Another post as an aside, not necessarily related to the core mission of our trip.

The news in the United States is atrocious, as is our public discourse generally. Not atrocious in terms of what's going on, although with wildfires, floods and a collapsing economy it can be that too. Atrocious in terms of how things are covered, the depth that is offered, and the effective relating of how people are going to be affected by what's going on in the world.

There are so many legitimate problems going on right now, short and long term, that it seems stunning to me that the main headlines about the upcoming presidential race center on whether Obama is now wearing his flag lapel pin more often, or whether he rebuffs Wes Clark's comments, which are being portrayed as questioning McCain's patriotism.

Honestly, who cares about these manufactured controversies. It is not a requirement to be a President to wear flag lapel pins. Wes Clark saying that McCain being a POW doesn't give him foreign policy experience is not Clark impugning McCains patriotism.

The media creates these stupid controversies to keep up ratings in a news environment that produces cheap, easy stories with lots of emotion.

There are real problems of a short term nature going on right now:
-Wildfires in California
-Floods in the midwest
-Droughts in the south
-Economic depression setting in
-Increases in food and gas prices
-The bombing housing market
-Iraq and Afghanistan not substantially moving towards better governance and peace

There are other problems of massive long term impact:
-Global Warming
-Peak Oil
-How we move away from a credit dependent economy as a country
-How we disentangle ourselves from our disasters in the middle east
-How we reclaim our government from the grasp of moneyed special interests
-How we recreate a media system that informs and appraises people about how their lives are being affected by what's going on in the world, our country, and our region (hint: Obama wearing a pin or not does not affect you at all)

To his credit, in the latter article, McCain's reply to Clark's statement was, in part:

"I think that that kind of thing is unnecessary, I am proud of my record of service and I have plenty of friends and leaders who will attest to that. But the important thing is if that’s the kind of campaign that Sen. Obama surrogates and supporters want to engage, I understand, but it does not reduce the price of gas by one penny …doesn’t help Americans stay in their homes … it certainly doesn’t do anything to address the challenges that Americans have in keeping their jobs, and their homes and supporting their families."

I think he's unfair to pin blame solely on Obama surrogates, given that McCain surrogates serve up the same kind of crap on a regular basis. But he's right that none of this matters one bit when it comes to solving the substantial problems that face the country.

This morning I read the letters to the editor in the local paper, the Owatonna People's Press. Two of them were honestly shocking to me, one about how Safe Sex education is killing people, the other insinuating that Obama is The Great Deceiver, or at least a terrorist supporter.

It is hard for me to comprehend how people become so misguided. Bad stewardship of information from the media is one reason. Intolerant religiosity is another. But uncritical acceptance of authoritative information seems the biggest culprit. A bit of thought about either of these letters would seem sufficient to disregard their main thrusts.

If Obama had relationships (funding or otherwise) with terrorists, the government would have been all over him by now. Honestly, do you think for a second that the opposition party that controls the intelligence and prosecutory power in our government would not have absolutely destroyed the most promising politician to rise against them in the last 15 years? Bush/Cheney's administration would have Obama strung up by now if there was anything at all to these allegations, leaving aside the whole argument of him being The Great Deceiver.

Premarital sex destroying lives is another canard that really needs to die off. Not only is it a relic of a repressive ancient patriarchy, but it is part of a larger regime of sexual repression within our society.

Sex can be great. A lot of that has to do with communication and education. Understanding sexuality and the particular needs of your partner are keys to fulfilling sexuality, and trying to destroy safe sex education programs. My darkly favorite passage of the safe sex letter is this one:

"[those who have premarital sex will have] a heart filled with suffering, pain, guilt and dear and a life that is dry, barren, darkened, fruitless and hopeless wilderness that extends throughout all eternity."

I'm not burdened with guilt for the sex I've had in my life. I'm glad Melissa and I have the sexual experiences we have. I'm going to marry the woman who I love and who I have (and will have) a wonderful sex life with. I'm confident that we're going to have a great life together, sexually and otherwise. We are going to travel through life together with hope and light in our lives, and we'll keep learning about sex and sexuality as we go forward.

All of this fear mongering about premarital sex is overblown and crazed to me. You can have sex and not destroy your life. Every day we keep going is a living example of that.

