Profile Response: Phil Bratty of Simply Bulk, Longmont, CO

Posted on August 19, 2015 by paulefallon

 

HWWLT Logo on yellowLongmont, Colorado’s shady main street prompted me to dawdle on a hot summer Saturday afternoon. As I glimpsed the passing storefronts, Simply Bulk caught my eye. I stopped to check out this simple yet elegant store that sells a wide range of food and health products in bulk.

According to the USDA, 8.5% of the money we spend on food is for packaging. Add the recycling or waste disposal costs on top of that, and our penchant to put things in ever more custom containers has both an economic and environmental cost.

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Phil Bratty opened Simply Bulk 5-½ years ago, after working in the natural foods business with Wild Oats. The idea is simple, but the ramifications for how we live, and how we waste, are great.

IMG_2863 IMG_2866 IMG_2865

How will we live tomorrow?

IMG_2867“From my perspective, we are what we eat. When it comes to health and wellness that is where we start. Modern medicine treats symptoms rather than starting with the fundamental person.”

 

 

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Trip Log – Day 104 – Sandpoint, ID to Coeur d’Alene, ID

Posted on August 18, 2015 by paulefallon

Sandpoint to Coeur d'AleneAugust 17, 2015 – Sun, 80 degrees

Miles Today: 55

Miles to Date: 5,782

States to Date: 21

I meandered through Sandpoint on my way out of town, and visited the beach I missed yesterday. The distant mountains were silhouetted in the morning light.

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The first ten miles toward Coeur ‘d’Alene is a good ride along a bike path along the lake. The next thirty miles were less fun. US 95 turns away from the water, has a variable shoulder, and heavy traffic. Ten miles outside of Coeur d’Alene I was able to shift to a local road, and resume a pleasant ride.

IMG_3548I did pass an awesome logging facility with this huge overhead crane that loaded logs onto rail cars. Giant sprinklers spewed water fifty feet high to keep the logs moist in this area rampant with fires.

I arrived at Coeur d’Alene just after noon. After last Friday’s blowout, I had called ahead and made an appointment at a local bike shop to have my ride overhauled. I settled into a corner of the shop while the mechanic performed magic on my trusty steed. Every bike shop amazes me in how they respond to long distance cyclists. I was happy to be on the road within two hours. They were happy to have a customer so easy to upsell. I replaced my punctured tire, rear bearings, front derailleur, chain, and brake pads. I can’t skimp on Surly.

 imgresI spent the rest of the afternoon cruising beautiful Coeur d’Alene and writing in their gorgeous library at a table overlooking the lake. Then I pedaled up French Gulch to visit my nephew Joey, whom I had not seen in ten years, and his wife Amanda, whom I’d never met. We had a great evening catching up in their cool and remote-feeling cabin only three miles from downtown.

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Profile Response: Brian Janonis, Fort Collins, CO

Posted on August 18, 2015 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellowBrian Janonis is the not the kind of guy who sits around and chats. When I asked if I could talk with him about tomorrow he said, “Sure. The City Planning Department is having a citizen walk through the proposed development district north of downtown. Let’s do that.” So, after riding 70 miles I walked three more with Brian and fifteen other keen citizens of Fort Collins on a sweltering afternoon through streets that required a long view of tomorrow to envision as vibrant urban spaces. But Brian and our companions did not consider reimagining their city a matter of ‘if’, simply a question of ‘when’.

imagesBrian is a native of New York who moved to Colorado and never looked back. He’s an engineer who worked for the City of Fort Collins, eventually becoming Director of Utilities. He loves technology, the west, and Fort Collins. He retired a few years ago, but is so involved with various civic projects he scoffed at the idea that he would relocate, or even travel at length beyond Fort Collins.

images-1Brian is justifiably proud of Fort Collins’ many initiatives to become a more sustainable place. The city has its own utility company, and started a decentralized generation program that allows individuals to feed their unused solar power back into the grid, a common sticking point in making domestic solar feasible. The city also buys up property in the ever-expanding flood plain to create green/recreational areas; Fort Collins did not require federal assistance after last year’s devastating floods. The city has invested in alternative fuel vehicles, and is building a refueling station. This afternoon, we walked an underutilized industrial area north of downtown that borders the flood plain. The city envisions this as the logical extension of Fort Collins’ vital commercial core.

IMG_2848Brian attributes Fort Collins’ success in creating innovative programs to transparency. “Fort Collins has just as many ‘small government’ proponents as any Western town. But when you show people what we want to do, and why, and then do it well, they support improvements. The citizens trust us and pass our bond issues.” Today’s walk is one example of that transparency. Another is City Works 101, a six-week program that explains different aspects of city government to individuals who participate. “There’s a reason why Fort Collins is on the Smithsonian’s List of Innovative Cities.”

