America
You Can Help
Jun 10th
It is easy to get caught up in the oil disaster (no longer just a spill) and start to feel pretty helpless watching the recurrent image of the gushing oil flow that began almost two months ago. The idea that thousands are voicing their own ideas to BP on how to plug the leak gives you a sense of the desperation. So, if you’re not a bio-systems engineer, what can you do to help? Here are the top five ways you can get involved:
1. REPORT AND DOCUMENT: If you live along the Gulf Coast and spot oil or injured wildlife, there are ways to report it:
- To report oiled wildlife: 866 557 1401
- To report oil spill-related damage: 800 440 0858
- To report oiled shoreline: 866 448 5816
- To document effects of the spill: iPhone users can download the Noah’s Project app to document the impact of the spill on wildlife and shorelines.
2. DONATE: Whether it is money, hair, dish soap, or a boat, here is a list of organizations that are accepting donations from the public (taken from the dailygreen.com).
- National Audubon Society is working to aid birds and habitat.
- National Wildlife Federation is responding to the spill. Text WILDLIFE to 20222 to donate $10.
- Greater New Orleans Foundation is assisting locally.
- Matter of Trust is accepting donations of hair, fur and nylons, which are used to aid in the oil response.
- Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, which protects important shorebird habitats in the Gulf and throughout the Americas, will be documenting damage to birds and striving to restore them.
- Dawn will donate $1 of your purchase of dish soap to help wildlife if you activate your donation online.
- Vessels of Opportunity is accepting help from local boat operators.
3. PICK UP TRASH, LEAVE NATURAL DEBRIS: The state of Florida is calling on volunteers to pick up any trash they see on the shoreline and leave natural debris as it can provide shelter for injured wildlife.
4. VOICE YOUR OPINION, SIGN A PETITION:
- Oceana offers an online petition to stop offshore drilling completely.
- Sierra Club, Oceana and NWF wrote the letters for you. All you have to do is personalize and hit send.
5. BOYCOTT BP AND STOP USING SO MUCH OIL: To address long-term consequences of our dependency on oil, start using public transportation, buy a fuel-efficient or electric car and be energy efficient in your own home or office.
– Courtney Centeno, account executive
Off the Beaten Track
May 29th
Our recent road trip from Chicago to Portland, Ore., involved the usual preparations: map out the route, make motel reservations, rent the truck, pick up some essential goodies and stock the cooler. Daughter Jenny felt it was also important that our trip include a few minor side trips to visit some unique if not downright odd roadside attractions, if for no other reason than to break up the drive and provide conversational (and blog) fodder for the long, dull stretches of the interstate. So she did her research and came up with several candidates, from which we winnowed the choices down to just one or two a day. I wasn’t terribly interested in roaming too far off our westerly route and eating up too many of our daylight driving hours aimlessly meandering unmarked backroads.
While certainly there are numerous historical sites, museums and natural wonders all across the country, Jenny sought the advice of RoadsideAmerica.com (“Your Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist Attractions”) to satisfy her desire to check out the more obscure and unsung attractions (and I’m using that term loosely) along our route. Even taking into account that we were traveling midweek before the summer travel season got underway, these places were quite deserted, and we were generally the only visitors in sight. Most were, as my dad likes to say, surrounded by miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. But I would not say I regretted any of our little detours; it was actually nice to get away from the roar and rush of the interstate and sink into the landscape for a bit.
Our first stop came on the first day of our trip as we ventured out of Chicago, across Illinois and into Iowa. We were looking for “The tree in the middle of the road.” Following the directions from the website and some cautionary words about rutted roads, we trekked several miles down gravel county section roads until we came upon our goal. An immense, 100-plus-year-old cottonwood tree rooted at the intersection of two roads loomed up before us. Its deep green leaves rustled and shimmered in a soft breeze against a beautiful deep-blue sky. We just stood and looked up into the web of branches, breathing in the scent of growing things and listening to the songs of meadowlarks and the peaceful calm of an early spring evening. After a hectic day of packing and then maneuvering an unfamiliar, bulky vehicle through traffic, those moments of stillness were a blessed balm to our spirits. Now that was a roadside (or, literally, in-the-road) attraction I could really appreciate.
Our second day was a long, soggy slog through a very rainy Nebraska, and we limited our explorations to an authentic (and rather tired-looking) tourist trap (complete with a large metal contraption identified as such hanging from an exterior wall) in North Platte just off I-80. This was Ft. Cody, honoring “Buffalo Bill” Cody, who owned a ranch nearby, purchased from the earnings of his very popular Wild West Show. It is primarily a gift shop with a few historical displays and a corny stockade. You can view the stuffed remains of a two-headed calf and check out some authentic cowboy gear (saddle, chaps, guns and the like) and a few impressively heavy and warm buffalo coats. We enjoyed a few giggles over the more tacky aspects of the place — a nice, bright memory on a gloomy, wet day.
The following day found us hundreds of miles away and thousands of feet higher in elevation, standing on a blustery Wyoming plateau at about 6,000 feet gazing up at a 60-foot-tall, pink granite pyramid. The pyramid was built by the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1880s to memorialize the Ames brothers, who figured large in the history of the company — until their shady dealings led to their downfall. A rail line once passed nearby, but now the monument sits alone a few miles south of the interstate and the “town” of Buford (population 1), surrounded by sagebrush, prairie dogs, antelope and fantastical stone outcroppings. Sparse, fluffy white clouds in a chilly blue sky had replaced the previous day’s gloom, and far to the south we could see the bright, snow-covered peaks of the Rockies. Once again we breathed in the quiet and sense of vast space, reluctantly strolling back to the truck as the many miles we had yet to travel pulled us back to the highway.
