Plateaus and Mesas and Buttes

Calf Creek to Hanksville:

After leaving Kiva’s and Calf Creek, we traveled through more of picturesque Utah, including Capitol Reef National Park.  I’ll let the photos do some of the talking for me:

The road leaving Calf Creek—they're a little hard to spot, but Dave and Austin are in this photo

We stopped for a break in a small town called Torrey, which is in between Boulder and Hanksville.  The woman I spoke with (at a deli called Austin’s Chuck Wagon...hi Austin!) told me about the recycling program that’s just getting started.  When I asked if the city was implementing the program, she laughed and replied, “what city?”  It turns out that since Torrey is so small (population ~200), the county government is in control of Torrey’s municipal operations.  As a result, Wayne County is implementing the recycling program.  Great!

Fun fact: Wayne County has zero stop lights and, according to the woman at Austin’s Chuck Wagon, the “stop signs are optional.”  A police officer might disagree, but at a place that sells postcards that read “Greetings from the middle of nowhere,” I would expect a bit of lawlessness.  

Calf Creek & Food Waste Prevention

Sunday, after a long, hot day in the Utah sun, we set up camp at Calf Creek campground.  Immediately after arriving, we jumped in the river and waded, floated, and sat in the cool current.  There has been a lack of river swimming on this trip, so I was glad to finally get into some water.

Dinner on Sunday night was an exercise in food waste prevention.  Since we’re on the road for two months, we have a lot of food packed in the Sprinter—it pretty much takes up half of the floor space.  About half of what we have was salvaged from the open kitchen in Mars, the university residence where I lived for the past two years.  The kitchen manager, Aluma, was nice enough to give us some of the leftover food for our journey.  So far we’ve mostly been eating the leftover cereal, peanut butter, jelly, and apples, but on Sunday, we decided to tackle the quick oats.  We were sort of wondering what we were going to do with a giant bag of oats, but master chef Dave put them to excellent use.

The inside of the Sprinter—the boxes in the back are full of food.

After I built the fire, Dave took our $7 Walmart teflon pan and filled it with oats.  After adding water, milk, and additional master chef seasonings, he placed it over the fire, stirring constantly.  About ten minutes later we had a pan full of apple oatmeal, which we devoured within minutes.  It’s unclear whether or not we’ll finish the entire oat bag, but hey, it’s a start!  

Master Chef Dave & his oatmeal

For breakfast this morning, we went to a restaurant a bit up the road called Kiva’s Koffeehouse.  The restaurant is essentially built into the rocky cliff and its bay windows overlook the canyon.  When we were in Cedar City, Theresa’s roommate, Molly, said that there’s no place with scenery like Utah’s.  Now I know what she was talking about; the contrast of the red rock canyon walls with lush, green, river valleys is just incredible.   

Kiva's Koffeehouse

High Altitude

Cedar City to Panguitch

The climb out of Cedar  City was “the big climb” of the trip.  Austin and Dave met some local cyclists on Thursday, and they had all planned to ride together yesterday.  Knowing I’d have riding buddies on the way back to the car, I decided to ride as well.  We met up at the bike shop at 7:15, and took off.

The first two miles were great; the six of us rode together and chatted.  Once the climb started, the altitude (and my lack of training) caught up with me, and I hung back for the next 16 miles.  Two hours later and 4,000 feet higher, I was exhausted.  It was a tough climb, but it was gorgeous and I was rewarded with an 18 mile downhill back to the car.

Later in the day, we met up in Panguitch.  We were expecting a small, sleepy town, but it just so happened that we were there for the busiest night of the year: the hot air balloon festival.  People travel to Panguitch from all over the state (and country) to witness the collection of over twenty hot air balloons.  Once dusk hit, the balloons began to expand and rise up overhead.  As the propane heated up the air inside the balloons, it illuminated the entire balloon, and Main and Center Streets turned into a bright, colorful, intersection. 

This morning, being in small-town Utah on a Sunday, I decided to go to a Mormon church service.  It was interesting to compare the Mormon service with other Christian sects, and it was cool to witness firsthand the religion so deeply rooted in the establishment of Utah.  

