Category Archives: Travel

Day 148- You got it this far

February 2, 2009 – 9:54 am

I went down to South Florida this past weekend to help move my grandmother into an assisted living center. It was nice to see relatives that I haven’t seen in a while. We all had a few laughs and got a lot done in a short amount of time. It was also fun to look at old pictures of me as a child and pictures of my parents when they were my age.

Let’s just say South Florida fashion in the 70s was the bees’ knees.

Luckily I do not fly very often. My flight down there was not at all fun. Passengers from another plane that was delayed/ broken had to take our plane since more of them had connecting flights. The airline had to find us another plane and that pushed us back an hour or so.

We had a gate assigned all the way at the end of concourse C so I managed to get a nice seat next to the window and watched the planes take off. Two minutes before we were to board, we were informed of a gate change—again. This time it was all the way on the complete opposite of the airport, but with the same time of departure. It was a mad dash for hundreds of frustrated fellow travelers.

Since I was at the airport a bit longer than expected, I picked up another newspaper, bottle of soda, a pack of gum and a bottle of water since we now have to pay for drinks on the plane and you can’t bring your own through security. I think that $2.50 is a bit expensive for a bottle of soda, but what can you do about it—talk about price gouging.

We all made it on the plane a bit frazzled, but safe. As we made our decent, the flight attendants came by with bags to collect our “trash”. They called it something like unwanted items that you were not going to take with you. For me it was two newspapers, two magazines and two drink bottles. I asked the flight attendant if they recycled and they said that they just threw it all away.

How hard would it be to have two bags, one for newspapers and plastic bottles and another for trash? I am sure that it has to do with the amount of storage space. I also noticed that most airports have recycle bins in the terminal. I carried all this stuff this far, an extra few hundred feet is not going to kill me.

The next time you fly and are tempted to just pass it to the aisle, don’t. Take your stuff with you, leave your seat area clean, and take the little extra effort to bring your things to the recycle bin in the terminal.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free, Cost | Comments (0)

Day 145- It’s a Gas, Man

January 23, 2009 – 7:44 pm

Now that my new job brings me to another state (well, we live near the NC/SC state line–my job is about 25 miles away) I am more interested in my daily commute in terms of gas mileage. An internet search for gas tips will turn up a myriad of tips and tricks that seem almost too good to be true.

Usually they are. Additives, tornadoes and tips like the following really interest me because–well, I’m curious.

1. Only fill up your auto in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. All service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground, the more dense the gasoline. As the ground warms, gasoline expands, and so buying in the afternoon or in the evening… your gallon is not exactly a gallon.

2. When you’re filling up, use the slowest speed; do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. The trigger has 3 stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode, vapors created by pumping are minimized. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping quickly, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor and gets sucked back into the underground storage tank.

3. Most importantly, fill up when your tank is half full. The reason is that the more gas you have in your tank, the less air you have occupying the empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine.

4. Last, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up — Most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as more pours into the tanks, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Ok, now we have all had these tips (or similar ones) sent to us or overheard at the water cooler. Me being the skeptic, I went ahead and copied and pasted most of the sentences in a search and have seen literally thousands of these same tips on a wide variety of websites. So that in itself validates that they are true, right?

Wrong. When I see things like this, I usually go to my ace in the hole……Snopes. It turns out that these tips may in fact be true, but to a certain point. Their case is that do the minuscule savings actually outweigh the time and trouble of actually trying to remember to do all of them?

I tend to agree. Not one of these tips can generate much savings by themselves, but who really can fill up early in the morning, less than a half of a tank, without the delivery being conducted, and at a station that you know has good thermal tanks and vapor return?

Snopes describes this topic the best, “The bottom line is that there are much easier and better ways of improving the efficiency of your car (and thus of saving you money at the pump) than the tips outlined above. Particularly important is proper maintenance, including engine tune-ups, wheel alignments, tire pressure checks, and filter replacement.

Mileage can also be improved by removing from the car little-used equipment that adds weight or increases drag (e.g., sporting gear, tools, roof racks/carriers). Driving habits are especially important: jackrabbit stops and starts eat up extra fuel, as does driving at higher speeds. All in all, the simple habit of engaging in planning and combining multiple trips into one excursion will likely save the average motorist far more money (and time) than all four of the above tips combined.”

The URL for the article can be found here

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $ Amount Varies, Automobile, Cost | Comments (1)

Day 135- How to Really Green Your Thanksgiving Part Two

November 26, 2008 – 8:52 am

The turkey is ready, the Detroit Lions are on their way to another resounding loss, most of your guests have arrived and amazingly there have been no family arguments yet. So far so good.

As the house heats up with the oven and stove, crack a window or two to let in some fresh air rather than kicking down the air conditioner a few degrees. Not only will you save electricity, the smells of your famous pumpkin pie can fill the air outside tempting passers by and the family playing a hard fought game of touch football.

If you are one of those families that deep fry the turkey (we don’t do it that way, but it is very tasty), consider placing a free ad on your local free pages or similar site to give your oil away for free. This time of year people who collect oil for their alternative fuel cars love this oil. It is only used once and is relatively clean as opposed to the restaurant stuff they usually pick up.

