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Meet your tour guides:
In order to walk the talk, Billy and Meighan are off to Detroit and their first stop on the tour in a new 2003 Toyota Prius hybrid. Says Billy: “We're going to see if we can make it all the way to Detroit on one tank of gas. WOOHOO! Wish us luck!” |
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Slideshow! Check out some pictures from the tour. |
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Tales from the road! 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Wrap-Up |
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Sierra Club / Lollapalooza 2003 Main |
Tales from the Road: Day 2
Straight up from Chali 2na
Today we're in Michigan, the home of the American auto industry! Today would be a ‘day of Ford,’ starting off with a press conference at Fordson High School in Dearborn, MI. The entire town of Dearborn is in many ways a tribute to the Fords’ century of cars, with the library, community theatre, and local parks all named after the auto giant.
In Dearborn, we kicked off our first leg of Lollapalooza with a press conference on the front lawn of Dearborn High. In front of the Prius, we had students from Michigan speak about the relationship that the town has with Ford, and call on Ford to continue to be a good local citizen by offering hybrid cars. The Dearborn Press Herald and the local Fox affiliate covered the event, and both reporters went for a quick spin around the block in our hybird car.
At the show, we received a great reaction from both fans and artists for our responsible automakers campaign. MC Supernatural, an underground hip-hop legend, rapped about hybrid cars during his freestyle performance, and Chali 2na (right, yo) and his fellow rappers from Jurassic 5 stopped to sign some water bottles for us and pose with our hybrid car speech bubbles! During the day, we were able to talk with a number of young people who work for Ford and other automakers, and get them to take the pledge to make their next car a hybrid car. If Ford wants to keep the business of these young people, they will need to make fuel efficiency a priority in the future!
Speaking of fuel efficiency, ours has dropped slightly over the last day, thanks to a huge construction project between Detroit and Pittsburgh, and another traffic jam yesterday morning on the way to the show. Still, we're averaging well over 46 mpg for the trip!
All Sierra Club Lollapalooza 2003 photos courtesy Crystal Durham/Sierra Student Coalition. Sierra Club collection; all rights reserved.