After church, I went to Bronco Bobbi’s, an espresso/coffee/gift shop.  The woman I spoke with, Dawn, told me a little bit about Panguitch’s recycling program, which is just getting started.  Residents must bring their recyclables to designated bins around town.  Municipal workers then pick up and transport the materials to a transfer station just outside of town.

What, then, happens to the food waste?  According to Dawn—a former diner waitress—several years ago, a farmer started a food scrap collection program to feed his pigs.  He distributed buckets to all of the restaurants in town (I counted all of four) and asked them to collect leftover food.  Some restaurants refused to separate their food waste from other trash, saying it was too much effort.  However, several restaurants implemented the farmer’s plan, and food waste was minimized—to the benefit of his swine.  Pigs against pollution.*  Now that’s a novel idea.

* Nearly all of the methane (a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide) emitted from landfills can be attributed to organic waste.  Composting emits carbon dioxide rather than methane.  Since methane is so much more potent than CO2, composting—or feeding food waste to pigs—can cut back on atmospheric pollution.

Calocedrus decurrens

We spent the last two days couch surfing in Cedar City, Utah (HUGE town of 20,000).  It was our first time couch surfing, and I was quite pleased with the outcome.  When we got into town on Thursday afternoon, we called our host, Theresa, a soccer coach at Southern Utah University.  We met at her apartment, where she presented us with the code to her apartment building, a key to her apartment, and a key to an empty (but furnished!) apartment that was ours for two nights.  The couch surfing project is really cool—I was a bit skeptical at first (meeting strangers on the internet and then sleeping in their houses?), but there’s a pretty good screening process, and I definitely felt a sense of mutual trust.  

Friday we had our rest day and just sort of got our lives together.  After doing the laundry and grocery shopping (Polygamy Porter is a beer here..is that PC?), we went back to Theresa’s apartment for dinner.  We grilled turkey burgers outside, where we enjoyed the sun and surrounding red cliffs.  Cedar City is a beautiful town.

Several programs the city is lacking, however, include compost and recycling.  Cedar City has neither program available to its residents, which was displeasing to Theresa and her roommate.  The lack of recycling is just another example of the inefficiency of the transportation system, economics, and the difficulty of living in such a rural part of the country.

Milford, Utah!

Have I mentioned how amazing this trip has been?  Have I mentioned how much I’m learning?  Have I mentioned how hospitable small town America is?  As an aside from food waste and compost, I will take that opportunity right now.

We got to Milford (population 1,451) last night after a long, hot day in the Utah...desert?  Actually, deserts usually have some sort of shrubbery, and some living things.  Yesterday’s vegetation was nonexistent; we essentially traversed dirt.  Not a great first impression to the great state of Utah.  The day got better, however, when we arrived in Milford.  

The sign right behind this one says "Welcome to Milford."

We happened upon an LDS church (one of several in town, welcome to Utah) hoping to find a floor to sleep on.  While wandering the hallways seeking a person with whom to speak, we ran into the church’s bishop, Bishop Barnes.  After explaining our situation, he said that as a last resort we could set up camp on the floor, but that he had a better option.  His niece, Janet Russell, happens to own one of the two motels in town.  Not only did she put us up in the nicest one in town, but also provided us with a delicious breakfast at the diner the next morning.   We were incredibly thankful for Janet’s generosity; it’s really amazing how responsive people have been to the Face Aids cause and bike ride.

After breakfast, I went to the city government offices, where I spoke with Makayla, a secretary.  She told me about the landfill outside of town, as well as the recycling program that the local high school implemented in the past year.  Milford has no recycling collection program, but residents have the option to bring their recyclables to receptacles at the back of the high school for drop-off.  She gave me the brochure that the high school put out, outlining those materials that can be recycled and those that cannot, such as oil-saturated pizza boxes.  Aha, that’s where a compost program would be beneficial.  It is cool, however, to see the motivation to implement a recycling program in such a small town.

When I asked about food waste, Makayla told me that she didn’t have a lot of food waste.  She went on to explain that what little she did throw away, she disposed of through the garbage disposal.  She puts greasy foods into the trash.  

