Skip to main content

Day 3- spring city, PA to holtstown, PA


Woke up stiff and sore from yesterday's long ride. It was very cold in the morning but it didn't want to have to carry layers so I wore my normal biking get up.

A beautiful ride, but the "rolling hills" of Pennsylvania made this far from a 'rest day'. Riding through Amish country is charming, kids were all at home helping their parents on the farms. I could see something's I reviewed in class, how modern builders sell the ideal of a farm lifestyle to normal families. There were no businesses in sight, so people must buy these homes and drive long distances in order to get to work to afford to keep them. Interesting to see the reminder up close.

A few hills today have made me less confident about finishing tomorrow, which is supposed to be the hardest day. I'm just trying to remind my self I've already done this- 165 miles, raised nearly $2500, and raised awareness for some spectacular organizations.

(A woman from the nj bike and ride coalition gave me a sweet patch today, can't wait to pin it on something important!)

Well kids, time to go to lobby training then bed! (here's a quick pick from lobby training- trainers with their thinking caps on!)


Peace,love, bike.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's a Silly Time to learn to swim when you start to Drown

It's a silly time to learn to swim on the way down Well why am I quoting this fabulous Tegan and Sarah song? It came on during my morning commute and it had me thinking- yeah! I bet a lot of society feels the same way about climate change. It is beyond me how people can deny that climate change exists- or say they 'don't believe in it'. It's not a religion, cult movement, theoretical ideal or ideas spun by your average street-corner crazy. It is a scientifically documented, million researcher strong, thousands of pages-per-volume fact. But- it would be so much easier to get by day to day if you didn't feel like the world around you was closing in and smothering you. We don't know how to swim through all this information- and with the policy makers in their later years, they have some trouble understanding what to do and think if they just ignore it, deny it, or drag their feet they can just tread water instead of swimming forward. I totally see how that gets

Living Technologies

Ok, so of course coming fresh off the plane from the Living Future Conference in Seattle has really got me excited about the best and brightest in green building. I will be sharing lessons learned , case studies, and knowledge nuggets in several posts. And sorry for falling off the map for so long to all my readers- life happens, eh? So one of the most interesting innovations I learned about at the conference is the BIQ house in Hamburg, Germany. This is a multi-story apartment building that is completely powered by algae! Algae sits inbetween panes of glass, eats carbon dioxide and sunlight, and produces oily algae that are digested by the building to create power. Neat huh? This building is a pilot/prototype but just opened several weeks ago. This building brings up a lot of interest in algae for it's many uses. i've seen explorations in bioluminescent algae for street lighting, algae grown for biofuel for transportation, algae for wastewater treatment, and now to pow

Some basic terms

So, the first thing you should know. Is technically I'm not a complete laywoman. As you learned from my previous post I have spent all of my undergraduate career studying the 'Green Design' Stuff. There are tons of certification processes and awards just within the United States, but one of the most widely accepted and used is the LEED Certification Process with the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) . LEED stands for L eadership in E nergy and E nvironmental D esign. It is a point system, where you earn a credit for every determined area (for example" Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, and Material and Resources are categories of points). For more information and resources regarding the LEED process and USGBC's various projects, visit their site at: www.usgbc.org One of my responsibilities as Sustainability Intern will be to earn my LEED Accredited Professional certificate, because although I have had a bunch of experience with LEED projects througho