Traveling by bicycle is the ultimate in green driving, so I decided to travel by two wheels instead of four for my vacation this year. I turned sixty in May. My original plan was to ride a bicycle across the US, but the economy put the kibosh on that, so I took one month off instead of three and rode across Southern Colorado and Utah. My friend, Nevin, and I flew into Pueblo Colorado and took a taxi to the bicycle shop we had previously shipped our bicycles and Burley trailers to. The bikes were assembled and ready to go, so we loaded up our camping gear and headed out. We were following Adventure Cycling's "Western Express" (adventurecycling.org) route traveling east to west. A more appropriate name for the mapped route might have been "Western Hills and Passes", as we ascended six nine thousand foot plus passes in Colorado alone, with one of them, Monarch Pass, topping eleven thousand feet! We had tried to get in shape by hauling our trailers to San Simeon and back over Highway 46, a 2000' foot climb from Highway 1, and riding to work and back from Atascadero a couple of days a week, but the reality of thin air and relentless, three, four, and five thousand foot climbs, one after another, sort of took the edge off our initial excitement.
Despite the grueling climbs, high altitude cycling has its advantages. In the transparent Colorado and Utah mountain air we could see vistas of peaks and chasms, meadows and plains with startling clarity. We suffered through rain and hail storms, accompanied by thunder and lightning, and were there to see the clouds part, revealing fourteen thousand foot peaks covered in fresh snow. The smell and taste of the air at such altitude was incredibly invigorating, especially after a drenching downpour followed by brilliant sun. One of the delights of travel at the moderate pace of a bicycle is the opportunity to really look at something. Like sailing on the ocean, objects and geological features appear on the horizon, slowly grow in size until you are upon them, and just as slowly shrink from view, giving the cyclist ample time to view and consider, unless, of course he happens to be going down the far side of an 11,000 foot pass, in which case hanging on for dear life takes precedence over leisurely viewing!
Another benefit of travel by bike is the camaraderie of mutual suffering. At one point we were standing by the side of the road in a torrential downpour, half way up a pass that seemed to go on forever, bathed in sweat from the effort of riding uphill in rain gear. I turned to Nevin with my hands apart as if to say "what the heck are we doing here?" He replied "It's an adventure, what did you expect!" I have driven some of the roads we rode and I can safely tell you that a scenic over look is a lot more dramatic and appreciated if you have to ride there on a bicycle and a lot more fun if you have a fellow sufferer to share it with.
We encountered a number of fellow touring cyclists, many of them from Europe, as well a young man from Korea who was on a solo tour from San Francisco to Virginia. Where are you coming from, how hot or cold was it, and how steep and long are the climbs were the first questions we asked of one another. Great camp sites and culinary delights were a close second. We learned of a bakery in Torrey, Utah that served fresh baked goods with coffee strong enough to melt a spoon, a restaurant/hotel in Boulder, Utah that was on an obscure list of 100 places you had to eat at before you died, and the Cozy Comfort RV Park in Dolores, Colorado, where the hostess got tipsy in the evening and enjoyed visiting her "guests" and the host collected and rode vintage Trials Motorcycles.
A ride with these elements guarantees that you will feel the full range of emotions available, from complete despair as you round a corner you thought was the crest and see that you still have another thousand feet to climb to the sublime joy you feel at a vista that makes it hard to breath, it is so beautiful. Bicycle touring has its draw backs, but the rewards are commensurate with the effort put forth. The harder it is, the greater the reward!

Save the environment and reduce your energy cost

Many people are considering a Solar Electric System installation to save the environment and money.  You are usually presented with big ticket models that are often out of the reach of an average person’s pocket book and/or energy usage requirements.  Instead of the large model, you may want to take a different approach and consider the impact and cost of installing a One Kilowatt Photovoltaic System. With State rebates and Federal tax credits available, it may surprise you what can be done at a reasonable cost to help our environment and reduce your monthly energy bill.
The baseline system which qualifies for the California State Rebate Program is 1 Kilowatt (1000 watts) of installed photovoltaic power.  The system would consist of 5 to 8 solar electric modules (depending on module size) an inverter(s) to convert the DC photovoltaic power to household AC power, and a mounting system (for your roof or on the ground).  You will need less than 150 square feet in a sunny south facing location (full sun from 9 am to 3pm) and access to an open 240vac circuit breaker.
While a 1 kilowatt system size may be considered small, every kilowatt provided by the Sun means one less kilowatt that needs to be provided by a coal plant (the dirtiest of all power production plants).  In San Luis Obispo County a 1 kilowatt system will on average produce 150 kilowatt hours of electricity (more in the summer – less in the winter) per month.  Every kilowatt of photovoltaic produced electricity will offset 1.366 pounds of carbon dioxide, this means a 1kW system will offset one ton of greenhouse gas each and every year – for the next 40 to 60 years as the system continues to generate power.
Forecasting the effect of a 1 kW system on your personal energy usage requires understanding your utility company’s “tariff” (rate) structure.  Most residential bills are based on a progressive tier structure – as your electricity use goes up the cost of each kilowatt hour purchased goes up.  These upper tiers are substantially more expensive (up to 4 times) than the baseline rate, and are where the bulk of the rate increases occur.  To find your solar savings, using your electric utility bill, simply reduce your monthly kilowatt hours purchased by 150 kW.  To forecast the dollar savings multiply your highest tier usage cost by 150 (kWh) and reduce your utility cost by this amount. For many people just getting out of the “Penalty Zone” of the higher tier energy cost can result in substantial savings.  If you are a large user of electricity, then incrementally increase the system size, in turn you will incrementally reduce your utility usage – and cost.
To calculate the state incentives available to you for installing a system, use the current California Solar Incentive of $1.55 per installed watt.  For a 1 kilowatt system this would be $1,550.00 (1000 watts * $1.55) which is sent to you in the form of a check at the completion of the system installation.  Please be mindful that this is calculated on the EPPB – Expected Performance-Based Buy-Down – which uses the AC output rating of the system to predict energy production and savings.  The AC rating takes into account the efficiency of the module (PTC rating) and inverter to determine the performance of the system.  For New Solar Homes and Commercial systems there are separate rebate amounts and programs – visit http://www.gosolarcalifornia.org/ for more information.
Then – calculate your Federal Tax Credit based on the balance of the cost of your Solar Electric System.  Using an installed cost of ~ $14,000, deduct the state rebate and then multiply the balance by 30% ($14,000.00-$1,550.00 = $12,450.00 * 30%) = $3,750.00 Federal Tax Credit to be deducted off the bottom line of your income taxes.  Your final installed cost after rebates and credits equals $8,700.00.  (Remember – as system size goes up, installation cost will go down). 
You don’t have to be a big spender to have a positive impact on the environment, reduce your usage of fossil fuels, increase the value of your home (20 times your annual energy savings), not be impacted by the ever rising cost of energy (5% per year average rate increase) and be the trend setter for your neighborhood.
Go solar today – our world has waited long enough.
John Ewan, founder of Pacific Energy Company in San Luis Obispo, has
provided photovoltaic equipment and installation for both Grid-tie and
Off-grid applications since 1980.