The Great Basin

Baker to Milford

Yesterday we got to Baker (and Great Basin National Park) around 5 PM.  We drove up to the summit (10,000 feet), where we went on a little hike and saw 4,000 year old bristlecone pine trees!  After our nature walk, we headed down to Upper Lehman Creek campground, where we stayed for the night.  The next morning, we went spelunking in the Lehman Caves, about 10 miles from our campsite.  Our guide kept talking about the shield formations in the cave (which appear in fewer than 60 of the caves in the US) and we walked through several caverns.  We saw one shield that sort of looked like a wedding altar, where, apparently, people used to get married.  An underground wedding doesn’t evoke thoughts of happiness and celebration, but hey, to each his own.

I then headed to the visitor center of Great Basin National Park, as the 100 people who inhabit Baker seem to all work at the visitor center.  There was an aluminum can recycling bin outside of the center, which surprised me.  It was the first sign of recycling I’ve seen since Fallon!  Inside, I spoke with one of the visitor center employees, Linda, who told me a bit about Baker and its waste management practices.  When she first moved to Baker about 10 years ago, the first two things she looked for were “a Christian church and a recycling program.”  Putting recycling right up there with religion?  I approve.  

Unfortunately, Linda didn’t find a recycling program in Baker due to (surprise, surprise) its location and isolation from any recycling centers.  She mentioned how wasteful she felt disposing of recyclables.  “If only there were some way to put cans and bottles on the back of a truck so the trucks that are coming and going anyway could haul them to a recycling center,” she said.  

As for Linda’s personal waste disposal, she burns much of her organic wastes (tree branches, yard clippings, paper) in her backyard.  Most of her food waste goes down the garbage disposal in her sink.  She says she feels bad about burning trash, but that many of her neighbors do the same.  I asked if she knew anyone who composted, and she said that she knew of people composting, but couldn’t give me any concrete examples.

After leaving Baker, I crossed the Utah border and headed to Milford.  State number three!

Did Compost Kill 172 People?

Ely to Baker

We spent last night camping in Ely, NV, the last stop on the loneliest road.  We got our survival guides stamped at the chamber of commerce, and then I stayed to chat about Ely’s waste management program.  Evie Pinneo, the executive director of the chamber of commerce, told me a bit about Ely’s program, which is remarkably similar to Eureka’s.  Trash pickup, landfill right outside of town, no recycling program because it’s too expensive, and no compost program.  Although Evie did say she knew of several ranchers in town composting in their backyards.

When composting came up in the conversation, another man in the office turned to me and said, “compost? Nobody’s composting anymore.  Not after what Timothy McVeigh did with compost.”  Intrigued, I turned to the man and asked what he meant.  “Timothy McVeigh killed 172 people.  He built a bomb out of components of compost and blew up the Murrah building.”  The man, James Cotton, a former composter, current social journalist, and “railroad man” from Chama, New Mexico, continued to explain the connection between bombs and compost.

“What he did was is the basic chemistry of compost.  He took manure and another product I don’t know and he composted it he knew the chemistry,” Cotton explained.  He went on to discuss Molotov cocktails, or bombs made out of a glass bottles and combustible fuel, usually petrol or gasoline.  Rioters frequently use them due to their ease of production.  “Timothy McVeigh took this theory and expanded it into the back of a uhaul truck.” 

“The original concept of composting was to make Mama’s garden just grow.  Beautifully.  But it’s an aromatic thing, it’s ignitable, you can start a fire if you don’t do it right, if you don’t have it contained.”

What a character.  It’s clear that Cotton has strong opinions about Oklahoma City, compost, and chemistry, but how legitimate is his argument?  Timothy McVeigh used ammonium nitrate fertilizer, liquid nitromethane, tovex, and ANFO as explosives.  The products of compost?  Carbon dioxide, water, heat, and, of course, the humus itself.  Notice that ammonium nitrate, nitromethane, petrol, and other explosives aren’t listed.  The comment on compost being ignitable?  I can see how Cotton would believe that, given that the microbes heat the compost pile up to approximately 160 degrees.  Igniting the pile is a whole other story, though. 

