5:30 am Wake-up call.

5:32 am We mobilize into the bus with our sleeping bags and pillows and hit the road. Destination: Missoula, MT.

8:30 am Destination reached. Early. Really Early. We pull into the parking lot of The Good Food Store.

8:32 am Mechanics begin work on the waste vegetable oil system – they’ve been having trouble with it for 3 days now.

9:01 am Kelly claims her hair is starting to dread. We all could use a shower.

11:30 am Mechanics have spent the last two hours trouble-shooting while the rest of us have cleaned the bus, shopped for groceries and run other miscellaneous errands.

11:34 am Kelly has been debating whether she should get an iphone for 2 hours now. She should definitely get an iphone.

1:30 pm Projected departure time for Yellowstone National Park. Mechanics are still troubleshooting. Ari, meanwhile, has been waiting at the Missoula airport for us to pick him up. Looks like we’re going to be a little late.

2:30 pm Mechanics have called Rob. Looks like they have to try at least one more thing before we can even begin to think about leaving.

3:00 pm Kelly experiments with the blender.

3:30 pm The veg system is working! Except, oops, we need a filter. One more hour of work required.

4:00 pm I crush Nick and Kate at Crazy 8’s. We begin a game of 3-card Rummy.

4:30 pm Filter installed. We clean up our mess. A big one – we’ve distributed kitty litter over a large chunk of The Good Food Store’s parking lot. Unfortunately, we’ve attracted no cats.

5:00 pm We pick up Ari from the airport and get on highway I-90 E. Everything has worked out perfectly. The veg system is running and, if we travel without our usual myriad of stops, we’ll probably make it to our campsite before midnight (a real luxury these days)!

9:28 pm Stop engine light flashes on the dashboard. Kelly pulls over. Light disappears. We continue driving.

9:30 pm Engine fails. We lose power. Bus stops in the middle of a 2 lane highway. Bus starts sliding backwards. Kelly brakes.

9:31 pm Everyone gets off the bus. Stares.

9:32 pm We migrate to the back of the bus. Oil is everywhere – road, bikes, wrap.

9:35 pm Maya calls 911.

9:58 pm I look up Greyhound service centers in the area. They’re aren’t any. The rest of the girls huddle in the back of the bus, frantically reviewing drivers logs. Last edited entry: July 23^rd. We’ve got a lot of making up to do before the cops arrive.

10:30 pm The cop shows up, assesses the situation and calls a tow-truck. “Looks like you blew your turbo.” Crap. “It could take anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks to fix.” Crap x 2.

10:56 pm I look up from the map on my iphone. Smiles. Wait….smiles?

This had been one of the most grueling days the bus had experienced, and yet there were no complaints, no signs of dejection. Oddly enough, we were all relishing in the moment, taking in our first real breakdown. And there were smiles. Smiles as we united around our less-than-optimal situation. Smiles as Mike told stories of his past experiences with the police department (little sneak has gotten out of a few tickets), and smiles as we cohesively prepared the bus for its ultimate departure, via tow-truck, to Bozeman, our home for the next few days. You’d think something like an engine failure in the middle of nowhere Montana would result in something different. Anguish maybe? Stress? Confrontation? But it didn’t. And somehow I wasn’t surprised. People have a wonderful tendency of coming together during times of adversity – something I’ve always found heartening. People temporarily sacrifice their self-interests to support the needs of the group. In our situation, everyone on the bus was volunteering themselves in any way they knew how – calling service stations, sending out emails to family and friends about possible places to stay, wiping down bikes, and making sure the vegans were warm enough waiting for our cab outside in the cold. And a thought occurred to me – what would our trip be like if we were all like this all the time? Unrealistic, surely. But not entirely impossible. Reminiscent of a video I watched on Youtube titled “Fish! Philosophy” about the workplace management system* created by John Cristensen and modeled after Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market, I couldn’t help but think that we might be happier and more productive operating in such a post-misfortune manner all the time. Maybe our little set-back will give us perspective in this way, allowing us to work towards making the interests of the group our own individual interests. Maybe. What we will have taken away from this experience for sure – a story for the books.

Sustainably yours,

Sparker

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FISH!_philosophy

Today we had planned to help out at a cooking workshop for kids hosted at a Seattle Whole Foods by a group called the “Healthetarians”. The Healthetarians is a non-profit aiming to show kids how fun and easy it is to prepare delicious and healthy food. Founded and run by the lovely Sarah O’Toole and Peter Hagstrom, the Healthetarians teach fun, interactive, and hands-on cooking classes to kids between the ages of 7 -13 over the summer, and are now just beginning a 30-day Next-Generation Health Tour. Unfortunately, due to some navigating difficulties, the majority of the Bus crew was not able to make it to Whole Foods in time for the class. Luckily for me however, I got a ride with a friend! So instead of the Bus crew, two of my closest childhood friends and I manned the event. We had a great time helping some elementary school students make tempeh tacos, quinoa granola, cookies, and more! And then in the nick of time, the Bus appeared and Sarah, Peter and the kids all got to take tours. I was beyond impressed by these Seattle children. Not only did they know all about the “Three R’s”, but many had composts in their own homes and knew about greenhouse gases and global warming.

