On the Road

Cristina, sporting her Zimride gear, chills by the Prius

We left NYC today, after picking up Zimrider Jesse who was on his way to Ithaca and needed a lift, braved mad congestion and an oddly high number of police cars patrolling Bryant Park. Jesse’s stories about being part of a major layoff by a multinational retailer kicked off a conversation about the state of our economy, prompting us to think about the fossil fuel based economy and Indy-Mac and Freddie Mac and Fannie May and…. ah the humanity! As we all pndered these woeful issues, John Zimmer fearlessly navigated the caravan (the trailing crew trevor and Ben in the Honda Accord lapping our efficient wake) into Ithaca, NY our evening’s destination.

In downtown Ithaca, we picked up another Zimrider, Mike Brown, whose energy and zest for life is downright contagious. Mike has been a 9th grade history teacher in Rochester, NY for the past 3 years and one can only imagine the impact he has had on his students, considering just the impact he has had on our documentary Zimriding crew, already.

With Mike, Jesse, and the fearless five in tow (Cristina, John, Ben, Trevor, and Margaret) we all arrived at John’s sister Jen’s lovely house where she and her husband Arthur had made a delicious meal and set up tons of beds for the tired crew.

Off tomorrow to a rapid growth forest, a subway system time forgot, a city wide day of carpool as declared by the Buffalo City Council, and more good times.

 

Zimride is also being featured on the Sierra Club website, thanks to a fantastic story by our friend Tom Valtin: http://www.sierraclub.org/grassroots/stories/00036.asp