The verdict, according to a chemist who shall remain unnamed, is that Cotton's theory is totally bogus and there's no connection between compost and the Oklahoma City bombing.  The answer to the blog title, then, is no.  Absolutely not.

Eureka!!!

Eureka to Ely

Fun fact: Eureka is a town in 14 different US states.  It is Greek for "I have found it!"

In Eureka (county population 1,900), Nevada, I found a waste collection program that was similar to Austin’s.  Eureka is too far from any major recycling facility to have a recycling program, and they don’t have a compost program either for the same reason.  They do, however, have a landfill where all of the county’s garbage ends up.  All of the people I spoke with in town threw away their organic waste.  I thought it was interesting how close to town the landfill was; it was only two miles from the main road.  I drove out to it, but I didn’t find anything super interesting.  Linda, a Best Western receptionist, told me that she thought there must be people composting in town since parts of it were agricultural, but she didn’t know anybody personally.  When I asked her what she did with food scraps, she replied, “I throw them away.”  So far the biggest compost trend I’m witnessing is that small towns don’t compost.  

Perhaps if I could track down some farmers who compost, I’d have a bit more material to work with.  I think I’ll start inquiring more about recycling programs in small towns, since so far the recycling programs (or lack there of) have been interesting.  I’m also curious to see where people have the option to recycle, and the motivations for implementing programs.  A lot of recycling’s feasibility has to do with location and cost, and I wonder what towns have taken the initiative to implement programs, who is in charge of the program, and the city residents’ reactions to recycling.

Summer Solstice

Austin to Eureka

We camped a few miles outside of Austin last night, at Bob Scott campground, which, to my surprise, was free!  It was a great place to stay, and I built the fire, which is one of my favorite parts of camping.  Keeping the four necessary components (thanks, Dad) of newspaper, kindling, logs, oxygen in mind, I set up the logs in lean-to fashion.  Within 15 minutes, we were roasting hot dogs.  

In the morning, I built another fire, over which we boiled water for oatmeal in a blue, porcelain-coated kettle that I bought on the side of the road from a self-proclaimed junk peddler from Pioche, NV.  Dressed in white overalls, a flannel shirt, and only one shoe, he was quite the character.  After breakfast, we headed back into town to get our highway 50 survival guides stamped.  If we get stamps from every town along the way, we get a certificate congratulating us on surviving the loneliest highway.  Nevada’s bureau of tourism is smart.  What a great way to spin a negative comment about highway 50 (“the loneliest road”, AAA representative, Life Magazine, July, 1986) and make it into a tourist attraction.  

In Austin, I asked a few people at the Toiyabe Cafe on the main street about Austin’s waste collection program.  Since it was a Sunday, there were few people to talk to.  All that I could gather was that there is no recycling or compost program, but there is a waste-collection program, and the dumpsters get emptied once a week.  Fascinating. 

On the way into Eureka, Dave and Austin were pelted by rain, hail, and lightning.  Already in town—though out of cell phone range—I had no idea what was happening down the hill.  Luckily, they were fine, and we checked into the Best Western for the night.  Beds, a hot tub, showers, and a continental breakfast sounded pretty appealing. 

Later in the evening, we climbed up a hill where we were greeted with an incredible view of the town and the surrounding mountains and valleys.  We got to the top just in time to watch the sun set on the longest day of the year.  Happy summer.  

The Loneliest Road

Fallon to Austin

The loneliest road in America.  115 miles of open road and desert between Fallon and Austin (population 340).  There is, however, one stop in the middle: a town called Middlegate, population 17.  There’s a restaurant there, where many people making the trek to or from Fallon stop for a burger.  I met up with Dave and Austin there for lunch.  After eating, they took off and I stayed to chat with the owner about their food waste.  Being in the middle of nowhere, I was curious to find out if they had a trash collection program.  The owner looked at me, laughed at my ignorance, and told me that they burn everything.  I guess it’s not worth it to haul the trash of so few people 60 miles.  I also asked about food waste.  It turns out that all of the restaurant’s food waste feeds the chickens.  “They’ll eat anything,” the owner explained.  “And give us eggs in return.”  

While it’s not compost in the traditional sense, having chickens does indeed recycle nutrients.  They’re not microbes, but they still get the job done.

