Killing off the guzzlers

The 51-year-old Michigan Truck Plant, located in Wayne, Mich., will start building the Focus in November when it kicks equipment now used to build the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUV to it's Kentucky plant. A third shift will be created to boost production of the Ford Focus.

Ford's Cuautitlan Assembly Plant, located in Mexico, is to begin building a Fiesta subcompact car in 2010. The plant currently produces the F-Series pickup trucks. The Louisville Assembly Plant, located in Kentucky, also will begin producing a new small car in 2011. It is now home to the Ford Explorer.
wsj.com

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( Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News )

The freshman transition program at Susquehannock High School aims to alleviate some of the fear related to high school. Visit students on their first day.

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The idea is that eating some foods, like meat, uses more fossil fuel than driving a car, so a bicyclist consuming food uses more fossil fuel than driving a car. bicycleuniverse.info

I don't know where a sedentary person who gorges on meat and drives a full-sized SUV fits into all of this...

• Meat requires much more fossil fuel to produce than vegetables and grains; about 145 times more for beef than for potatoes.


• If the entire world ate the way the U.S. does, the planet's entire petroleum reserves would be exhausted in 13 years


• The typical American could save almost as much gas by going vegetarian as by not driving.

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I was riding my bike through Harpers Ferry, West Virginia today with a friend and stopped at the site of an old textile plant.

Everyone is familiar with 19th century water wheels powering small grain mills, but what was interesting about this pre-1850 installation was that they used four efficient turbines (see picture below) to drive an entire factory through mechanical transfer.

Water was gradually constricted by narrowing water tunnels, condensing the volume of water creating more power. Think of your finger squeezing over an open garden hose.

It was said that the factory could make fabric cheaper than mills in Baltimore.

Free power harnessed by American innovation 150 years ago ran an entire factory.

No worries about a 30% increase in the cost of natural gas. No hostile foreign governments to feed with our dollars. No commodity speculators to profit by escalation of price brought on by an energy monopoly strangling the economy. No competing for oil with India and China.

Free domestic power by harnessing the flow of nature.

Tunnels that brought water to the mill.

Posted in All posts from the start Innovation Motorcycles Water Power

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( Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News )

A random visit to Morgan E. Cousler Park with two Hula-Hoops. Park visitors try their hula and talk about their memories.

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Shipping grapes from Chili or strawberries from California takes alot of energy.

Because industrial farming draws on the economy of scale, our food is increasingly grown in concentration in specific areas of the country. This is so common that it has shaped much of our country's geographic identities--the western Plains are wheat country, the Midwest is the Corn Belt--but it has reached extremes. For instance, approximately ninety percent of all the fresh vegetables consumed in the United States are grown in California's San Joaquin Valley.xix

This national-scale system is possible only because it uses large quantities of fossil fuels to transport food products to the consumer. It is now common practice to ship food not just around the country, but around the world. (In 2005, more than $120 billion of agricultural products crossed U.S. borders as imports and exports.)xx As a result, the average American foodstuff travels an estimated 1,500 miles before being consumed. sustainabletable.org

York is surrounded by local produce growers and this time of year produce is plentiful.

Jump to the extended entry for a list of local suppliers of produce.

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I was mowing with my electric lawn mower last night past my neighbor's full-sized Chevy pickup that now sits there for weeks at a time getting dirt circles under the tires. Chuck actually put stabilizer in the vehicle that gets 11mpg because it rarely gets used.

The cheap plug-in electric mower I purchased at the beginning of the summer is great.

Some handle hardware kept falling apart, but that was fixed with some lock washers for $2. It's quiet, doesn't stink when it runs, requires no maintenance and I haven't bought a drop of gasoline for a mower since.

The scooter that replaced the truck for commuting two months ago now has over 1000 miles on it.

Chuck's co-workers asked him if we was going to keep using it now that gasoline has dropped more than 50 cents a gallon. His reply, "No, now it just costs me $3.50 cents to fill the tank instead of $4." He often marvels at how much more money he has in his pocket now that it isn't getting burned up on gasoline to push around a huge metal box.

So as the summer comes to a close and gas prices decline because of a reduction in demand, the question is will people go back to consuming as it becomes more affordable.

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I would like to take a moment to apologize to any readers who have been trying to comment to this blog over the past three months - hey, it even kicks me out when I try to comment on my own blog.

