Travels

I find it interesting, maybe even sad, the state of people today…  Why is it that people seem so mean anymore?  What happened to the days of smiling and saying hello, or excuse me.  What happened to friendliness, patience, and manners.  Where is the world headed?

 So why are we so crochety as a people?  Yes, the world can be a shitty place. Yes, you may be tired.  Yes, you may not have enough money I know I don’t.  But Lord!  Didn’t anyone ever tell you that the nicer you act, the better you feel?  Fake it to Make it yeah, they are talking about your attitude. Yada, yada, yada.

I got up at 3:30 this morning to catch a train at 4:30 to catch a plane at 6:55.  I was in a good mood, tired, but good mood.  I was going home to Brian and Bailey.  I had a wonderful weekend although I did shed some tears with my ‘extended’ family.  Saw kindness and sharing and giving in so many ways.  All this from a bunch of Northerners I don’t know why we have such a bad rep. 

I took Southwest Airlines from Philadelphia to Raleigh this morning and the crew was crappy.  I have been traveling via air since before I could walk.  My father was an air traffic controller.  I have been around airplanes my whole life.  Let me tell you, this was the worst crew I have ever had the displeasure of traveling with.  Their announcements on ways to protect yourself in case of a crash at a 100,000 miles up as if we would really survive were not only as dry as over grilled chicken the way my dad makes it, it was just downright…   I’m at a loss for words here.  It was like we were wasting their time or something.  We were annoying them because they had to read that shit.  It probably gets tiring to read that crap for every flight, knowing that no one is listening to you.  You know what though.  That’s your job!  Suck it up!  Then the lady I think it was a lady says,  ”if you’re still texting [now that the door has been closed], you may finish your text from jail.”  Seriously? Did she just say that?  Way to start the flight, Good Morning to you too Sunshine! Dang! Who pissed in your Cheerios?  (Side Note: And I didn’t tell you this… Cell phones don’t actually interfere with the planes communication.  I know a couple people who never turn their phones off in the air, a few who actually work with the communicating part of flying… I’m just saying) Ok. Whatever.  Then she instructs us on how to turn our individual lights on, then proceeds to tell us that if we haven’t turned them on now that we have lost our chance to turn them on.  Really? Why? Will they not turn on when you turn the other lights out anymore? Or are we all too blind to see in the semi-darkness? She was such a pleasure to fly with…  Initially the girl sitting next to me wouldn’t talk to me either. I don’t even understand that.  Do people think that if you speak to them you may infect them?  It’s not that I want to talk through the whole flight, believe me I don’t, but a few, friendly words with the person that will be sitting next to you for the next hour or so never hurt anyone.  I don’t want to know your name, occupation, age, social security number, or anything else.  But I can’t hurt you by saying, “It looks like we may get lucky” because we may get an empty seat between us.  But whatever.  Then there are the girls that would not stop talking.  It is 7 am, we all had to get up at 3:30 or so this morning to catch this flight.  Just becasue you have had a pot of coffee and spent an hour on your hair and makeup and outfit, and you are ready to grad the day by its horns, does not mean that the rest of us want to hear you!  Now this is where my gripes with manners comes in.  Ok, so you are a morning person! Great! I am happy for you!  I don’t want to hear you though.  It is perfectly acceptable to talk quietly to the person next to you. Inside voice.  But this person, on the complete other side of the plane, a seat back, she doesn’t want to hear any of your conversation.  The occasional stifled laugh, yes.  The hour long high pitched, annoying voices… NO!  Where are these women’s manners?  I know I sound like the jerk here, but really, no one else is talking that loudly, especially not for the duration of the flight… There is no reason for it.  Then the lady taking drink orders… same lady who did the announcements? wakes up the girl next to me to ask her if she wants a drink… Really?  I don’t know about that girl, but this one… does not like to be woken up.  We know that drinks are served on this flight.  We know if we are asleep we don’t get the drink.  Don’t wake us up.  See above for the time we woke up this morning.  Ok, so I read a little, turned my light off oh no took a little nap… snoozing peacefully… the announcements come on about seats in upright positions and trays in upright and locked positions… I press the chair button, I’m upright in no time and back to being fast asleep…  Then I feel an unpleasant tap,tap on my shoulder.  Not a ‘hey, excuse me ma’am’ tap, an ‘I’m annoyed with you wake up GDit’ tap.  I open my eyes and there is a flight attendant leaning over the girl sharing a row with me.  “Put your chair up”, he booms and walks away.  The girl next to me looks at me as my jaw is open and I look dumfoundely after the attendant.  I stated, “my chair is up” as I press the button again am I going crazy and I proceed to not move.  Then I press it again, harder.  Still no more movement.  After that all sleep was lost.  Grr.

