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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 4
Down time in Akron and Penn. Mohawk!
Fight global warming! In the photo at left, Lollapalooza founder and Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, on right, and the Sierra Student Coalition's Billy Grayson, with sweet new Mohawk.
Today's tales from the road: Three tour stops in three days, and we're beat! Decided to take a leisurely morning in Akron, Ohio at our motel, and headed out on the road to face the day around 10 am. The car was still running splendidly as we passed 1,000 miles for the trip, and we were just starting our third tank of gas (we've been averaging a little over 45 mpg for the trip so far).
We were scheduled to hold a small press event in Pittsburgh, but it was scrapped at the last minute, so we were able to have a free afternoon! For the most part, this meant checking our e-mails, uploading pictures, and working to pull together logistics for the rest of our trip.
Monday evening, we stopped on our way east to have dinner with my grandma in Windber, PA. Windber is a coal-mining town in central Pennsylvania, surrounded by beautiful rolling green hills and capped by a state forest on its northernmost mountain. But down in the valley, the remnants of a coal mine and steel mill, still replete with industrial pollution, speak to a history of environmental degradation in the valley. As steel prices rose and the coal vein dried up, the corporations moved to greener pastures, leaving the town polluted and rotting in their wake. Windber now has an unemployment rate of over 30 percent, and has been left with a legacy of environmental degradation, courtesy of companies like Bethlehem Steel.
My grandmother was one of the first female truck drivers in Pennsylvania, and she worked for more than 20 years hauling coal for mine 40. My grandfather died of black lung, which he contracted after working for almost four decades in the mines (he started working in the mines before he could drive). It was fascinating to take a trip around town with grandma, see the old mine, the famous Johnstown incline plane (built after the horrific flood in 1889) and the cemetery that is the final resting place for hundreds of the flood victims. Grandma cooked us all a big pot of chicken stroganoff, gave us plenty of hugs, and sent us on our way to Philly.
The evening degenerated after we got to the hotel that night, and I agreed to let Crystal give me a signature Lollapalooza Mohawk to sport for the rest of the tour (above, yo). I can't wait until our next DC Office staff meeting to show it off!
All Sierra Club Lollapalooza 2003 photos courtesy Crystal Durham/Sierra Student Coalition. Sierra Club collection; all rights reserved.