Today, Andy and I rode around 35miles up to Owatonna, passing somewhat flat terrain, with the occasional rolling hill. On a flat surface with our 90pound trailers we can get up to 15-18miles an hour. To our dismay our speed was more like 8-9miles, as the wind was constantly pushing at the front of us. Good for wind turbines, bad for bikers, so like usual, it took us longer then we expected. However, there was a bit of a reprieve when we would come up to a row of trees, as it blocked the air flow and we were able to pick up some speed. Unfortunately and to my tired legs, this rarely occurred as the miles and miles of corn more so dotted the landscape.

If the trees blocked that much wind for me, I wonder why this area and others like it don't plant more of these natural barriers to block the wind for the crops, especially with soil erosion being so high in the US.

As I just looked up some facts on soil erosion(love wifi), I've found from a Cornell Study by Susan Lang, March 2006, http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March06/soil.erosion.threat.ssl.html:

• "The United States is losing soil 10 times faster -- and China and India are losing soil 30 to 40 times faster -- than the natural replenishment rate.
• The economic impact of soil erosion in the United States costs the nation about $37.6 billion each year in productivity losses. Damage from soil erosion worldwide is estimated to be $400 billion per year.
• As a result of erosion over the past 40 years, 30 percent of the world's arable land has become unproductive.
• About 60 percent of soil that is washed away ends up in rivers, streams and lakes, making waterways more prone to flooding and to contamination from soil's fertilizers and pesticides.
• Soil erosion also reduces the ability of soil to store water and support plant growth, thereby reducing its ability to support biodiversity.
• Erosion promotes critical losses of water, nutrients, soil organic matter and soil biota, harming forests, rangeland and natural ecosystems.
• Erosion increases the amount of dust carried by wind, which not only acts as an abrasive and air pollutant but also carries about 20 human infectious disease organisms, including anthrax and tuberculosis."

Good to know, so what do we do about soil erosion? I'm on a mission to find out on the trip, so stay tuned.:)

Also, here's the latest installment of pictures from the last couple of days.
http://www.changinggearsmovie.com/resources/photos/062708M/index.html

I remember my family’s first out state trip to CA when I was in second grade, and vividly I remember when the van drove through the desert passing hundreds of wind turbines that were foreign and surreal at the time, as I later found out was the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm. Coming from Michigan I had never seen so many windmills, and later after living there I just figured California seemed like an anomaly compared to the rest of the states, but this past week I have a renewed faith in our Midwest region and am excited that the possibilities now exist as we are investing in renewable energies.
My hope occurred after passing through the wind farms near the edge of the border of Iowa and Minnesota. Though I didn’t think I would be enthralled by these structures, I was like a curious child speechless, in awe of these massive white anomalies. “How were they constructed? How did they get there?... this is amazing,” as I thought to myself continuing to stare at them. Erect at over 300ft, with blades probably over 200ft in length, I stopped on the side of the road, still sweaty from biking; for a brief moment, I realized and felt that we are indeed in a new era. Though news would seem to tell me otherwise, as coal plants are continually being approved for construction, such as the recently approved $2billion coal plant on the west of Indiana.

I am a bit disillusioned as I’m not going to claim that I know what Indiana is doing, that’s why I am on this trip, but the little bit I know continues to support a system that still isn’t healthy to the people who breathe in the matter, this includes other parts of the region as well. So I was pleasantly surprised about the Midwest proliferation of wind turbines going up since we started the trip. Along our route when we would tell people of our quest for sustainable practices, in the most random places, the feedback we received has been surprising, as we have now heard of the wind farms north of Illinois, south west WI, MN, and even plans for the west of the home state, Indiana.

Over the next couple of years the southern state of Minnesota will have hundreds of wind turbines generating electricity for hundreds of thousands of people, and as I read more about wind energy in general, though we currently use only 1% of our power through wind, the number could be over 20%! Now if we could also diversify our input from solar, geothermal, biomass, we could get off of our use of nuclear, and wean ourselves away from coal and gas.

Ironically, a French company owns it, and the parts are probably from a different country as we have been behind in green manufacturing, but nonetheless, it is a sign that we could be weaning off or at least replacing where we get energy, as coal continues to emit particulate matter and nuclear energy waste is undetermined. Yeah wind!

