Chicago, Evansville and All Points in Between...

 We made a great trip to see family in Chicago and Evansville, In. this past week. It's traveling and living and while we are not visiting the Grand Canyon with specular views we are enjoying the company of people we love the most. It can be a little hard to rationalize the joy we have in our lives with the terrible things going on in the world such as storms, war and political unrest but maybe we just do the things we can as we can and pray for the best. 

One thing that might have an effect on the world and something that made me as well as my pocket book happy was the performance of out hybrid gas electric Toyota automobile. We racked up 2049 miles driven getting 50.1 miles per gallon, used 40 gallons of gas and spent $110 dollars on fuel. Maybe I won't save the planet today as my next trip to the beach my Ford F 150 will use 40 gallons to and from my favorite shark fishing spot but driving a hybrid to met the needs we can is a start and a start is what we need. 

Speaking of starts we saw these wind farms along the way. Actually Texas leads the nation in wind farms but the are mostly in southern Texas where I don't often travel. Illinois and Indian, though we saw many do not even make the top 5 list.

We also saw quite a few solar farms. Texas rates number 6 on solar. In Chicago Katie and Peter have a solar plan for panels on the roof which requires and investment but the plan is that by their retirement and of course taking in developing technology that the harvest of power will amount to a passive income stream. 

Also along the way I noted many service stations advertising EV charging. Granted with the technology we have now I could not have driven 12 hours straight from Indiana to sleep in my own bed with the neighbor's cows mooing in the backyard but as with the energy changes we saw it will happen one day. The naysayers may say it won't and that you can't charge your car when the power goes out but one day you will.  

Like I say I did not view the Grand Canyon but while in this save the planet mode I hit several thrift stores and picked up several records (another blog post), a pair of skinny leg black pants and a couple of used climate fiction change books.  

Kim Standley Robinson is a noted climate change author and I've read several of his books. He includes the science to back his stories up. Afterglow is a short story compilation and so far the resounding vibe I get from the stories is hope and that mankind does not start to make changes until it is apparent there is a disaster about to happen and then while the world becomes a quite different place it also becomes a better place while the planet begins to bloom and grow again so do the people. 

That's also a good pattern for us, to love, to travel, to bloom, grow and change.