Decorating your dinner table can be fun for the entire family. Give the kids something to do by providing materials to create their own art project. Depending on where you live, you can still have some pretty leaves to use. Stay away from the store bought decorations unless you plan on using them again.

Locally grown and organic food from the local farmers market is always preferable to chain store bought food. You don’t have to make everything locally grown or organic. Just one or two things on your menu can get the ball rolling on you possibly incorporating it on your regular menu. If you have friends driving in from out of town, ask them to bring something grown locally from their home town to share. This may not be advisable if they are flying though.

Now that we are cursing that we ate too much, loosen your belt, take another nap and come back tomorrow for dessert. I make an awesome pumpkin pie.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free, Food, Holidays, Home, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse | Comments (0)

Day 48- Travel Day 1

June 8, 2008 – 6:03 am

Our luggage is also taking a vacation, but not with us. I suppose that formal night is out of the question. I don’t think that a Mickey Mouse T-shirt and Bermuda shorts will cut it. On the bright side, we each get 150 dollars as a stipend to buy some clothes until our bags make it to us on Monday.

I thought that I would take some time to review some of the things that I am seeing while on my trip as it relates to trying to save the environment. I already have some bad and good experiences.

Let’s start with the bad. Like I said had in yesterday’s post, we had one heck of a day. See below for the trip details. Needless to say we were a bit peeved. Due to the weather, our plane had to be grounded a bit off course for a couple of hours. I know that we weren’t the only plane diverted and idling on random runways across the Eastern seaboard.

I also seriously doubt that the airline recycles. They come up and down the aisle collecting newspapers, canned and bottled drinks and seem to just throw everything out together. I doubt that the airline will then collect their garbage and separate out recyclables. A big thumbs down goes to the airline for bad fuel management and a recycling policy that is a bit vague.

But as I sit here watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico, I do have some good things to say so far about the cruise line. I noticed that they have many different trash bins for their employees to use separating their garbage on the front lines. Doing so at this stage makes it easier to actually recycle.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free, Commentary | Comments (0)

Day 47- Don’t be an Idle American

June 7, 2008 – 5:56 am

I see it all the time at schools, banks, restaurants, shopping centers and rest areas. People just sit and wait with their cars running needlessly. There are certain times where I can see it to be a necessary evil, but come on people, get out and go in once and a while.

Police departments and city workers in our region have began to notice a substantial decrease in fuel usage as they experiment with reducing their idle time. Some departments have asked their officers to get out of their cars and walk at least an hour a day on their beat instead of cruising.

I think that I just used up all of my carbon footprint points today. Our flight left Pittsburgh early this morning to Washington, DC, but due to bad weather conditions we were re-routed to Richmond, VA where we just sat on some random tarmac for almost two hours with the engine running.

The toilets did not flush after a while and we were asked to only use the one in the front. They said that if we had to wait any longer, then we would have to find a gate and get us off of the plane for health issues. They didn’t want to cause another huge public relations debacle.
We eventually made it to DC and on to Tampa, but on a much later flight. I just hope that our bags make it.
If you can help it, try to reduce your idle time as much as possible by playing with your route or drive times. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three rights make a left.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free, Automobile | Comments (0)

Day 44- Leave the Sink Behind

June 4, 2008 – 11:50 am

Kitchen Sink I am learning how to become a better traveler–especially with children. I can’t believe all the stuff that we used to carry with us on our holiday excursions. Diapers, strollers, port-a-cribs, golf clubs, toys and enough food to feed an army.

My children are like locusts. They are skinny as a rail, but man can they go through some food. It’s like a juggling act feeding them. This one likes the Dora plate and the princess sippy cup, that one doesn’t like sauce on her noodles, someone just punched the other one, there is only one blue crayon and there is too much skin or crust on something. It’s really more of a dance.

If I can manage three little girls under five all day, then dealing with adults should be a breeze. I just have to remember that I am actually talking to another adult. It is a bit embarrassing telling your co-worker that you need to go potty, you have a boo-boo or that your tummy is empty and you need a snack.

They will understand if they have kids.

We took one of those trips yesterday, but it really was not as bad as it used to be. We got it down to two suitcases, a Disney Little Mermaid backpack, a cooler and a medium sized storage bin for toys and books. We have learned to buy and leave stuff at our destination or just do without.

Let me preface leaving stuff behind by saying that most of the time we just plain forget to bring it home. I can never get lost. All I have to do is follow the trail of our stuff. As long as we do a head count and come up with each other, three kids, my oldest girls blanket and the dog we are golden.

This doesn’t work for every travel situation, but you can adapt it over the years like we did. Hotels will probably just throw out your stuff after a while. We rent the same vacation home every year up in Ocean City, Maryland. We have left quite a number of sand buckets and beach chairs over the years for others to enjoy. Really, what am I going to do with my beach chair the other 51 weeks out of the year?

If you lighten your load, you can increase fuel efficiency, reduce the packing of the car arguments, not injure your skycap, and you won’t need to bring a Sherpa along to haul your stuff around.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free, Automobile, Reduce, Reuse | Comments (0)