022, 11% of camping households were new campers. In all, 41% of camping households in 2022 were relatively new to camping as a form of leisure travel, having camped for the first time over the last three years.

“Over the past several years, we have seen dramatic increases in new campers,” said Whitney Scott, senior vice president of strategy at KOA. “People are looking for modes of travel that fit their lifestyle and improve their daily lives. Camping provides that for a growing number of travelers, and we don’t see that slowing down.”

 Painting a healthy outlook, most households that camped over the last year indicate they plan to include camping in future travel (74%). Notably, 45% will have booked their camping trips or be in the planning stages for 2023.

Mental health appears to be one reason for the continued popularity of camping. Six-in-ten campers share that camping helps improve their mental health. Additionally, 54% say that camping induces less anxiety than other forms of travel.

By Jose Bustos

Saltsations is a different concept in whole body therapy, using salt in a mist form without drugs or unnatural substances, that cleanses by opening one’s breathing by a method now being accepted by a number of therapists.  As so many individuals are now concerned about the harmful effects that drugs can cause to one’s body, Saltsations is an alternative, a natural one, to whole health individual care.

Linda Champlin has brought the treatment to Billings with Saltsations Wellness Center at at 848 Main Street Suite 18.

Champlin meets you with a ready, warm and genuine smile upon entering her wellness center reception area. You are also met with subtle pastels, warm yet cool, heavenly hues of blue, pink, mellow yellow, tender orange, comfy green.  Colors in every room, for every scene, a room for your emotions, blessed with a subdued natural sheen. 

The atmosphere impacts a gentle, un-hurried feeling away from the world, from the problems and stressors of everyday life.  After a Saltsations session, I felt taken away, a sensation of swathing in serenity, a feeling of floating in near total repose. 

Your eye is naturally trained to a tree, artistically blended into the wall, seemingly three dimensional at first glance, climbing into the ceiling, giving the impression of reaching above into a cloud.  The tree is complemented by various soft, natural pastels, blended elegantly into the flow of colors throughout the salon. 

Another room is painted with wood hued drapes imprinted with seasoned, well-aged wood, the folds, giving the appearance of an invitation to open the doors of the rustic barn depicted in the art.

 There is a room with an infrared spa, surrounded by another wall mural of a fenced wooden walkway leading into a forest, the fence itself giving one the feeling of reaching out to hold onto it as you take your first step into a forest .

Billings has always been considered home for Champlin, as her parents grew up in Billing. She speaks fondly of them, and reminisces upon stories of her great grandparents who traveled by wagon train from the Ozarks Mountain region in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma at the turn into the 20th Century. 

One of her grandfathers was conscripted into the Army during WW1, but shortly thereafter, was recalled to return to Montana due to the influenza deaths of 1917.  

Her family lived in several different locations, as her father was a welder. He earned a degree as a Metallurgical Engineer for Bechtel International Construction and was given a full-time position in Colstrip, which allowed Champlin to graduate from Colstrip High School.  Champlin then attended college at MSU Bozeman.  It was therethat she met her future husband, Orin.

Champlin then transferred to Eastern Montana College in Billings so she could further her studies and help with her aging grandmother.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Services, with a focus on Music Therapy.  Champlin accepted a job in Boston, MA and achieved her dream of a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology. 

Then, as it happens to so many of us, who have ventured outside of Big Sky Country, Montana called her back.  She moved back to Billings in 1991, and married Orin in Bozeman.  Orin was in the National Guard, then transferred into the active Air Force and she accompanied him to deployments in Germany, Nebraska and Missouri.  Prior to Orin’s retirement from the Air Force, Linda worked as a certified dyslexia tutor and licensed clinical professional counselor. 

In accompanying Orin on his various Air Force deployments, Champlin developed breathing problems and could not find a satisfactory solution.  She then heard about the Salt Cave in Maplewood, Missouri.  She and Orin visited the Salt Cave, and she experienced a remarkable and positive change in her breathing shortly thereafter, and that is when she developed an interest in salt therapy.  Still, without any thought of developing her own salt therapy business, the Covid pandemic arrived in 2020 and Linda contracted pneumonia.  That bout of illness and her earlier visit to the Salt Cave, prompted Champlin to seriously think about opening her own therapy business.

In one of Saltsations’ rooms there is what appears to be a mere twenty inches by thirty-six inch mini water bed, but it is actually a water massage unit.  When turned on, it begins to vibrate, and is in essence, an ocean-like wave relaxing back massage.  My wife, Zee, and I had to try it.  You feel like you’re riding on waves, it vibrates, and seems to be bubbling up on and into your spine. The word relaxing does not suffice for the feeling of completely letting your body melt into it.  It nearly put me to sleep, but of course I’ve been known to sleep in the dentist’s chair.

Zee experienced  noticeable relief from a chronically stressed trapezius muscle. 