How will we live tomorrow?

imgres“On another planet. We’ve got a long way to go before we can live in a sustainable way. We’re not going to last forever on this earth. Our goal has to be to prolong life on this planet as long as we can.”

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Trip Log – Day 103 – Noxon, MT to Sandpoint, ID

Posted on August 17, 2015 by paulefallon

Noxon to SandpointAugust 16, 2015 – Sun and haze, 75 degrees

Miles Today: 53

Miles to Date: 5,727

States to Date: 21 

I was happy to discover a coffee spot a few miles beyond Noxon this morning. I chucked to myself when a guy half my age with twice my waist told me cycling was unhealthy in this smoky air and that trucks would run me off the road. I checked delivering a reciprocal comment about what his XXL microwaved burger from Quick Stop was doing to his health. My New England penchant to keep unsolicited advice to myself is a good trait in a country where people dole out opinions as fact and expect thanks in return.

IMG_3534For the next fifteen miles smoke laden air infiltrated my lungs, but the hour of exercise it took to get me out of Montana will probably not kill me. Idaho brought brighter skies and cleaner air, though the summer haze lingered.

 

 

 IMG_3540Lake Pend Oreille is a spectacular place; New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee on a grander scale. It’s the last remnant of the ancient Lake Missoula, part of the Western Interior Sea that included the Bonneville Sea in Utah and the ancient ocean through Eastern Colorado. I pedaled along the eastern shore to arrive at Sandpoint by noon thanks to crossing into Pacific Daylight Time.

I enjoyed the afternoon in Sandpoint and a fun dinner with my warmshowers – a family with four lively children.

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Featured Response: Laura Petrosillo, Expatriate, San Francisco, CA

Posted on August 17, 2015 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellowI met Laura Petrosillo, a French citizen living and working in San Francisco, in the Visitors Center in Yellowstone Park. We were both sitting out an afternoon thunderstorm. Laura and her boyfriend Olivier invited me to dinner that evening. The next day I headed north while these European lovers of all things American headed to Cody, Wyoming, home of Wild Bill Hitchcock.

unnamed-1This week, Laura sent me a response to my question. The first of what may be many to focus on an issue very close to the surface of the West: water.

 

 

 

How will we live tomorrow?

unnamed“One thing I think we we’ll be fighting for in the next couple years is potable water. In appearance, it looks like we will always have access to drinking water but I am worried that one day it will become a luxury and we could end up in a water conflict. In California, with the impressive drought, we are starting to be more conscious about this resource, stickers for saving water started to appear in public restrooms for example. Some people are evolving and changing their habits. Sadly other people just don’t care. Worldwide, we will have to change our habits. Hopefully this evolution will be smooth and governments and organizations will help in good ways.”

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Trip Log – Day 102 – Plains, MT to Noxon, MT

Posted on August 16, 2015 by paulefallon

Plains to NoxonAugust 15, 2015 – Cloudy, 75 degrees

Miles Today: 64

Miles to Date: 5,674

States to Date: 21

An uncharacteristic morning for the West; thick clouds spanned the horizon. Hard to tell which were passing moisture and which were entrapped smoke from the fires all around us. The air smelled of cinders and tasted of soot.
FullSizeRender-9Coming off the hillside where my warmshowers hosts live I came upon several signs: I Control My Own. An Internet search didn’t reveal what these signs were protecting, but in Montana, it could be most any form of private property.

 

 

 

FullSizeRender-8In time, streaks of sun began to filter across the mountains. I could only imagine how glorious the Clark Fork Valley would be in full sunlight.

 

 

 

 

FullSizeRender-4I appreciate that Montana was the first state to install historical markers along highways (1938). They are uniformly interesting and informative.

 

 

FullSizeRender-3However, I am less convinced that every little shack with a coffee pot is brewing Espresso.

 

FullSizeRender-2I stopped for lunch at the Trout Creek Huckleberry Festival. I find a festival most every weekend, and they are all pretty much the same: lines of craft booths; an alley of food vendors; kiddie rides and a performance stage. The variation (in this case a plethora of products made from huckleberry and art created by chain saws or made from chain saw parts) is insignificant compared to the similarities. Festivals are no place to talk about tomorrow. They are full of people in groups, enjoying each other and their neighbors. Hardly conducive to the conversations my question triggers. Still, I devoured excellent fajitas and a giant bowl of huckleberry ice cream before moving on.

IMG_3532Just outside of town I met a woman cleaning up from her yard sale and we had a terrific interchange. Nothing restores my spirits more than a positive interaction. Besides, the sun came out and the mountains shimmered all the way to Noxon. The Noxon Motel is as basic as can be, yet perfectly clean and neat. I had several hours of solitude until my recent travel companion, Peter, showed up around nine to crash in my room. He’s a nice young man from New Jersey I met three days ago. We’re on the same route. We don’t cycle together – every cyclist has his own rhythm. Still, we’ve landed in the same place the last two nights. Whether that will continue, only the road can tell.