It is at this point that I make a decision that the flight in, with the almost over-the-top-comedian/entertainer-wanna-be flight attendant, and strangely submissive girl sitting next to me with the Cackling Sisters starting vacation behind me was definitely a better choice.  I also made up my mind… I was going to tell the flight attendant.  I went over a million things I could say to him…  But in the end, all I said was, “Sir, my seat was up.”  And he said, “Oh, I’m sorry,” with a smile.  I believe he meant it.  After that my mood returned to good.  I thought about telling the High-Pitched Women a little something or other, but I’m sure I would have just sounded like a… mean person.

Yes, I did find kindness through out my journey.  Yes, I am guilty of being down right mean to people who don’t always deserve it.  After this I am going to try harder to have more patience with people and not take my frustrations out on an inoccent stranger. 

I am also going to try to remember the kindness that I did find on my travels.  The person that helped me get my bag down, the friend that waited with me at the train station at 0′dark-thirty, the friend that took most of a day off to scoop me up from an airport that was not so close or convenient, the stranger that returned friendly salutations…  Thank you to the nice people. 

P.S. Mean People Suck

CLIMATE RIDE BLOGS TO CHECK OUT

A number of Climate Riders will be posting about Brita Climate Ride on their personal blogs.

Alex Grushow, a professor of physical chemistry at Rider University, blogs from alexgrushow.blogspot.com. Alex writes about getting ready for Climate Ride:

And so with one week before I need to report to NYC, I did another round trip to work. Forty miles all told and in under three hours. Still making good time. I am more worried about the endurance thing though. I will try to get a couple of rides in this coming week, just to keep my legs active. I might have one more post before I report for the Climate Ride. But next Friday evening is the kickoff event, so I’ll definitely be back at you after that.

Roz Savage, a Climate Rider who rowed across the Atlantic, has a blog at rozsavage.com/blog

Michael Proulx, who is riding along the east coast to draw attention to Climate Ride, writes at 5005miles.blogspot.com

Paul Keegan posts at 1worldtradingco.blogspot.com

David Kroodsma of Ride for Climate, blogs at rideforclimate.com/blog.

Vincent Kitira will be blogging from his non-profit’s blog at newdream.org/blog

Brent Drewry of pickuppal may post to the blog.pickuppal.com

Carla Della Maggiora will be blogging at http://carlaonbike.blogspot.com/

MESSAGE TO THE NATION

Wednesday, September 30

Destination: Capital Hill, Washington, D.C.

Distance Traveled: 68mi

http://kippierson.com/

CHILLY, WINDY, SORE

Tuesday, September 29  

Destination: Reistertown, MD – Camp Pearlstone

My whole body hurt today. It was freezing this morning, and remained chilly throughout most of the day.  We faced more hills today, and more fighting wind. It hurt to sit in the saddle, it hurt to stand, my lower back hurts, the top of my back hurts, I have chamois burn in places I didn’t think I could have chamois burn… and my legs felt fine on the ride today…  Go figure.  We stopped at Corbett Farm and I fell asleep in the windy, sunshine.  The next 20 miles to our final destination of the day were much like the first, hilly and windy.  Dark clouds came rolling in and brought along a cold wind, but the rain did not fall.  The sun shone all day, and so it was a beautiful day!  Spirits were up today. Ambassador Peterson from Denmark joined our ride this morning, and some of the riders that he was with this morning took a few wrong turns, but they still ended up being one of the first groups in today.  We made pretty good time despite the wind as well.  The speakers for this evening are Mike Tidwell, Frills Arne Peterson (Ambassador of Denmark), Mikael Colville-Anderson (Denmark’s leading advocate).