Resources to check out:
I found this very helpful in understanding the basics of wind energy:
http://www.awea.org/
A good resource for policy and law in the Midwest region concerning environmental issues:
http://www.elpc.org
Here’s the info on my childhood surreal experience in one of the california wind farms:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehachapi_Pass_Wind_Farm

Holy cow! So this morning I get up and we're on the front page of Treehugger. They are one of my favorite sites for enviro-news, so this is a great thrill, even if now we've got even more to live up to. :)

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/sustainability-america-documentary.php

Hitting the road again this morning after a couple of days editing, doing back-end work on the website and getting the two of us reconnected again. We're hoping to make Minneapolis in 3 days or so, and we should make good progress today being so fresh.

Welcome Treehuggers! Enjoy our trip. :)

We're holed up in a new hotel, as we are trying to get caught up with some editing and blogging. Unfortunately, the editing is taking the lion's share of my time and I'm not feeling too productive. But the hotel room is nice for a change, and we have free coffee and a bit of food on the way.

I wish we had time to go see Wall-E, but we must make movie magic ourselves. Ciao.

Good evening! So Andy and I are in Austin, MN and will be heading north tomorrow. Today, we've mostly updated our blogs and website. So definitely take a look at the Video and Sound page and check out our Short Videos, as you'll see wind turbines, blood thirsty mosquitoes, sweat, seeds, the search for a good breakfast....it's all there.:)
Night! M

Yesterday, after having another late start from Decorah, we climb the huge hill that parallels highway 52 with very little power, as both of us were feeling unmotivated. Once at the top we turned left onto highway, and within a couple of miles saw the sign we were looking for"SEED SAVERS", with an arrow pointing left. This was one stop that I was giddy for, as I was introduced to Seed Savers by my good friend Deana, who orders her heirloom seed every year from them. She also gave me the book "Seeds of Change", that discussed the importance of seed, biodiversity, and sustainable issues that gave me some sort of sense of duty in understanding more about this precious little thing, the seed, as honestly folks I really needed the 101 biology course.

The book also did a great job at stirring my sense of conviction, as I learned that during the 1920's the brilliant scientist, Nikolai I. Vavilov, toured the world to collect, preserve, learn about varieties of seed, and genetic diversity. He traveled and procured tens of thousands of different specimens and found that where climate conditions were unstable, the soil was richer when the crops with genetic diversity flourished, and polyculture farming reduced insects and vunerability to disease. At the same time, where he was estabilishing the seed bank and researching more, Wallace from the US was pushing for another research and promotion of monocultures and the American hybrid, which had higher yield, but farmers had to buy seed year after year. Unfortuatnely in the 1930s as the russian revolution was occuring, Vavilov life was cut short, according to some reports, as he was sent to the labor camp and ironically starved to death. Obviously, the American hybrid was favored over saving seed and giving biodiversity the advantage, as we see how the landscape has changed over the past 50years.

I have to admit, I never thought about saving seed or the importance of it, until that book, as well as with Vandana Shiva’s books about genetics and intellectual property rights. This may seem pedestrian to some, but even when I write this now it feels like an ephipheny that our food stuff comes from this tiny little entity, it grows to produce something that continues to sustain us, and I for one didn't much think about the unappreciated seed.

Because we drove our markets to monoculture farming, increased pesticides/herbicides use, continue to modify corn and soy gene and put it in most conventional food stuff, we unfortunately have also lost biodiversity, our connections to our past as the seeds our greatgrandparents brought over when they emigrated have been plowed over along with the knowledge of stewardship and balance, we've increased cancer rates, and the seeds that used to sustain us, the varieties, are going extinct. Geez, I say! I want my perfect summer strawberry back, or the complex taste of the tomato, rather the the waterlogged perfect red fruit, I want the knowledge of knowing more of the land, soil, and seasons, what plants can coexist together, etc, to support a system where farmers are getting paid for the value rather then the commodity.

Fortunately, one organization is doing something to give me back a wide variety of tastes and heritage, most that I never knew existed. http://www.seedsavers.org/aboutus.asp . Since the 1970s, what started off as a couple of plants that were given to Diane Ott Whealy from her termilly ill-grandfather, who had received the seeds from his parents of Bavaria, Seed Saver Exchange has grown to over having 27,000 different varieties where they save, plant, sell, research, and educate the importance of seed saving. They have over 800 acres in Decorah, Iowa, where over 1 million species have passed the hands of gardeners, concerned, and excited citizens.