On the Bus this year we have talked a lot about how vital healthy food is to healthy communities and a healthy environment. It is futile and ultimately just silly, I believe, to try to tackle environmental health as a problem isolated from obesity, Type II Diabetes, and the cultural and socioeconomic barriers to healthy food in the US. So while Sarah and Peter may not be trying to directly address an “environmental” problem, I think their mission could not be more vital to the overall goal of improving the health of our environment. They are currently just beginning their tour of the West Coast so look out for them in your hometown!

Day 54 the bus departed Portland for Seattle. En route we stopped by Cannon Beach to see the Oregon coast. In Seattle some of us headed to a climbing gym to climb with friends from school and go to an American Alpine Club gathering. The rest of the crew headed to a potluck, and we met back up in the morning (day 55) at a community garden for a workday with Seattle Tilth. We planted kale, harvested cucumbers, and shoveled mulch while a group of high school interns who apparently get paid regardless of the actual work they accomplish sat around in wheelbarrows gossiping and playing a ukulele.

That afternoon we went out to the General Biodiesel plant, where we had an open event and got some fuel donated by General Biodiesel. When we attempted to pump it we discovered a whole in one of our filter lines, which began to spew fuel into innards of the bus just as a Seattle news crew started filming. We fixed the hose and one of the General Biodiesel employees named Mike helped us clean out our filters (this included a second geyser of fuel when a busser opened the pressure release valve on a highly pressurized filter, shooting the fuel up onto the inside of our open bus window). Afterwards Mike showed us around the plant and gave us a great overview of the chemical process that turns vegetable oil into biodiesel.

Some of the crew went to a discussion lead by one of our hosts, John Helmiere ‘05, on theodicy—the compatibility of a omnipotent, omniscient and benevolent God with evil and suffering—before retiring to the Helmieres’ house to chat with John and Freddy (our other host and an ‘04) around a fire.

The Bus had the opportunity to stay at Gales Meadow Farm because of Maya’s connection to Lucy, a friend from high school who just graduated and is working at the farm full time. While doing events in the Portland area over the past three days, we spent three nights at the farm, which is located 45 minutes outside of the city in Forest Grove. The farm is on a small plot of flat agriculture land tucked up against a wooded hillside. It has a peaceful and practical air that often seems to accompany hard work and stewardship for the land. Chickens wander through the yard and you can’t always tell where wildflower meadows end and planted rows begin – but there are barns full of drying garlic and produce orders being filled every day.

Anne made us a delicious lunch to break up the work day at Gales Meadow Farm

We spent our last day in the area working at the farm. We prepared beds and planted starters of different kale and collard green varieties. Anne Berblinger gave us a tour and directed our work, just as she manages her farm. “Prepare these beds – here’s how. Bring out the drip tape, check it for holes. Plant the starters – here’s how. These are the varieties and this is where they come from…” She told us who grows the seeds and who buys the plants, how she manages pests without insecticides, and where their water comes from. We learned about planting cucumber vines to attract cucumber beetles away from other crops, and how Anne believes that aroma and taste are a result of stress hormones. She told us there are 30 varieties of garlic grown on Gales Meadow Farm, each with unique properties and taste.

Her thorough knowledge of farming practices was impressive considering a relatively short career, and it explained the young people who kept coming to work for the farm. Anne and her husband René began farming on just one acre when they started Gales Meadow in 1999, after long careers in other fields. A young friend asked to come work for them, and then others, and today they have five full-time employees and farm seven acres. I was inspired to see that young people are eager to get farming experience, and excited to hear that three of their former employees have since gone on to start their own farms.

It was a hot day and we worked hard. Anne made us a delicious lunch and we swam in a nearby stream and picked blackberries. It was nice to be able to give something back to hosts who had shown us such hospitality, and I’m pretty sure the treatment we received wasn’t unusual. Anne and René’s home was treated like common property, with current and former employees popping in and out regularly, and everyone showing respect and appreciation for their generosity. We need more small, organic farmers, and the Berblingers are doing a great job of sustaining themselves and inspiring others with the work that they do.

-Rem

Check out our blog posts on Farmplate for a more Garlic-y take on the day!

Gales Meadow grows thirty varieties of garlic!

