Day 100: Fox Live at the Cali Chevron gaspumps? and the rest of Oregon…

October 12, 2007 by Julie.

Well, we arrived in California and were shocked to find Fox News broadcasting Live from the gas pumps at Chevron. WHAT??? IS GOING ON???

We have fancy emails out to Arnold (Schwarzenegger) and Ellen (DeGeneres) but are not holding our breaths. Mom seems desperate for us to try to contact Leonardo DiCaprio but we haven’t time to try to have his people call our people… oh wait, that’s just us…

Time marches on and Ben is still editing the Illinois pod (hence our 3-month check-in video.) hopefully to finish tonight so that the boys can enjoy their respective Stanford reunions tomorrow.
It’s a new moon.

Here, I’ll finish off Oregon as well as i can:
Just before we left Portland, Ben and I stopped by the BTA (Bicycle Transportation Alliance) of Portland to interview Scott Bricker about Portland’s amazing track record. During the interview Ben popped down the hall and set up another interview with the communications director the the Portland light rail system (TRIMET). Mary Fetsch, you are a trooper. (That lovely woman stayed and talked to us on-camera for over half an hour even having just endured a crown replacement and the right side of her face waking up.) The interview was wonderful, there were tons of people using the service, and the footage of the trains going by was fantastic. Well, potentially fantastic. I haven’t exactly mastered the art of avoiding passersby when shooting…We even saw people getting on with their bicycles…

The drive to Eugene was rainy and uneventful, except for the numbers of Subarus. We landed somewhat wearily at Mark’s relatives, who were gracious and wonderful and already fully on board with everything YERT is trying to do. Michael said that he sometimes worries that his 9-yr old twins are on the verge of becoming environmental nazis. Go girls, go!

We closed the transportation triumvirate with an interview at LTD Rapid Transit bus system in Eugene. This innovative bus system has dedicated bus lanes in the middle of the street with grassy medians and, since its inception 4 months ago, has seen ridership increase by over 50 %.
(I’ll check those numbers for tomorrow as i am getting sleepy and less than precise). A pretty good way to keep those cars off the road, and give commuters a chance to get some more work done on the way to work, ahem.

A delicious dinner followed by stimulating conversation and solid sleep prepared us for this morning’s drive to Ashland. The weather was beautiful. We parked the car at our hosts’ house, walked down the hill past all the Tibetan prayer flags and Subarus, ate Italian and then sat to watch As You Like It at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. (The man who played Touchstone was wonderful.) Don’t mind if we do.

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