As it goes with some machines with big gears turning many other big gears, i can't just go in and fix it myself. I do, however, welcome and love comments. It is interaction that is the essence of blogging and I have grown tired of listening to myself talk.

Send comments to paulk@ydr.com until it gets fixed. I can reply through posting.

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The steeple of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, on South George Street in York is getting a new lead coated copper roof.

There was a time when copper roofs were the longest lasting roof next to slate, however acid rain can reduce the life of a copper roof in some parts of the country to under a decade. The lead coating is resistant to acid rain.

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• Moving freight is five times more efficient using a train rather than a tractor trailer.
• Four miles of new railroad line can be built for the price of one mile of road.
• Electrically powered trains can use domestic fuel sources. A century ago, York had an extensive electric trolley/inter-urban system. York's street railway is a dream of tomorrow. (greenmesh 8/06)

Innovative minds looking for new revenue streams killed the railroads.

Consider all the jobs, wealth and competition that was created by our car centered, personal transport society. Cars, dealerships, parts, the insurance industry. Thousands of truck drivers, shipping companies and owner operators traversing the roads using diesel and services. All of this a major feed for the oil industry.

And it all worked as long as oil was cheap.

The once cheap oil that brought us a uniquely American car centered transportation culture is now strangling our economy and future success competing in a world market.

Pennsylvania is fortunate to have many short-line rail corridors still intact like the one along the Heritage Rail Trail and the Stewartstown Railroad waiting for innovative minds and clean technology to move large volumes of freight and people more efficiently.

Posted in All posts from the start Diesel Electric MPG Oil Machine/politics Public Transportation video

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Interesting thing about riding alone on a motorcycle trip is that you are never really alone. There is a bond formed by two-wheeled travelers. Perhaps it is the shared risk or the shared responsibility for each other. It's symbolized by "the wave", a synchronized passing of open palms in opposing lanes.

I decided to take the long way down to my destination on the coastal border of North and South Carolina. The Outer Banks of North Carolina connects back to the mainland with a system of ferries.

Motorcycles are strange creatures on small ferries. Ferries bounce and roll and riders are usually advised to stay with their bike.

With the first ferry, I shot past a line of 50 cars because there is always room for a bike.

With the second ferry, I was first in line with a Harley rider named Mike. We were tucked between the lines of cars in the center of the bow.

Two hours standing guard over land loving machines on choppy water. Two hours of shared conversation spanning a lifetime

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My fascination with two-wheeled journeys began freshman year in high school.

Three buddies told their parents that they were staying over each other's houses; we hit the road and bicycled through the night. The exhaustion, the moments of fear, the laughing made it memorable. I don't even remember if there was a destination. We were just going far.

It was a world shared by no one. All those people trapped in their cars going somewhere or sleeping the night away were getting nowhere. We were kings ruling our adventure kingdom.

Motorcycle trips are usually framed by weather reports and last week was scheduled to fall apart right in the middle. It really doesn't matter if the weather changes because that often creates an place to stop and you might just meet someone you wouldn't have met otherwise.

There is an unwritten law about not leaving on a trip in the rain. That's just miserable. This week turned out perfect with windows of clear riding and a rain stop just as planned in the middle.

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( Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News)

Brent Bathory, of Red Lion, died while playing in the water in an area not designated for swimming at Gifford Pinchot State Park. A visit to the scene.

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In the 1980's and 90's, I used to slam the vacation road in a VW diesel Golf.

My concept of vacation planning was to head west and make a right at North Dakota... or wander southwest until... I needed three days to get home.

Once I was having such a good time in Pitkin, Colorado after taking on a new identity for two weeks, that I left there on a Friday evening and had to be back at work Sunday morning in York.

For the past six years, my vacation has been motivated by a motorcycle. Sure there is something wonderful about driving a few hundred miles and filling up with $10 of fuel, but with simple frugality comes a richness of experience.

Smells are richer, those you come in contact seem kinder because of your vulnerability. Fellow riders strike up a conversation without pause.

Once you loose two wheels and let the air pour though your clothes, it's hard to hide in a car during a vacation again.

Cars are for work. Cars are filled with fast food wrappers and stress.

My bike is freedom.

Next: 1259 miles of adventure in five days.

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