Day 44 – Day 46: As we pass the halfway point of the ride, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who helped make the Keystone XL “Tour of Resistance” possible. We have already made a tremendous impact, with much more yet to come. I also want to extend a special thanks to all my friends, old and new, who I’ve been blessed to meet along the way, and who have so greatly enriched this road trip experience.
Friday: Ron and I spent the day enjoying a wonderful second Thanksgiving feast with special friends in our home away from home in Lincoln. As happy as my belly was, my knees were even happier, after a good long hot tub soak. Here’s a short piece on the ride that ran in yesterday’s Beatrice Daily Sun: http://tinyurl.com/6qq67nz.
Saturday: Spent much of today in a studio doing interviews for a possible future documentary of the ride. Tomorrow it’s back on the road. Check out this article on a letter 103 U.S. mayors recently sent to President Obama expressing concerns about Keystone XL’s potential impacts on communities: http://ecowatch.org/a/195157.
Sunday: Did a little green energy strategizing with Keith & Ruth Douglas Miller at my favorite Manhattan coffee shop (thanks for breakfast, guys) before hitting the road this morning. Good day for triking: no wind, highs in the high 30s/low 40s and sunny. Yet more hawk encounters today. 77 miles later, rolled into the little town of Florence about 30 minutes before sunset only to learn there was no campground or motel, but did find a small, quiet park with a pavilion, where I quickly set up camp before the dark set in. Was happy to find not only working electrical outlets, but running water (and very tasty water at that). In talking with a family curious about what I was up to, I learned this little town was approached years ago by Pepsi (it could have been Coke), which was so taken with the quality of the water here they wanted to build a manufacturing plant in town. I was told the town leaders, knowing they had a good thing going and didn’t want a corporate entity depleting their precious water, told them to take a hike. Important lessons to be learned here from towns up and down the proposed Keystone XL pipeline route. As a special holiday treat, check out this short action film produced by TransCanada (brace yourself for the excitement): http://tinyurl.com/7ocsgfa.