The Oasis of Nevada

Fallon Continued.

We awoke at 7 AM to three women in the kitchen cooking breakfast for us.  I still can’t get over how incredibly welcoming and wonderful Fallon has been to us.  After eating our french toast, scrambled eggs, strawberries, and cherries, Sue came and picked us up for our radio interview.  DJ Ladigo Travis, of classic country music station KHWG 750 AM, interviewed the three of us about Face Aids and the Ride Against Aids.  It was so cool to be in a radio studio and see how it’s really done.  I felt like a celebrity.  Sue also presented us with three copies of Fallon’s newspaper, the Lahontan Valley News, with our picture on page 6.  The caption says we’re all biking, which is a bit misleading, but that just goes to show how important fact checking is.  Sue also took us to lunch, showed us around Fallon, and took us to city hall, where she introduced us to the mayor, who presented us with Fallon medals and pins.  Fallon is incredible.

At 3 PM, I met with the city engineer, Jim Souba, who also serves as the town’s public works director, superintendent of water, superintendent of waste water, superintendent of electrical power, airport manager, and landfill manager—being city engineer for a town of 9,258 people forces some jobs to be combined.  We spent a lot of time talking about the town’s lack of recycling (although residents can take recyclables to a transfer center about 5 miles outside of town) and composting program, as well as the landfill, which he owns and operates.  Fallon has put a lot of thought into implementing a recycling program in the town, but collecting and shipping all of the plastics, paper, cardboard, metals, and glass is expensive.  As it is, people complain about paying for their garbage pickup, so he doubts they would be willing to pay even more for recycling.  “This is the wild west.  Right, wrong, or different, that’s just the nature of rural Nevada,” he says.  “You don’t just tell people what to do.”  Despite these challenges, Souba is working with a professor from WNC, who held a class called Environmental Problems in Nevada this past year.  They examined several recycling programs that have failed—and been successful—in hopes of designing a lasting one for Fallon.  How best to design the recycling program is still being studied, but Souba wants to implement it in the near future.

Right outside of city hall

When I asked about the feasibility of a city-wide compost program, Souba says they hadn’t considered implementing one, but that it was an interesting idea.  He says he has room at his landfill for compost rows, and that if he bought a chipper, the program may be feasible.  Fallon residents could bring their organic waste for curbside pickup, and would get rich compost product in return.  Souba himself composts all of his organic waste, and guestimates that 5% of the Fallon residents compost as well.  His motivations for recycling and composting, however, are to divert waste from the landfill, which can fill up quickly and is expensive to maintain.

After our meeting, I went on a quick run around town.  Then, Sue picked us up and took us to wine tasting and dinner, which made for a fantastic Friday night.  We’re leaving Fallon tomorrow and embarking on our journey across the loneliest road in America, route 50.  It should be interesting, to say the least.

Into the Desert

Carson City to Fallon

We left Kings Beach this morning around 8:30.  After driving along the lake back to Carson City (and back over the border), I dropped off Dave, Austin, and Austin’s Uncle Bill at the parking lot that was the conclusion to yesterday’s ride.  I then went to city hall to chat about Carson City’s waste collection program.  I was redirected to the Public Operations Facility, where I spoke with a woman named Cindy, the secretary of operations.  She told me about the city’s curbside leaf and limb program.  However, the yard clippings are only collected curbside twice a year, in the fall and in the spring.  The clippings are then sent to a landfill about 5 miles outside of the city, where they are composted.  It’s interesting that the farther I get from the Bay Area, the less comprehensive the compost program seems to be.  A lot of that has to do with location I think, and the difficulty in transporting compostable materials.  It’s also interesting that Davis is the only place I’ve seen composting food so far.  Food scraps are much more nutrient-rich than yard clippings, so the compost—a natural fertilizer—would make much more productive soil if food waste was incorporated into it. 

After leaving Carson City, we traveled to Fallon, NV.  I drove ahead and parked the van in the town and then biked back outside so I could arrive with Dave and Austin.  When we got to the middle of the town, we were greeted by the newspaper photographer, Kim Lamb, and also the former rotary president, Sue, who arranged everything for us.  She’s awesome.  We’re staying at the Wolf Center, which is a community center attached to the Epworth United Methodist Church.  

