Two Green Girls on the Road

Day 2, South Central Western-ish Texas

Use the handy map here to follow Mary Logan's path and view her favorite snapshots.

Yesterday morning we woke up and got out of Gun Barrel City lickety-split, coffee from McDonald's in hand (if you're ever in Gun Barrel, know that this particular McDonald's did not carry Newman's Own Organic coffee, but the folks there were kind enough to put it in our reusable mugs, even though they didn't act as though they'd been asked that before). We had an 11 a.m. appointment down the road at Willie's Place.

Willie's Place is the joint effort of Carl Cornelius, the longtime owner of a well-known truck stop on Interstate 35 between Dallas and Waco, and Willie Nelson, the famous country singer and a big proponent of biofuels, who has his own trademarked biodiesel called BioWillie. We met Kristin Herring, of Earth Biofuels, Nelson's supplier, and Robert Strouse, the CFO of the place, for a tour of the newest, most fashionable central Texas trucker destination. Carl showed up to meet us a little later, acting gruff and--we think--hiding a smile (we got his autograph). Courtesy of Robert and the gift shop, we put on our new red bandannas with faux braids a la Willie for some photos with Carl by his new place (see here).

They are all confident that biodiesel is going to take off, although Kristin and Robert agreed there are some infrastructure hurdles to get past. Carl did not seemed worried, noting the stir Willie Nelson has created over the fuel: "He pricked the interest in a bunch of rednecks," he said with his gravelly voice. "And when you get a bunch of rednecks wanting something--they want it." And Carl is not the kind of man you doubt.

Then we hightailed it to Austin to meet with Ester Matthews, the director of the Climate Protection Program for the city. The city owns its energy utility, and they've really got an innovative team over there, rethinking ways to use energy--saving it, replacing it with alternative sources, and most interestingly, diverting the use of it to replace things that are dirtier: like gasoline. Austin can really be credited with sparking national interest in plug-in hybrids to mollify their transportation problems, and not coincidentally scored second place in our 2006 Green Cities listing.

We didn't have long for fun in Austin, but we think we did the two best things: Barton Springs pool and Amy's ice cream. Barton Springs is a natural spring that was long ago made into a large recreational swimming pool and is still a part of the water system that supplies water to all of the residents of Austin. A lot of attention is paid to maintaining the ecosystem, and it felt good to swim in a non-chlorinated, salamander-full, slippery-rock-bottomed pool. To cap off our time in Austin, we visited Amy's Ice Cream (dear readers, I am embarrassed that now you know how often I really eat ice cream) for a cone. We got to acting so zany with the employees that they just gave us our cones for free. When asked if they used locally sourced ingredients, they shrugged and said, "Well, they hire local employees." I guess that's good enough for us.

We made it to San Antonio--our destination for the night--just in time to be treated to a Mexican dinner on the River Walk by my mother's dear friends. If we keep getting treated, we might just make money on this trip.

Money spent: Less than $10
Money spent on gasoline: $64.82
Gas prices: Lingering at $3.93ish
Highlight: Carl, obviously
Lowlight: Waking up in an RV park
Trash tally: Neatly organized waste: compost in a Ziploc, recycling and trash divided in bags
Mood: Pooped

© The Green Guide, 2008

| Email this post

Discuss this blog

Green Gab is for registered users only. If you are not a registered user and would like to join the discussion, register today. Already registered? Log in here:
Username:		Password:
If you have forgotten your password, click here.