If you should take a road trip this coming summer, give yourself the gift of a few unconventional stops along the way. You may find them to be the highlights of your journey!
– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader
Roadtripping the Beautiful U.S. of A.
May 23rd
Right now I am truly exhausted. Daughter Jenny and I have just completed a road trip that covered a good chunk of the country over four days and three time zones, bracketed by moving all her stuff out of one apartment and into another (both on the second floor and a decent hike from where our rental truck was parked).
We began in Chicago this past Tuesday, picking up a 10-foot Budget rental truck and maneuvering it through traffic back to her apartment near Loyola’s campus. Just three of we most able-bodied women managed to load it up with all Jen’s worldly goods in about two hours. It then took us more than an hour to wend our way gradually west of the city and shed the toll roads (a quick observation: I am not sure what the advantage of toll roads is supposed to be, but the money doesn’t seem to be going towards maintenance; the “freeways” and interstates I travel out west are in generally much better shape and gas prices don’t seem to be much different — presuming some portion of gas taxes go to highway upkeep.) We followed I-80 west through Illinois and on into Iowa, crossing the wide and mighty Mississippi. We didn’t stop that evening until we reached Omaha, Nebraska, after crossing another river that figures large in our nation’s history — the Missouri.
Our road trip continued through all of a very rainy Nebraska the next day with an overnight stay in Cheyenne, Wyoming, that night and Ogden, Utah, the next. Yesterday drew us from Utah through Idaho and at last into Oregon, albeit in Pendleton, still a good three-and-a-half hours from our final destination in Portland. We averaged over 450 miles each day with just a few pit stops and pauses for some unusual roadside attractions now and then. I’ve made at least three other such trips across vast stretches of this country in my life, and each one has reinforced in me a deep love and respect for the land and the courageous, curious and independent souls who struck out to explore and settle it when travel was a perilous and uncertain prospect indeed.
A few mental snapshots from this trip:
– Dark, towering sweeps of cloud looming over spring-green fields gleaming in bright sunlight slanting in from the horizon.
– Observing spring retreat as we climbed towards the Continental Divide at 7,000 feet. Trees and creek-bottom brush showed bare and brown as sea-level vegetation was two months ago, and wide sweeps of snow drifts still pushed up against ranks of snow fences ranged along the interstate.
– Grasses and wildflowers in reds, blues, yellows and whites rippling in strong winds that buffeted our little truck and left my hands aching from gripping the wheel to keep us running straight and true in our lane.
– Wide valleys of irrigated farmland in circles and squares in shades of brown and green stretched out below ridges of sagebrush and rugged volcanic rock.
– Ranks and ranks of deep-green, forested mountains showing no sign of mankind’s touch, capped with new falls of late-season snow.
There is something in the wide, expansive vistas of sky and cloud and landscape — mountains, high desert and deep valleys — that lifts my heart. I breathe more deeply and feel a mixture of awe, gratitude and peace as I gaze far out over this America. The pride I feel is not that of ownership; this is my country not because I own any part of it but because it possesses me. No matter where else I go in this world, this vast, lovely, wild, majestic place will live in me and call me back to it. Â
My tip for this week? Take the time to get out and experience a place where you are the smallest thing in the landscape. See and feel how big and varied and beautiful your country is.
– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader
My Favorites
May 12th
If you travel often enough to the same city, you will probably find at least one favorite restaurant. At that restaurant, you will probably have a favorite meal. My question is — do you stick with a favorite or do you try new places/meals?
I am pretty conservative. I like sure bets and I stick with them. When I go to Minneapolis, I always dine at Bellanotte. In Houston, I hit any of the Goode Company Barbeque locations and Kenny & Ziggy’s. In Cleveland, I never miss Mallorca. In Detroit, my choice is Ciao. In St. Louis, I enjoy Pueblo Solis.
Every year, I promise myself that I will try a new restaurant in each town. It’s not that I am tired of any of these restaurants. I just think I should try new places. My problem is that I love these places. Even at my chosen restaurants, I almost always choose the same meal.
A lot of my trips are one or two days. I don’t want to skip my favorite restaurant and risk a meal at another place. On the other hand, I always think I should venture out of this comfort zone. If the trips are longer, I could hit my favorite one day and venture out to the others (at least until I have developed more favorites, thus creating the same problem.)
I also have this dilemma in my hometown of Chicago. I have my favorites on the south side and downtown, places I don’t go too often. Last summer, I made a promise (I think I even blogged it here), that I would try new restaurants. The results were mixed. I did find a few new options, but I also had several duds.
I would love to know about your dining choices in frequently visited cities. Do you always make sure to hit a certain favorite spot or do you try new places for new experiences? I am not asking for your favorite restaurants (although feel free to name them if you’d like) while on trips. I’d just like to know how many of you have this same struggle.
While I am waiting for your responses, I will be heading to Detroit. I swear I will try something new there. Then again, Ciao’s mushroom and asiago soup is awfully good!
– John Wroblewski, distribution specialist