For dinner, we ate at Daily Bread, which is a program that’s run through the Wolf Center.  Twice a week, members of different churches and the rotary chapter take turns cooking for the community, for people who can’t afford hot meals.  Daily Bread was started at the Epworth United Methodist Church by three ladies who recognized a need in the community.  Initially, they were serving 35-40 people and cooking in the tiny church kitchen.  Gradually, however, the program grew, and the tiny church could no longer accommodate the 60+ people who were coming to each meal.  The churches realized they had to expand, and so began planning for the Wolf Center.  Ron Evans, the church trustee, was instrumental in the planning and implementation of the building, and he also played a huge role in designing the facility.  The Fallon rotary club donated $10,000, and that, combined with other donations, enabled the town to build the center.

The building is brand new, having opened in January.  It can accommodate over 100 people for dinner, and also serves as Fallon’s emergency center.  The building has hot showers, an industrial kitchen, and a great floor for sleeping—at least when air mattresses are laid down.

About 10 women cooked dinner tonight.  The meal included tamale pie (ground beef, olives, onions, with a delicious layer of corn bread on top), rolls, salad, and peaches.  Community leaders purchase most of the food through donated money, but a local casino provides all of the milk for the center.  Since the food is of such high value to the center, I was interested in learning more about the leftovers, and what happens to the food scraps.  

While drying dishes (Dave and Austin were washing, I was drying), Ron told me a little bit about the leftover food.  They freeze everything they can to reuse in other dishes.  However, things like tamale pie can’t be frozen and made into something else, so the center gives away what it can.  The rest of the pie and food scraps are thrown away—Fallon doesn’t have a compost program.  One woman who was on dish-drying duty with me also added that she hates to see food go to waste, so she tries as hard as she can to give away the leftover food to people who can use it.  I noticed that most people cleaned their plates, so the food waste levels were quite low.  It was great to see a place where food so highly valued.  If only they had a compost pile out back...

Nevada!

New State: Nevada!

Cooks Station to Carson City

I didn’t get a chance to speak to anyone about food waste today, seeing as the towns between Cooks Station and Carson City are quite sparse.  I did, however, drive over Carson Pass, which, at 8574 feet, is the highest peak so far on this trip.  I also did a little high elevation biking, learned about the fuse box in the sprinter (one of them blew out when Dave plugged the coffee pot into the converter box), and went to Kings Beach on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe to stay with some of Austin’s extended family for the night.

The High Sierras

Carmichael to Cooks Station

Today we gained 5,000 feed in elevation and traveled 70 miles.  That’s a hard bike ride.  Lucky for me, I got to drive the sprinter up to Cooks Station, which is located on route 88 about 30 miles west of Kirkwood ski resort.  On the way, I stopped in Placerville—a gold rush town also known as hangtown—to have some fro-yo, chat with some people in the public works department of the city, and watch Dave and Austin get photographed for the oldest newspaper in California, the Mountain Democrat.

In city hall, I spoke with administrative secretary Salina Mitchell about Placerville’s composting program, which is more of a yard clippings pick-up program.  The city used to have an additional annual pickup of fall foliage, but it was cut in the past year due to budget constraints.  Now, they have a more regular pickup, but Salina says that many residents call in complaining about the small size of the waste containers.  Also, the clippings are sent to a compost facility in Sacramento, which is over 40 miles away.  It’s expensive to ship the green waste that far, but that’s the closest facility that processes organics.