Distance Traveled: 56.1 mi

Brr!

HILLS, HEADWINDS, HORSES

Monday, September 28  

Destination: Holtwood, PA – Camp Andrews

The day started out grey and cold.  The dew had gotten the better of our gear as well, another day of wet.  Today we are traveling into Amish Country.  I love passing the horse and buggies!  We faced killer hills today, a headwind that was blowing straight in from hell, and then came the crosswind that almost knocked us right off our bikes countless times.  I’m not sure if I’ve ridden through such intense headwinds ever before.  It was like a driving force pushing me back down the hill.  Every climb was a fight to the death.  And then the rain came, again.  So today was treacherous wind, chilly, and wet.  We missed our turn on the way to lunch and made it

cheers

to Goodville, PA, a few miles up some more crazy climbs accompanied with more headwind.  After lunch a few of us stopped at an Amish farm to get some homemade root beer.  I think that it just may be the best root beer I’ve ever had!  Not too much carbonation and the perfect taste.  Another few miles down the road we stopped at the Strasburg Country Store & Creamery.  I enjoyed some rum raisin ice cream, and ate most of it – very yummy ice cream, very bad idea.  It is definitely a super-cute store, with lots of candies, spices, mixes, pies, and ice cream delights.  Gabe, one of our bike mechanics checked out my shoes, and I am in desperate need of new cleats.  The front of the left one is completely gone, which explains why I was having so much trouble

Photo by Kip Pierson

clipping in.    We road into Camp Andrews and decided that tonight was not going to be spent in a tent, so we rented a bed for $10 for the night.  I strung all of my belongings across the room in hopes of finally getting everything dry.  After a spaghetti dinner we listened to Roz Savage (expert rower for environmental change), Colin Beavan (No Impact Man), Wood Turner (Climate Counts), and  then we watched the movie No Impact Man.  It was so late when we finally made it to bed.  I was exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open. 

Distance Traveled: 64.5mi

Speakers:

Roz Savage – first woman to row across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, environmental activist, United Nations Environmental Program Climate Hero

Wood Turner - the one climate scorekeeper you need to know, Executive Director Climate Counts 

Colin Beavan aka NO IMPACT MAN – the man who lived one year with zero carbon impact–the extraordinary movie will be previewed on Climate Ride.  Watch the trailer.

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY

Sunday, September 27  

Destination: YMCA, Phoenixville, PA 

Woke up to the steady rain.  Dry in my tent, but the world outside was drenched, cold, and grey.  My first thought was: If I was really camping, I would just stay in my tent today…  Have you ever tried to pack your pack in an open field in the rain?  Not an easy task (at least not for me).  I couldn’t get anything to fit, and everything was soaking wet!  I lugged my packed up to the YMCA to pack it up under the cover.  This was a brilliant idea and I was on my way to breakfast in no time! 

I wonder why some soy yogurt has to have it’s “live and active cultures from milk?”  Isn’t that kind of an oxymoron? Am I the only one who has ever noticed that?  How exactly does that affect people?  The granola was great! And so were the bagels. Mmm, It’s been so long since I’ve had good bread products!

We jumped on our bikes and were out of camp really early (for us).  We trudged most of the day through the rain, and cold, and grey.  Not a great motivational aspect for the day… 

We stopped in Doylestown, PA for lunch and enjoyed food at a Chambers Restaurant.  The stares we got from our fellow patrons as we walked through, covered in dirt and wet to the core, were quite entertaining. It was definitely cold in the restaurant, and I spilled my hot tea all down the front of myself… What a clutz!

lunch!

