Every time I visit India from the US, I meet a friend who asks me the same question. "Why are you wasting your time in that capitalist country? Come back."

Without fail, in those very words.

Back in America, whenever we visit a national park, I remember this person and her question. I silently answer her by looking around and thinking, "This is what we're doing here."

We've been to only 13 of the 58 national parks, but I think it's safe to say it's unlikely you'll visit one and not be stunned into silence.

The scale, range and beauty of the landscapes make for a life-changing experience. We marvel at how they give us views of both geological eternities, alternating with the feeling that the earth was made just for us, just that morning. Capitalism, politics, and pretty much anything thus pitifully human is left behind at the entrance gates, where a ranger collects what has to be one of the most value-for-money fees on this planet.

Because we have no turkey-eating obligations, we've spent every Thanksgiving weekend out at a park somewhere. It's interesting then, that I always remember my friend on the day she'd perhaps most use as support of her point of view: Black Friday.

Crazy sales

Thanksgiving is on the fourth Thursday of November, and the day after has recently become known for its crazy sales at big stores across the country. Limited numbers of high-ticket items, notably electronics, are deeply discounted, and if you're in the market for a large-screen TV, a games console, computer, or Blu-Ray player, this is probably the best day for you. (I say ‘probably' because many sales-watchers have commented there are actually better times of the year to buy stuff.)

The results are both predictable and surprising. People queue outside stores for hours, there are mad rushes when doors open, as well as fights and free-for-alls. This year's highlight was the woman who pepper-sprayed other shoppers during a rush for discounted games consoles at Wal-Mart. In 2008, a Wal-Mart employee was killed by a stampede when people broke into the store before it could open.

Still, it's hard to hear someone sum up and dismiss a country, any country, with just one word. I'm pretty sure my friend would be quite offended if someone did the same to her home, asking her why she lived in a ‘corrupt' or a ‘dirty' nation.

Though corruption and general filth are huge problems in India, to see life there as solely defined by them is so narrow and small-minded — yet she has no trouble in applying similar thinking to other nations.

Our recent trip over Thanksgiving weekend was to southeastern Utah.

While wandering around Arches National Park, we ran into a photographer also travelling from Los Angeles. We got talking and the subject came around to being glad to be away from the city and its sales signs. How funny it was that both parties returned to Los Angeles (incidentally, the city of the pepper spray incident) in need of Black Fridays themselves.

We left a new compact digital camera in our rental car after returning it, and it disappeared in the ten minutes it took us to realise it was missing and go back to look for it. The photographer was much worse off. He dropped a $5,000 DLSR and lens from a landscape feature, smashing it on rocks 40 feet below.

It's with some guilt (and to the echo of my friend's question) that I note we're in the best place in the world to replace them at cut-throat prices.