After talking with Salina and meeting Megan Jerimica, the Mountain Democrat photographer, I headed up to Cooks Station.  While waiting at the top of the mountain for the boys to climb 5000 feet (closer to 6500, actually when factoring in elevation losses), I spoke with Josh, the “future son in law of the owner” of the restaurant at Cooks Station.  They serve breakfast and lunch, and are open from 7 AM to 7 PM.  I asked Josh if he could quantify the amount of food waste from uneaten servings, he responded saying that he had no way to quantify it.  “Some people eat everything on their plate and some people don’t, there’s no way to measure it,” his coworker added.  When I asked what happened to the food leftover on people’s plates, he replied matter-of-factly: “we throw it away.”  According to Josh, there’s no compost program in Cooks Station or the surrounding area due to its location.  On a mountain-top 65 miles from Sacramento, Cooks Station is not conveniently located near a large-scale landfill or compost facility.  As a result, the collection program in the area is quite limited.  Trucks do collect recyclables and transport them to Sacramento, but organic waste is sent to a landfill.  It’s hard to get a full picture painted of the Sierras, seeing as I only spoke with one (of three that I passed) restaurant, but from what I can tell, composting there is very limited, at least along route 88.

Tonight we're camping at Pipi campground about 8 miles from Cooks Station. It's Austin's first time camping (...what?) and it's beautiful here.

Up the American River

Fairfield to Carmichael

Before we left Fairfield, Barbara took us out to breakfast at Huckleberrys.  She has been so wonderful and we all really appreciate her generosity. 

After leaving Fairfield, I stopped in Davis for lunch and compost.  Unfortunately, there was nobody in the Project Compost office to answer my questions.  The first week of summer will do that to a student-run organization.  I did, however, poke around a bit, and got to see the office and some of the compost collection bins.  With it being summer, the dining halls weren't open, but the cafes in the student union were still composting. 

Got to Carmichael at around 4 PM.  Went on a run along the American River, then had a great dinner with the Lilly family, who have a son who graduated from Stanford yesterday. He was on the rowing team and is good friends with Dave and Austin.  His little sister, Laura, is going to be a sophomore at Stanford and is considering majoring in Earth Systems.  It’s a great major, I told her she should do it. 

For dinner, Mrs. Lilly cooked us a delicious meal of chicken, rice, and salad.  With three rowers, two of whom had just cycled 70 miles, there were few leftovers, and zero food waste.  Maybe if everyone in America burned 5000 calories a day, there would be less waste. Just a thought.

Day One!

Today was a pretty busy (but great!) day.  We met at the oval in the morning to say goodbye to our families and friends, as well as Sarah and Remy from Face Aids, who have been helping a lot with the ride.  After all of the pictures had been taken, the coffee had been drunk, and the bagels eaten, we took off.

Dave's brother Nate biked with us to San Francisco. We had a bit of a headwind, a flat tire, and a slight navigation issue, but we managed to make it to the city in time for Dave and Austin to catch the 12:40 ferry to Vallejo. I jumped in the van (a Dodge Sprinter), and met them at the Vallejo ferry terminal, where we had PB(AB, in my case..food allergies, you know)&J's.

We're staying in Fairfield with a wonderful woman named Barbara, who is the mother of a Stanford alum. She fed us a delicious dinner—pasta and chicken—, and is giving us beds to sleep in. What more could we ask for on day one?

Tomorrow we're passing through Davis, home of Project Compost. Project Compost is a student-run compost program that collects food waste from dining halls and other on-campus places of food. They take the organic matter and compost it in wind rows ON the Student Farm. It's great that they can compost right on campus and don't have to pay (monetarily or environmentally) for transportation.

First Post

According to the USDA, over 1/4 of the food produced in and for the United States is wasted every year.  What happens to the uneaten food, the weight of which approaches 100 billion pounds annually?  That’s the question I will address as I travel cross-country from Stanford, CA to Boston, MA.  I will interview city officials and restaurant managers, conduct surveys, and explore a (rather rural) cross-section of the United States.  By the time I get to Boston, I will (hopefully) have gained an understanding into the food waste problem in America.

I'll be traveling with two other Stanford students, Dave Evans and Austin Keeley, who are biking across the country to raise funds and awareness for AIDS in Africa (I'm driving the support van).  They're working with the organization Face Aids, a non-profit started by students. You can check out their blog here.

We're leaving tomorrow from the oval at Stanford. Departure time is set for 9 AM, come see us off!

Part one of the route is Stanford to San Francisco, then across the bay to Vallejo, then to Fairfield. I'm biking with the guys from Stanford to SF while Dave's dad drives. Once I get to SF, the van becomes my responsibility. I can't wait!