It finally did stop raining, however, and we shed our dripping top layers in hopes of drying out some before making it to camp.  We road on the Schuylkill River Trail to the base of the overpass of 76, where we had to walk our bikes across, and then road into Valley Forge.  Of course on the last leg of the day, the sky fell out, and so I arrived to camp looking like a drowned cat.  Of course the field was wet, and had plenty of puddles.  Set up camp on the damp ground and headed for the showers.  I missed the speakers this evening, but they included David Kroodsma, Alison Gannett from Save of Snow, and a presentation from Germany Trade and Invest.

Distance Traveled:65.5 mi

camp

Speakers:

Germany Trade and Invest – Climate Riders who are members of Germany’s foreign trade board to discuss the transition of East Germany to a “green” economy

Alison Gannett – Founder Save Our Snow Foundation, voted Outside Magazine’s ‘08 Green All-Stars, US Champ Freeskier http://www.ospreypacks.com/Athletes/AlisonGannett/.

David Kroodsma – Stanford-trained climate expert who pedal 21,000 miles to research and raise awareness of climate change

CAMPING IN THE RAIN

Saturday, September 26 

NYC to Princeton, NJ

Today was a beautiful day and a great ride!  I just loved the excitement that was rippling through all the riders. 

Of course it didn’t start on exactly the right foot… We got up, got ready, got

Ferry Ride

out the door on schedule.  I went ahead to get some breakfast, but the bagel shop around the corner from where we stayed, and in between the train, did not open until 7…  So that didn’t work out.  We got to the train station, cutting it close, but we were still in a good timeframe.  As we got to our platform, we notice a sign that says our train is not running at this stop this weekend due to maintenance… Ok.  So we book it back up and decide to alter our route.  We get down to the next platform and the other train that we want is not running either.  Now what? So we go back up and then back down to our original platform; and back up again.  Thankfully a guy noticed us lugging our huge packs up and down the stairs a hundred times and he told us which train would take us back to Central Park South.  That train sat for a good 10 minutes or so until we finally started moving.  Time is looking scarce at this point, but at least we are moving.  And then we aren’t.  A train on the same track in front of us is delayed, so we stop. And Wait. And wait.  And people start grumbling and yelling. And we wait.  We finally make it to our destination, and we are one of the last people there.  Almost everyone is already at the CBS Plaza (59^th and 5^th) already cheering in front of the cameras. After we got all situated and to the Plaza as well, it was smooth sailing from there. 

Road our 5 miles through NYC to Pier 11 (Wall St) and hopped on the SeaStreak ferry to Atlantic Highlands, NJ. The wind that assailed the ferry while we were on it, so I spent most of my time inside visiting with my fellow Climate Riders.  My roommate from college was waiting for me when we got to Athlantic Highland and we had a picnic lunch.  I was the last person to leave the lunch spot, and so road a lot of the day alone.  Near the end of the day, I caught up with a group traveling about my speed and I road and chatted with them for the rest of the ride.  We missed our turn twice, and so road a few extra miles…

Finally road into Princeton, NJ.  Pitched my tent, took a shower (so refreshing!), and joined the masses for dinner.  Then we headed to campus, McCosh Hall, to listen to a few speakers (Dr. Ben Strauss and Jason Kowalski).   The bluegrass band, The Great Salt Licks, riding with us, closed out the evening with a few of their songs.  I walked back to my tent in the rain… and let the steady sound put me to sleep that night.

Distance Traveled: 49+ miles (due to getting lost)

Speaker Information

Dr. Ben Strauss – associate director at Climate Central, founding board member of Grist.org and founding board member of the Environmental Leadership Program.  Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University. Dr. Strauss will talk about the psychology of climate communications.

Jason Kowalski – policy analyst at 1Sky.  Jason will give us the skinny on the ACES bill and what really happens behind the scenes with energy and climate legislation on Capitol Hill.

The Great Salt Licks! – this bluegrass band traveling by bicycle during Climate Ride will do a musical presentation that weaves a story of climate, energy and environmentalism.  LISTEN or buy their New Album here!