It was 11:30 AM on a Sunday morning, and we were being bombarded with live heavy metal music from one side of the bus and screamo, shake-your-head-til-it-falls-off music from the other side. Both bands were angsty, eye-lined, and prone to guttural shrieks. As we surveyed the throngs of teenagers clad in ripped fishnet stockings with dyed neon pink hair and tattoos, we realized that this was a very atypical bus event and would require some serious dynamism on our part. Welcome to Vans Warped Tour.

For the first couple hours, punk rockers streamed by our bus without seeming particularly interested. We pondered how we could make the bus and/or sustainability appeal more to their values: fitting in? having a good time? looking cool? As the day warmed up significantly, however, Baby Bus served as a fantastic shade structure, and people flocked to her by the dozens. Once a few people came onto the bus, we seemed to reach a critical tipping point of interest and people crowded in to fill up all the seats and counter space. Some seemed surprised when they heard that they could climb aboard the Bus and that a tour was free! Our captive audience of pop punk lovers were genuinely surprised and impressed that we could run our bus on waste vegetable oil and enjoyed hearing tales from our travels. ‘Sustainability’ wasn’t necessarily on their radar, and at one point, a sun-drained kid resting on the Bus asked, “What is this thing for anyways?” That was the spark the group needed–the dialogue took off from there.

Suntanners plus a dude who started advertising free kisses with a megaphone from the top of the bus

Vehicle for shade

We met a group of volunteers who were collecting recycling around the concert venue, since Vans Warped Tour hadn’t explicitly set up recycling for the festival. They gave us our own green bag to collect recycling in throughout the day. I met other eclectic souls: a boy who was recently kicked out of his home and had dreams of becoming a tattoo artist, a Swedish-Argentine vendor who was planning to take a hippy van from Costa Rica to Brazil, and a vegan anarchic hip hop artist. There were 11,000 unique stories walked around the dusty concert venue today, hoping and fearing and dancing. Withholding judgement became the most powerful and important way to truly engage people, to give them the space and openness to tell their story and come upon what connects us. This, at its most basic level, is how I think we create and sustain meaningful, “radically inclusive” community. And for me, community is the heart and foundation of sustainability, so there was good work to be done even in the warping heat and commotion of the festival.

Tonight we’ll return to the polar opposite of where we’ve been today: Gales Creek Farm, a scenic organic farm outside of Portland where we’re staying with Maya’s high school friend, Lucy. We have a full work day tomorrow on the Farm planting winter crops, so stay tuned!

xoxo

Anna

Today, I met an 8-year-old bio-genius. A bio-genius who happens to love Animal Planet T-shirts, mangoes and the color blue. My kind of kid. Prancing onto the bus with a glitter-infused bluebird painted on his face, the kid introduced himself as a future animal-hero, invested in saving the planet to keep habitats intact. We walked straight to the Icestone table in the back of the bus, sat down and had a conversation I swear I could have had with any high school age student versed in environmental studies.

Some quotes:

“This building across the street – 1827 NE Wall – it doesn’t need to be here. It probably destroyed some animal’s home. And you know what happens when you do that? That animal either has to find a new home or it dies.”

“Yeah, I know where electricity comes from. Coal. Strip-mining. Big machines dig it up and bad particles react with the air and that air gets in our lungs and (he makes a choking noise) it makes all kinds of people sick.”

“Animals are already dying. Their habitats are changing and they don’t know how to deal with it. Climate change is one reason.”

“I know a lot about seals. Maybe people think that they are old and shouldn’t be on the planet anymore, but I want them around. I wanna protect them. People just take them out of the water and kill them for fun. They don’t even eat them or anything.”

“In some places, people flush things down the toilet that they shouldn’t – pills and chemicals and all kinds of stuff that travel down big pipes to the ocean, killing the animals that live there.”

Roles were reversed – this kid, this 8-year old kid, was teaching me. I could not of had a more inspirational exchange. And you know what? I’m not surprised. Young people are smart. Smart and passionate and motivated. They are the dreamers, unjaded by what seems to be an impervious system, incapable of admitting and acting against environmental degradation. And we need them. Of course, there are many exceptional adults working towards sustainability and environmental activism (I’ve been lucky enough to meet a good number of them on this trip), but they can only take us so far. We need kids, just like the one I was privileged enough to meet today, to further the movement, provide the ingenuity and creativity needed to fix what we’ve already managed to mess up, and build enthusiasm for a new way of thinking. Thinking that says our current situation was not fated, that we have the power to create positive change. Thinking that disregards the notion that humans have been delegated as stewards or rulers of the Earth and acknowledges humanity as part of the community of life, just like everything else. And I think this starts in the classroom. I really do. The idea that we are somehow superior to all other life forms and thus ordained to conquer and over consume the Earth’s resources isn’t innate in our personalities. It is ingrained in us at an early age. And my hope is that this may shift with an increasing focus on sustainability and environmental issues in our schools’ curriculums. Exposure to these issues is needed to foster passion like that of the boy I met today. As the metaphor goes (once again)– plant a seed and it may sprout. If we give kids the opportunity to sustain our future, the world we live in could be a very different place.