To say the least I was excited when I saw the sign, and even more so, when I actually saw all the different seed packets to choose from. Andy and I both tired of biking, renewed our life of life and each other as we talked excitely about gardening, variaties, food, community. We'll have to wait till next year to plant, but will work on figuring out our garden in the meantime. Plant a seed for me:)

So here's the latest installment of pictures. There were some rather lovely flowers at the farm. :)

http://www.changinggearsmovie.com/resources/photos/062508m/index.html

I have tens a welts on my body…trying not to itch like a madwoman, but it’s hard. I can even hear the little buggers outside our thin nylon sheet. I despise them. I even kill them, when for others I’d cup in my hand and set free. For those I feel it’s my karmic duty, or something, but not with mosquitoes. Oh no, the one small thing taken out of the food chain would be these guys. I don’t know if that’s sustainable or not, but right now, after briefly, I mean briefly, being outside I believe I have over forty bites on me. And unfortunately, as soon as those discerning thirsty annoyances suck me, I welt up and actually am in pain. So here I sit, unable to scratch, because that also makes it worse, looking like I have the hives, and am utterly unsettled.

According to our friendly camp hosts, and others we have passed along the way, the mosquitoes this far south of Minnesota is a rarity, very strange indeed. They say it’s because of all the rain, and there are now stagnant waters everywhere, even the potholes have been breeding grounds. If this is indeed the case, I really hope that the reporters are right about this being the 500 year rain. Sounds ambitious since climate change is occurring, but next year I’ll be happy with one less insect.

I had to get that last post out, but this one is really about catching up the blog a bit. We're going to try to get things up to date and get some full interviews online while we are here in Austin, MN. It's a decent town and we've got wifi access downtown at the coffee shop (till 5pm) and in the hotel.
To start, I uploaded this gallery a few days ago but then we lost wifi access and I couldn't post about it or put it in the archive:

http://www.changinggearsmovie.com/resources/photos/062508/index.html

More in a bit.

Edit: Adding another gallery to the first. This one is pretty small, but it shows the worst bathroom and worst french toast we've had yet.

http://www.changinggearsmovie.com/resources/photos/062708/index.html

Last night we went out to find a coffee shop with wifi, to no avail. The two coffee shops in town close at 3pm and 5pm respectively. It is absolutely amazing to me how early things across the midwest shut down, even in a decent-sized city like Austin. Austin has nearly 25,000 people. Do none of them drink coffee after 5pm? If Starbucks or Caribou is listening: this town is ripe for the picking.

After we ate a simple meal at one of the local bars (nearly the only thing that seemed open at 8pm), we rode back to the hotel. I intended to blog, but we got into a longer conversation with each other that lasted nearly till 10:30. It was good to just relax and talk for a while.

Then I got on the computer and Melissa turned on the TV. As she flipped through the channels, I noticed John Yoo was on C-Span, and blurted out "that's the torture memo guy." It turns out that he and David Addington, Cheney's former counsel and now Chief of Staff were appearing before a House Subcommittee (I believe the Constitution Subcommittee). We watched for about an hour and a half as Yoo dodged and parsed questions, and lamely asserted that he'd been instructed by the Justice Department (where he formerly held a post under AG Ashcroft) not to answer this or that question. Addington was much more smooth, confident in his demeanor. Perhaps he feels he has less at risk here.

Whatever the case is, it seems obvious that these men (among others) are responsible at least in part for creating a policy that allowed torture, and likely still allows it, to occur in the name of the United States. It is incredibly frustrating that they can sit in front of the Congress and merely say that they "don't remember" seeing torture, or that they cannot answer a question that would divulge classified information.

My apologies for those who might be put at risk by the divulging of classified information, perhaps even including my fiancee who is across the table writing, my family and my friends, but if someone is being tortured in my name, I want to know about it. Classified information be damned. We elect officials to run this country on our behalf. If we elect a president who allows heinous crimes against humanity in our name, we all bear responsibility for it, and the notion that any such activities would be hidden from public view by the facade of it being sensitive information is insulting.

Tell us what's being done in our service. If we like that, we can keep voting for it. If we don't, we won't. If we can't survive in this world with a transparent system of governmental operation, maybe we need to rethink how we are being governed.

I'm not saying that we should open up the government intelligence archives, or out all of our covert agents or something. I'm saying that someone like John Woo should be able to tell us whether we are torturing people and how, if he has that knowledge. I'm saying that what my country is doing is my business. I pay taxes. I vote. I am a citizen of the United States. The actions of my government are, by extension, my actions. Tell me what I'm responsible for.