I sat in on Salty Air Drive, one of Saltsations therapy rooms on a Friday afternoon.  Linda had me sit on a choice of different chairs, and brought me a glass of ice cold water, mentioning that the therapy may make one thirsty.  After sitting for a couple of minutes, tranquil and not knowing what to expect, listening to the gentle purr of the salt mist generator, I experienced a slight taste of salt on my lips.  Sipping on the cool water, I just sat and observed the comforting natural light coming through the window.  Sooo, relaxing, trying to think of something, anything to bide my time… 

The next thing I knew was Linda waking me up, as I had melted into the chair and had fallen asleep and was told that 45 minutes had passed…really?  As I stepped out of the therapy room into the reception area, I noticed that the air in the reception room seemed even more wholesome and natural.  My breathing seemed easier, my sinuses clearer and my entire body completely relaxed and rubberized (a term I’d like to use for this therapy as nothing else comes to mind to articulate this most relaxing experience).

Saltsations is an event that is hard to explain to the reader. It must be your own experience, your own adventure.  Saltsations is located in the Frontier Insurance Solutions complex in the Heights and sessions are primarily by appointment.  Linda can be reached at 406-647-3179

By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

The Texas and U.S. oil and gas industry is pushing back against claims President Joe Biden made after he implemented policies to restrict domestic investment and production.

In his state of the union address, Biden said, “We’re still going to need oil and gas for a while” but also said he planned to tax “the wealthiest and biggest corporations … to pay their fair share.”

He criticized the oil and gas industry, saying, “Big Oil just reported its profits. Last year, they made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis. I think it’s outrageous.”

After his administration instructed banks to not invest in domestic exploration or production and expanded billions of dollars of federal subsidies into so-called renewable energy companies, Biden said, U.S. oil and gas companies “invested too little of that profit to increase domestic production.”

He said he spoke to industry executives who said, “‘We were afraid you were going to shut down all the oil wells and all the oil refineries anyway, so why should we invest in them?’” He replied, “We’re going to need oil for at least another decade … we’re going to need … production.” Instead of the industry investing in the production “to keep gas prices down,” Biden said, “they used the record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their CEOs and shareholders.”

As a result, the president proposed quadrupling the tax on corporate stock buybacks “to close the loopholes that allow the very wealthy to avoid paying their taxes.”

In response, Texas Oil & Gas Association president Todd Staples told The Center Square, “Nothing can hide the facts – the president has asked for greater production from foreign countries while at home his administration has cancelled pipelines, delayed permits, removed federal acreage from being leased and discouraged investment in this critical industry. Americans deserve energy security and its long past time this administration treated oil and natural gas like an asset, not a liability.”

The Texas oil and natural gas industry, which leads the U.S. in energy production, paid a record $24.7 billion in taxes and state royalties in fiscal 2022, the highest in Texas history.

“Punitive tax schemes targeting the energy Americans depend upon for daily living will do nothing but lower production and hurt consumers,” Staples added.

Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association, pointed out the president recognizing “that oil and natural gas is clearly needed” was a “positive” sign but “the timeframe given was completely implausible. Under any realistic scenario, oil and natural gas will continue to play a critical role in meeting global energy demand, providing unprecedented economic contributions for our country and in protecting our nation’s energy security for many decades to come. To say otherwise is simply political rhetoric. Punishing energy producers is only hurting American consumers, driving energy prices higher, and putting our global allies at risk.”

Longanecker also pointed out that “Texas produced a record level of natural gas last year and near record levels of oil, while also contributing record levels of state taxes and state royalty payments.” The industry also responded to and rose above “the inordinate pressure and regulatory burdens it faces from Washington.” It did so as those in the Permian Basin reduced emissions by over 76% and the Texas natural gas industry fueled Europe, he added.

Representing western companies who’ve fought the administration over canceled lease sales and permits, Western Energy Alliance president Kathleen Sgamma told The Center Square, “It’s unfortunate that Democrats feel a need to be hostile to businesses. Enterprises, such as energy companies, produce the goods and services and pay the wages that fund the entire government and non-profit sectors, yet to the president, it is never enough.”

She also noted that “the oil and natural gas industry pays hundreds of billions in royalties, income taxes, severance taxes, property taxes, and fees to federal, state and local governments. It’s interesting how the White House likes to beat up American oil companies when they do well, but never seems concerned in the lean years or when investors take losses. Returning profits to shareholders is necessary at some point, otherwise why would investors risk their money unless there was some return on their money at some point?

“Without people willing to take a risk with their money, there would be no funding of oil and natural gas projects here in the United States and Saudi Arabia would have to supply our oil, with the Saudi government collecting all the taxes rather than the U.S. government. We can produce that oil here in America, generating profits that create jobs and tax revenue and fund pension plans, or we can just send those hundreds of billions of dollars to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.”

Tim Stewart, president of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, agreed, telling The Center Square, “Frankly the President is the last person to be providing investment analysis of the oil and gas industry. His administration all but told Wall Street not to invest in our industry because we would be going away under his watch – then he admitted last night that we are going to be around much longer than his presidency will be.

“The same Administration that misread and then mismanaged the worst energy crisis in 40 years and drew down our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to cover their strategic mistakes, while his policies drove prices to record highs is telling us that we need to ‘do the right thing.’ The same person responsible for the largest deficits on record and trillions in special interest payouts is telling the industry that our investment strategy is flawed. Fortunately, Americans aren’t buying what he is trying to sell.”

Richard Welch, a Houston-based 20-year industry executive, told The Center Square, the president’s proposal was “not only unAmerican but also anti-capitalist. Punishing the oil and gas industry for not expanding its operations after his administration repeatedly said it’s trying to end it is hypocritical.”