OK, welcome back to our yearly EVenture journey to  another amazing part of North America while moving our country and planet toward a better decarbonized future.

With our planned trip to Nova Scotia we opted to drive Redd-Y (our model Y Tesla) instead of our usual Amtrak trip to DC for the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) International Conference. Much prefer the train but this year flexible travel wins out. Quite a flurry of action and pressure getting out of town. With Mindy in charge of the organizing all the lobby meeting2 (now at 422+ confirmed of the 535 offices), finding Pickles care (thanks Twila, Jag , Zorro and Tigger), final planting and watering plan for our mini urban farm…it was a lot!!

We hit Chicago after rush hour which was quite painless  and arrived at Faith and David Van Gilder’s home outside of Fort Wayne IN at 12:30 am. RPCV  (Peace Corps Vol) Faith (Botswana) like Paul  (Malaysian Borneo) is an active advocate for Peace Corps funding and legislation and offered her home for our first night on the road. What a beautiful location in the woods…frog sounds, giant trees, no traffic…just what we all need. Breakfast with Faith, sorry to miss Dave….next time.

More travel on Friday through Indiana, Ohio (best rest stops) and into the gorgeous hills and mountains of Pennsylvania and Maryland with the ever present memories of Mindy and Ryan’s  2016 Low Carbon Crossing bike journey. The final leg along the GAP and C & O trails into DC during the election of Donald Trump.

Now in  Washington DC and the annual CCL International Conference.  Here’s the link to follow the proceedings  www.cclusa.org/summer. Over 1,000 volunteers from every state and many countries building non  partisan political will for climate solutions.  We will be having 3 days of learning and planning for our Tuesday lobby meetings with Congressional members and their staff on permitting reform essential to reach our climate goals and seek co-sponsors for the “Prove -It Act” which does the following:

  • Measures the carbon intensity of certain goods
  • Helps America negotiate effectively with trading partners
  • Builds on bipartisan momentum to act on global carbon pollution

Both of these asks are friendly to both sides of the political spectrum, CCL’s specialty.

Time to get ready for the National conference call and an afternoon of Climate Conversations of the DC Mall, the swag for the conference?….baseball caps with “Talk About Climate Change”  just what everybody needs.

and the blog is launched…thanks for reading.