July 14, 2007 by Julie.

We are learning that store owners are quite willing to help us when we tell them that we are trying not to make any waste. Every restaurant we have gone into has gone out of their way to be sure that they don’t accidentally give us paper with our bread or straws with our water, and seem to be delighted to do so. Today’s pizza joint, La Favola in Lacey Township in New Jersey, not only served us our pizza on the metal tray it was cooked on but also gave us one of their freshly washed towels to wipe up since we wouldn’t take paper napkins! To them we say Thank you!!!

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July 14, 2007 by Ben.

Hi. My name is Ben. I’m a taurus. I like long walks on the beach, Thai food, puppies, and whistling. Better still are Thai puppies who whistle while walking on the beach. I know - they’re a dime a dozen.

So here we are a week into this crazy adventure and we’re already drowning in wonderful, unscripted experiences. Everything from seeing a coal mine through the eyes of a miner to noshing with a true-blooded Italiano turning his pizza parlor eco in the middle of Pennsylvania to an impromptu interview with the mayor of a “town” of 10 people that’s been sitting on top of a raging inferno for the last 40 years - and that was just one afternoon. As some of you may already know, we’ve set up some challenges for ourselves on this trip (generating only a shoebox worth of waste per month for all three of us, etc.), but it’s starting to look like the biggest challenge is going to be finding time to edit all the juicy footage we’re shooting along the way. My directing/editing brain is already overflowing and we’ve only just begun - what I wouldn’t give for 60-hour days.

And now, a haiku and a limerick:

Pennsylvania hill
drinks sun hiding her stone still
burning black heart

There once was some coal from PA
That didn’t have much to say
When asked why it burns
It said, “No one learns,
But I guess some folks like me this way.” (cough, cough)

until next time,

Ben

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