Sustainably yours,

Sparker

Good morning! This blog is long overdue, and will almost certainly not be worth the wait. Thanks for waiting anyway. Our trip through Smith River and Crater Lake was astoundingly beautiful. If you ever go to Crater Lake, go swimming and take goggles.

A day-long journey through the ancient Redwoods of northern California from Maya’s home in Oakland to Rock Creek Ranch on the South Fork of the Smith River. Though we arrived in the wee hours of the morning we warmly welcomed by Grant Werschkull, Executive Director of the Smith River Alliance (SRA), who saw the bus driving on the road during the 2011 year and contacted the 2012 crew to invite us to the beautiful protected lands of the Smith River watershed. After some much needed rest, we spent the morning touring the Ranch’s off-the-grid sustainable power system, which was designed and developed in cooperation with Humboldt State University’s Environmental Engineering program — and youth camps and other educational programs. (Let me just say that Rock Creek Ranch has the nicest composting toilets I have had the pleasure to use this summer.) Grant then briefed us on current watershed protection and restoration projects including SRA’s 5,360-acre Hurdygurdy Creek purchase for transfer to the Smith River National Recreation Area.

When it was established in 1990 by the 101^st Congress, this National Recreation Area included several large private land inholdings inside the designated boundaries.  The SRA Hurdygurdy project will acquire the last of these large blocks, to complete the National Recreation Area. The land includes several miles of Wild and Scenic River corridor — including along Hurdygurdy Creek, a significant spawning and rearing tributary for wild coho, Chinook salmon, and steelhead. The Smith River is a unique component of the National Wild and Scenic River System (over 300 miles are included) as it is the last major undammed river in California, and is widely recognized as one of the premier “Salmon Strongholds” in the lower 48 states. Over the last six years, SRA has built local, statewide, and national support for the Hurdygurdy Creek project. This summer, a first phase of the acquisition and transfer to the National Recreation Area will occur. But SRA could use your help and I’m letting you know how through this blog post. Please consider helping the SRA complete this purchase and the Smith River National Recreation Area by visiting their website www.smithriveralliance.org and donating on-line.

The Big Green Bus Crew with Grant Werschkull at Rock Creek Ranch

If you have never been to this corner of the world, I can attest to its utter beauty and grandeur. Driving to Rock Creek Ranch through the Redwoods caught my breath as we winded in and out of ancient trees, and jumping into the Smith River for a swim renewed, refreshed and rejuvenated me. This trip has been teaching me the diversity and sacredness of the earth. I hesitate to say “wild” or “untouched” lands because I don’t believe that such places exist. As a species we have influenced the far reaches of this planet (whether humans have physically touched a place or not, we have certainly affected the planet’s climate and I can think of no place that can remain untouched by this) so to designate a place as “wild,” “untamed,” or “natural” does not to me fully encompass the truth of these lands. But I don’t think this is inherently bad, for are we not as humans natural beings ourselves? We are animals. We are of earth, of water, of soil and perhaps the importance of these “natural” places is that they remind us of this. They remind us of our truest nature. The Smith River National Recreation Area is certainly one of these places. You can support this land in particular by visiting the link above and by visiting the Smith River itself. Don’t underestimate the power of getting outside. This simple act of venturing beyond the human-constructed landscape can reconnect us to that which is sacred, that which is authentic, and that which inspires us to live well with the world.

Go explore kids!

Buslove,
Smelly

Day 46 we went to visit the Global Footprint Network at the invitation of Benji Kessler ’13, a friend of the bus who is interning there for the summer. The Global Footprint Network “measures humanity’s demand for and supply of natural resources and ecological services” per capita within nations and other geographical areas. Global Footprint Network focuses on implementing changes with governments on the national level. However, they also offer a personal footprint calculator that will tell individuals an estimate of how many earths would be required to support the world population living the way they do and using the resources they use.

As an educational tool, Global Footprint Network announces the Earth Overshoot Day, the point during the year in which the sustainable level of resource extraction for the world for one year has been reached. For 2011 the date was September 27 and it is predicted to be earlier for 2012.

It was exciting to see the work that is being done on the opposite end of the size spectrum—national and international level policy change relative to individual education and community involvement. Both are important—change is unlikely to be implemented top-down without support from the general population. However, top-down is ultimately how change must occur, and the only way for it to happen fast enough. It would take a lot of busses to reach all the voters in the US alone who are unaware of the importance and urgency of shifting toward sustainability. Global Footprint Network is creating change on a massive scale very quickly by working with nations such as the UK and UAE, both of which have already implemented policy changes based on footprint research.

Thanks Global Footprint Network and Benji!