July 21, 2007 by Mark.

Yeah, as Julie mentioned in her blog entry today, I found a tick on my hip! Sweet! Actually, not very sweet. I wish I hadn’t found a tick on me, but if it is already there I’d rather find it than not. I admit that I certainly felt “paler than normal” as I proceeded to perform microsurgery on myself to remove it. Fortunately we had all sorts of first-aid equipment on hand in our traveling hybrid home, but it still didn’t help me get the tick head out with the body. Lovely. Scalpel, anybody? Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you consider it, we didn’t have a scalpel available at the time, but with a little diligence I believe I got the whole bug out.

Now I sit back and wait for death to arrive, right? Take a spin on the tick-wheel-of-fortune?

Well, maybe not. But I really have no idea. I’m not much of a tick expert. I’ll spend my day off tomorrow reading up on ticks and their fearsome kin, then probably send off my tick for lab analysis and keep an eye out for the vast array of symptoms listed in WebMD.com. Some say that if you get the tick out within 24 hours of attachment then it is unlikely that you’ll receive an infection from the tick. I think I beat the deadline, but I’m gonna find out first hand soon enough. And, heck, what would an Environmental Road Trip be without an occasional dramatic brush with nature? It would be a BERT: Boring Environmental Road Trip. And we can’t have that! Stay tuned…

Posted in Travelog, Mark | 5 Comments »

July 21, 2007 by Julie.

wow. once again, the lack of internet has thwarted my abilities to get out the printed word…I am learning the lesson that I might need to write in text edit and paste into blogs later…but we are hitting so many amazing people… who are turning us on to so many other amazing people there is just no time!!! totally encouraging and a little bit overwhelming, I must say!

Quick recap and I will detail later:
stayed the night at Dixon’s in Niantic, CT (mmm)
spent the entire next rainy day without internet (and with blog locked for spam check) so Mark worked logistics, Ben worked on video pods, I logged tapes play-by-play to help Ben speed up the editing process, and we all made some phone calls, which resulted in filling up the next two days with pretty great stuff. Wonderful dinner with the folks!

Next day we made sandwiches and packed, then left in the fog for Jamestown, RI. Ben had set up visiting two farms: the Dutra’s Dairy Farm where Rhody Fresh is milked, and the Watson Farm which raises organic beef and vegetables, sheep, bees, etc…and which hosts groups and schools teaching about how to live sustainably…Lastly we stopped by an alpaca farm and had a lovely evening at the home of Anj and Tom, who graciously shared dinner with us and absorbed our compost and as the rain began to fall again, Tom even let us try the spinning wheel. We were pathetic…

Brad, of Apeiron Sustainability Center, offered for us to stay the night in the center on some carpeted floor. We decided to take him up on it and so drove in pitch drak wet windy raods and then slept in our sleeping bags for the first time on the trip! I am happy to report that the REI pads are super comfy and my hips did not hurt even when I lay on my side. Thumbs up. But I still got up way before the boys. I took an overdue shower at the center, shaved, dressed, looked around the facility and learned some things from plaquards on the wall about how the structure was made, to be sustainable. Now I want a Finnish masonry wood oven.

After the boys’ shot B-roll, I took myself and my crabby mood into the woods for a minute to defuse. It didn’t work but I did get some mosquito bites. We drove a bit and stopped at a diner (thank you, boys) for some eggs and coffee and then I felt myself warming to humanity again.
Then Mark went to the bathroom and found a tick. He spent some time next to Rachel, pulling it out with the tweezers and then we saved it in my makeup jar. He thought the head stayed in, which made him turn white, a little, cause really who wants lyme disease, but he poured hydrogen peroxide on it and stuck on a bandaid and we headed for Providence. I searched online and read taht if you get the tick out before 36 hours, there is usually no infection, and even if the mouthparts stay in there is no cause for alarm - the bacteria is in the “midgut.” I think he was somewhat relieved but he remained slightly paler than usual…

I am totally tired so real quick: we stopped by GleeGum and saw Molly, who sweetly sent us next door to cityfarm to speak with Richard, who was amazing. We made our 2pm appt with Brad Hysson of Apeiron and after some red tape, we all got up on the green roof for another really nice interview. Back to GleeGum to catch Molly as she was leaving. Ben and Mark did a silly bit with her but it was sort of cute. She sent us to a Southeast Asian restaurant called Pho Paradise up the road, where we talked and talked and talked about how whether or not we shoudl plan more or let things just happen spotaneously. Then i noticed the other table looking at us, and I asked Ben to lower his voice bc we were attracting attention. He did but then a lady at the other table saw me and yelled over, smiling, “What’s YERT?”

Explanations, all going over for introductions, we ended up following a man named Joe, on his bicycle, to his house at the top of Smith Hill, and touring the house that he built, with solar cells, and a few of the other houses that he built and sold, etc. He was a blast and sent us home with 2 CD’s of his own band, Noodle, and another man, a blues guys who lives in Idaho where they have a cabin that they want us to stay at when we go through…A bottle of wine and several stories later, we said our goodbyes and counted ourselves incredibly lucky to be meeting such people every single day…

we are encouraged, and we are freaking tired. Tomorrow we are sleeping till we can’t sleep anymore.

Posted in Travelog, Julie | 3 Comments »