All week the headquarters was getting ready for the annual TPWE (Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo), held just around the corner from McKinney Falls – actually on the same land grant. I invited my daughter, Mary, to come but unfortunately she was unable to make it. I went both days and enjoyed it immensely. They had lots of educational and hands on displays – all under canvas – some of it even had cooling. The area that I enjoyed the most was the Green Area that spoke to energy conservation and alternative power. I feel that my little Casita spaceship and Chevrolet command module should earn me a page in this historical time.
My support vehicles are the van that provides power and office space and my Schwinn Sidewinder, that supplements my gasoline usage and provides exercise. The van has 8 AGM batteries that are kept full by a 300 watt solar array to supply my needed electricity. This is enough power to conservatively provide for lights, fans, pump, TV, microwave, computers, air-conditioning and heat. Notice that I said “conservatively”. I consume about 70 – 120 ampere hours of electricity each day – and it comes from the sun – for free! Of course that doesn’t include the modest initial investment. My longest continuous period off of the grid and without a generator has been 93 days. It could have been longer except that sometimes my lifestyle is influenced by those with whom I travel. I can not leave the trailer for more than a couple of days without being hooked to the truck’s umbilical cord. And, sometimes, it is just nice to sinfully splurge and have unlimited power hooked up to a plug in a park or at a rally.As part of the greening of America, I would urge all who read this to seriously consider how much energy they use, and how much they really need. Even the Vatican is going solar! You might want to visit Clinton’s Global Initiative and the site MyCommittment.com. It is satisfying to me that I consider myself a Liberal Conservative, as well as a Materialistic Minimalist.
Also at the Expo I finally got to meet Mrs. Captain Pickard, who was teaching folks that visited the geocaching tent.
Julie (Mrs. C.P.) is the premier geocacher in the area (Texas?) with 13,129 caches found and 81 placed. I only have a measly 1259 found and 8 active caches!Mary would have enjoyed meeting Julie – and she also missed out on the great meal that I had following the Expo at the Catfish Parlor on Hwy 71 east of I35. I even celebrated the week with a Michelob float. Life is good – and enjoyable.
