An Inconvenient Ride: March 29 – April 22, 2008
6 Kids, 5,400 Miles, 4 Time Zones, 3 Initiatives, 2 Events, 1 Goal... to Clean It Up
Beginning in Washington DC, riders will follow a route that goes through cities that have signed on to Seattle Mayor, Greg Nickels, Climate Action Now Initiative. Taking a southern route across the country, the trip will be 5,400 miles in length and will involve students at all grade levels participating in this unique Environmental Awareness project.
To purchase tickets for Global To Local visit http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/30143
If you stop and think about it, a wave is a pretty simple thing. I'm talking about the "hi how are you" kinds of wave, not the wet one. Folks in New Mexico seem to have perfected the wave, both in style and delivery. Barely a car goes by that the driver, and many times the occupant, doesn’t pass along a highway greeting.
We don’t wave to each other much in Seattle, or if we do it’s usually the abbreviated one finger version. A trip like this makes you ponder that. Don’t we like each other, or is it we’d just get plain tired trying to wave at 2 million cars? Seems in bigger cities we’re always trying to get away from other people, while out here you’re just damn happy to see another human.
After a while you kinda look for certain types of waves from your fellow travelers. Two fingers off the steering wheel waves are the most common among male drivers, while the modified version of the parade wave seems to be the greeting of choice among the ladies. Truckers tend to go with the two-fingered hat to window wave. Farmers, especially farmers driving tractors, prefer the horizontal forehead to horizon version, while folks from out of state, obviously trying to fit in, give you the rather timid howdy doody wave.
Regardless of its delivery, a wave out here is a pretty nice thing to get, and even more fun to return. After 200 miles of wheat, highway and a lot of sky its nice to know there’s others out here just as happy to see you as you are them.
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Spokes, Jokes and Lightning Bolts |
Some two weeks ago, though it seems longer, and yet only like yesterday, we left Seattle for what we knew would be an adventure; a trip through the country, using other people’s stories for our vehicle. We ride bikes and stop in towns to talk with folks about the environment. En route, we've crossed mountains, plains, prairies and outrun many a storm. We've met with mayors, councilmen and just plain regular folks. We've ridden around thunderstorms and tornadoes, while cursing the hills and the overpriced motels that wreak havoc on our budget. In our journey we have seen many things. Things one doesn't see in a place like Seattle. We’ll leave it for you to decide if, perhaps, it's better that way.
So, what’s in a name?
We have ridden through Uren, having just passed the "World’s largest cross." Undaunted, we stopped in Pittsview, home of, well, nothing really. We've discovered that in Virginia, folks like to end their town with "ville," In just two days we rode thru: Charlottesville, Farmville, Burkeville, Keysville, Brooksville, Martinsville, Danville, Lawrenceville and Peterville - Perhaps no small coincidence that the local coffee establishment goes by the name of Joints and Java.
We have become relatively proficient at rating hotel toilet paper, single ply or two, although, after riding for 6 – 8 hours a day one tends to prefer the latter. We have ridden through Enos and Yahk and were told wonderfully Frank stories in both. We took it on the Chin when we couldn’t get on the internet in Virginia, but finally resolved that problem and have met with Success ever since.
With the more populous states taking up the regal or historical sounding names, its no wonder that Oklahoma and New Mexico have to be a bit more creative. In Oklahoma we figured that if you’re going to name a place Five Mile Corner, then it only stands to reason that 4 miles down the road you should start a town and call it Nine Mile Corner. The fact that the highway does in fact make a sharp change of direction in both instances was not Lost on us. We were achin' in Aiken and then Bowbells struck our fancy until we got in a Donnybrook over its origin at the local Gas n Go. We tried to Reform in Fort Deposit and sought relief in Wedowee.
Wherever we go the sight of a stream or river is always a colorful, relaxing scene. Blue creeks, Silver creeks, even Black creeks, we didn’t care, they all provided a chance to stop off and plop in their cool waters. Some rivers were just a Kidd, others obviously Lost, and some cranky as an Old Man. Mary had us in for lunch, that is until Pappa came round and the Thunder hit the banks, that scared the Wiwa out of us all. We've seen Goodwater, Badwater, too much water, and no water at all.
In closing we’ll leave you with this bit of Oklahoma wisdom, “We all sit tall in the saddle until our blisters break.”
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The website for An Inconvenient Ride is now online and will be growing daily. The interactive site will provide information on the event, progress of the riders and information on the culminating Global to Local event at Benaroya Hall on Earth Day, April 22.
When complete, the site will include: - Photo gallery.
- Blog (or Trip Log) that will be written by each of the students on the trip giving you different perspectives of that days events.
- Interactive route map
- City snapshot page for each of the participating Climate Action Now cities, featuring historical information, demographic and industry overviews and local environmental initiatives supporting Climate Action Now.
- Daily updates on the Climate Action Now Summit meetings the students will conduct in the participating cities across the United States
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