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Responses: How will we live tomorrow?

Posted on August 16, 2015 by paulefallon

How will we live tomorrow?

“We have four children in their 20’s. They help us see another path, one about balancing work with living.”

Julie Robitaille, Middle School Principal, Missoula, MT

How will we live tomorrow?

“That’s a deep question, a philosophical question. We can say how we’d like to live tomorrow, but having the motivation and determination to make it happen, that’s another thing.”

Ian, Pizza Professional, Pizza Village Inn, Helena, MT

How will we live tomorrow?

“There is shift in the world about who will make money. It’s not about your college training; it’s your creative capacity. In this program, you teach in groups. Parents and method coaches encourage students and counter the long-term challenges to playing. I teach families. They interact and support each other. They build confidence and character. Simply Music has made such an impact on me. It stimulates my mind and keeps my brain active. I want to bring that to others.”

Julie Fallon, Simply Music teacher, Bountiful, UT

How will we live tomorrow?

“The same as today. With an open mind.”

Josh Alberti, Tanzanian cyclist from Fairbanks, AL to Tierra del Fuego

How will we live tomorrow?

“I believe people are hard-wired to want to give back. Veterans are a can-do group. When they come home to ‘can’t-do’ it tears them apart.”

Mark Annis, Social Worker, HUD-VASH Program, Helena, MT

How will we live tomorrow?

“We are going to be a dichotic society. If the next generation looses their connectivity they will be screwed. We don’t learn form success. We learn from our failures. We can’t go back 50 years. It is a time we revel in but we can’t go back and we wouldn’t be happy there anymore anyway.”

JP Molloit, Cyclist at the top of MacDonald Pass, Helena, MT

How will we live tomorrow?

“I was raised to be an overachiever. I have taken your question – five words – and found five words that fit: Trying; Learning; Sharing; Caring; Living.”

Dawn Bridges, warmshowers host extraordinaire, Helena, MT

How will we live tomorrow?

“I choose not to worry about tomorrow. Money goes into retirement and that’s the best you can do. We try to have fun at least once a week. Once a day would be better, but there’s work.”

Charlene Spangler, vacationer broken down along Highway 141, Helmville, MT

How will we live tomorrow?

“The same I do today.”

Sherry, waitress at The Stray Bullet, Ovando, MT

“I strayed here from Great Falls and Lincoln and just stayed.”

How will we live tomorrow?

“I think we’re going to hold on to electricity. We’ve only had it for 150 years, but we act like it’s been around forever. Will we sacrifice everything to keep the lights on?.”

Vince Caristo, Transportation Planner, Bloomington, IN

How will we live tomorrow?

“We were not made to sit all day to make money. We were made to move.”

Alyssa Wojciechowski, Stand-up worker, Portland, OR

How will we live tomorrow?

“That’s the war I want to fight. I want to work in small-scale agriculture.”

Peter Haarkleu, cross-country cyclist, Morristown, NJ

How will we live tomorrow?

“If we can survive Obama for the next 13 or 14 months, we’ll be doing pretty good. That (expletive) is the worst thing that ever happened to our country.”

Dave, Owner of The Ice Cream Station, Dixon, MT

How will we live tomorrow?

“The same as today.”

Marlene Richardson, yard sale hostess, Noxon, MT

 

 

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Trip Log – Day 101 – Missoula, MT to Plains, MT

Posted on August 15, 2015 by paulefallon

Missoula to PlainsAugust 13, 2015 – Haze 100 degrees

Miles Today: 73

Miles to Date: 5,610

States to Date: 21


Screen Shot 2015-08-15 at 8.54.36 PMFire Danger: Extreme! I had heard there is often August snow in the mountainous Montana, so I wasn’t expecting the hottest day of my trip here. Then again, ‘unseasonal’ is the only consistent adjective we can apply to weather anywhere these days. Yesterday’s heat hung over early morning, the mercury was already passed 90 when I stopped for a break at 10:30, and the air was brittle and dry all afternoon.

Surly didn’t like the day very much either. First I had a blowout on the decline into Arlee which proved challenging to fix. The air was so hot I never got the tire pressure right, both bike and rider were lethargic. Then I got a wire caught in the same tire. Thankfully, I disengaged it before a second flat.

FullSizeRender-2I have been thinking about the John Steinbeck line that people here love to quote: “I’m in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection. But with Montana it is love. And it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it.” I am not in love with Montana, but I am confounded by it. The four cities I’ve visited have each been more interesting and vibrant than I expected. The landscape is breathtaking. But beyond the cities, I have met too many jaundiced people.

Today I got a toxic diatribe about our President in response to my question, from an ice cream vendor no less. As I pedaled away, unsatisfied by a stingy scoop of huckleberry, I realized that nature’s majesty could not counteract the meanness of that man. Why, I wondered, does such an expansive place create such narrow people? The kind of question worth spinnFullSizeRender-1ing for a good twenty miles. Perhaps narrow people seek out the place? Ultimately I realized that Montana is expansive, but it’s not generous. Life is difficult here, for animals and for people. Resources are scattered far and so populations are spread thin. It is a large pie, but not an expanding one, and not a very nourishing one. People truly believe that they must protect what they have – water, land, livestock – by themselves and with extreme measures if necessary. I can appreciate Montana’s beauty, but I just can’t love a place with so many guns and so little goodwill.

FullSizeRenderMy downcast perspective lingered through the long hot afternoon. Five miles from Plains my warmshowers hosts pulled up in their truck. They’d been in Missoula for the day, were looking for me, and insisted on sagging me to their house. The sky was mixed with scattered thunderstorms and fire smoke. They’d already picked up Peter, another cyclist I met during the day. They thought he was me, and invited him for the night. So we were four for a tasty dinner that lifted my spirits but sparked my fatigue. I was in bed before nine, before dark.

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Profile Response: Vicky Mortenson, La Porte, CO

Posted on August 15, 2015 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellowI met Vicky when she called “Hey’ at me from her horse on the side of a steep hill covered with her goats. I had just turned off US 287 onto Owl Canyon Road, a gravel shortcut to a farm north of Fort Collins. “I have the easiest job in the world.” She described how little effort it takes to guide a small herd of goats around their land for about five hours each day. “Only on nice days. They won’t go out in the rain. Then, I feed them hay.”

Vicky and her husband have lived in this area since the 1970’s. She told me where to find the ruts of stagecoaches from the Overland Trail and where Butch Cassidy used to hide his horses. Every few moments a car rumbled along the dusty road and we remained quiet until the sound abated. “They’ll pave this within a year, I bet. There are more and more people here now.”

IMG_2829We commiserated on the joys of aging. “I love being old. I wear whatever I want. I celebrated my 66th birthday last year camping at 12,000 feet. I don’t understand the people in Wal-Mart riding around on scooters. You’ve got to stay active.”

While we chatted all the goats shimmied over the hill. But before Vicky trotted off and I pedaled on she offered perhaps the most honest assessment of how we will live tomorrow I have heard.

How will we live tomorrow?

“That is a good question. I’m a liberal from Roxford, ID – my husband and I do not fit in this landscape. I wish there was a way to get to less fossil fuel and use more wind. But I like my air conditioning. I’ve lived the old way, but I don’t want to go back to that.”

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Trip Log – Day 100 – Missoula, MT

Posted on August 14, 2015 by paulefallon

Ovando to MissoulaAugust 13, 2015 – Sun 90 degrees

Miles Today: 12

Miles to Date: 5,546

States to Date: 21

 FullSizeRender-1Day 100 of my adventure – in the Bicycle Mecca of America! Every touring cyclists knows about Missoula – headquarters of Adventure Cycling Association, freecycles bicycle cooperative and a small city’s worth of bike-centric people, traffic-calming paths, and two-wheeled activities. Surly and I spent the day tootling around and talking to a bunch of people doing great stuff in every quadrant of the social-economic and political scale.

FullSizeRender-4First stop: PEAS Farm, a ten acre vegetable farm, one of 21 local food production efforts run by Garden City Harvest. PEAS combines a unique mix of paid staff, college interns and at-risk high school students to provide fresh food produce to CSA subscribers and for low-income mobile markets. They invited me to join them for a delicious lunch.

IMG_3485Next up: Freescycles community cycle shop. Bob Giordino showed me around their repair area, and ‘parts department’. I used the stop to do a quick once over on Surly, who is in great shape.

FullSizeRender-3Afternoon ice cream break; Adventure Cycle Association, where I ran into other cyclists I have met along the road. I also had meetings with their membership director, one of the founders, and the current CEO to talk about tomorrow.

 

 

FullSizeRenderLast stop: Dress for Success Missoula. One chapter in an international organization that assists women in transition to prepare for job interviews by teaching job getting and interview skills as well as giving them appropriate outfits for interviews and the workplace. Terri Griffith and her staff, all of who are volunteers or in work reentry programs, represent the contributions that women emerging from abuse or prison have to offer.

I rode over to my warmshowers host for the night. Bruce Anderson is perhaps the most prolific warmshowers host in the world; several hundred cyclists a year. His sunroom and living room are giant crash pads and he has an introductory binder to describe protocol. Small crowd tonight – just two of us. Every warmshowers experience is different.

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