First, in a story in MSN Money: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/FindDealsOnline/big-discounts-on-little-pleasures.aspx

Second, in a story on FoxNews: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2010/04/16/rv-travel-beginners/

The Fox story included a link to our Travel web site, www.HackneysTravel.com, which was nice of them to include. I haven’t checked the traffic levels on the site yet to see if they spiked or not.

What that translates into is an office that inevitably evolves into stacks of material covering every horizontal surface.

To my wife’s and others amazement, I can locate the correct strata of any desired document, object or material to within a few millimeters in very short time spans, from minutes to seconds. However, in her, ummm, organized perspective, this occasional rapid retrieval speed does in no way make up for her forced long-term exposure to my infinite layer cake of stuff. Consequently, she limits her exposure to my office to brief forays; her bravery accompanied by pursed lips and squinted eyes, all in an effort to avoid catching a bad case of disorganizitis.

However, pack-rattedness does come with some upsides. Among them, the discovery of hidden treasures whenever the strata are moved from one location to another. During this process, like an archeological dig, the layers yield their secrets and surprises.

On this occasion, a dig through six years of strata produced the following fragments from former expeditions.

2003, Botswana, border customs receipt

This brought back a lot of memories of Africa and Botswana, starting with our high speed get-off in a mud hole and ending with a mind-altering visit to the Okavango Delta.

All through South Africa, our local guides kept reminding us that “real Africa starts at the border.”

They were right.

The border crossing featured a huge bound journal entry book, covered in dust, crammed so thick with pages that it looked like the journal must date back to the late 1800s. Each vehicle’s identifying numbers were painstakingly entered into this book.

It was here that I learned a valuable lesson from Helge Pedersen: write your VIN, motor number and license plate number on the back, inside cover of your passport. It’s a huge time saver at 3rd world borders.

Once across the border, indeed, real Africa began.

2003, Namibia, Twyfelfontein Country Lodge receipts

This was the place where we went out on a long, hot three hour hike, only to arrive at a destination completely different than we thought we were headed to. When we asked our guide about the petroglyphs we expected to see, he replied, “Oh, that is the other hike. There are no petroglyphs on this hike.” Our companion, Bud Robinson, a champion cross country runner, proceeded to run back to the hotel and arrange for a driver to take us to the petroglyphs. Once there, we paid the lady overseeing the site to allow us to stay after closing, then gave her a ride home. It turned out to be a great experience, and like many great experiences underway, it all started with things getting off-plan.

2004, Turkey, Speeding Ticket

I collected this while cruising down a back road in Turkey. The police are obligated to put out a warning sign of impending radar speed traps ahead, but I blithely blew past the sign with nary a notice or care. A few kilometers later I was waved over by a very excited man in a spiffy uniform.

While he chattered away in Turkish, I smiled and nodded. Finally giving up in frustration, he turned to Steph and proceeded to communicate with her, the more linguistically talented of the two of us. In a combination of his few words of English, writing vigorously on a notepad in very large numbers, and emphatic, red-tinged-with-purple facial expressions, he said I had been going too fast.

The way Steph now relates the tale, it went something like “60 kilometers per hour, OK. 120 kilometers per hour, NOT OK!”

Meanwhile, while she was getting dressed down, I was investigating the combination radar / photo printer unit in the police car, which had obligingly driven down to our location from its hiding place. I was having a great time smiling, drawing in the dirt, making guy noises, all the usual, when I noticed Steph, still trapped with the Red Faced Officer, was not having such a good time.

Just about then we figured out that we needed to pay the ticket on the spot, in cash. We don’t know if it was a glorified contribution to the Policeman’s New Year’s Party Fund or not, but at least we got this receipt.

2004, Jordan, Itinerary

This is what happens when you overland—things change. If you always put flexibility at the top of your list, then you have a good time. Otherwise, if you cling stubbornly to rigid schedules, you will be frustrated and ultimately, unhappy.

In this case, we needed to completely flip our anticipated travel plans for a trip down to Petra, Jordan, and back. As it turned out, we later modified this schedule again when we discovered just how unhappy a place Jordan was in those days.

2004, Bhutan, Border Visa Receipt

Bhutan is a little known, small Buddhist country located high in the Himalayas. When we visited, they were only allowing about 2,000 tourists a year, and of those, only a handful by motorcycle.

Often ranked as the most pure, untouched remaining culture in the world, the people, customs, and traditions of Bhutan are extraordinary.

Wherever we went, from remote mountain villages to the small cities, we consistently met remarkable people and had equally remarkable experiences.

2004, Japan, BMW business card

Japan was a super trip, one we remember fondly, and the country remains one of the very few places we would return to prior to seeing more countries we have yet to experience.

Along the way in Japan we were consistently treated with something close to awe, being foreigners on our own motorcycle.

We had fantastic experiences with the people of Japan, especially those in the small rural villages, some of whom had never before seen an American in the flesh.

2004, China, Forbidden City Starbucks receipt

This receipt tells a lot about China in 2004. While the rural areas looked frozen in the post-revolution communal era, the developed cities along the coast were overrun with capitalism’s global brands.

This receipt is from a Starbucks located within the Forbidden City, the former palace of the Chinese Emperors. In the days of the emperor, a commoner would be killed merely for stepping through the gates of the Forbidden City. Today, you can sip a triple-shot, skinny vanilla latte while you wander the stones of the vast courtyards and palaces.

 
Currency and Coins

I also found some currency and coins. We diligently collected stamps, coins and currency of all denominations in each country we visited, which we gave to our nephew for his collections. These are some of the extras.

Full rez version here: http://www.hackneys.com/travel/photos/2003-southafrica-currency.jpg

Full rez version here: http://www.hackneys.com/travel/photos/2003-namibia-currency.jpg

Full rez version here: http://www.hackneys.com/travel/photos/2004-syria-currency.jpg

Full rez version here: http://www.hackneys.com/travel/photos/2004-chinese-currency.jpg

Full rez version here: http://www.hackneys.com/travel/photos/coins.jpg
All photos and images Copyright (c), 2003-2009, Douglas Hackney, all rights reserved.

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We were not amused.

Click here for the rest of the story: http://www.hackneys.com/travel/ecuador/fivestarhappycampers.pdf

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Exterior Storage Compartments & Garage

Here’s all the stuff that was carried in the exterior compartments and the garage:

Not shown: Contents of the camper basement storage compartment / wine cellar that I forgot to unload and include in this photo, including the vise, wine, spare parts, first aid kit, etc.

This is what the exterior stuff looked like once binned and loaded onto the pickup.

Camper Interior Storage

Here’s what was stored in the interior of the camper:

This is the majority of Steph’s craft/scrapbooking/stamping supplies and tools.

Following is the rest of the stuff stored in the camper interior.  

Not shown: >400 pounds / 182 kilos of stuff removed prior to shipping.

All of the stuff in these photos, exterior and interior storage, weighed almost exactly 3,000 pounds / 1,361 kilos.

And keep in mind that we’ve been removing things from the truck since a few weeks after we began our journey in June of 2007, including more than 800 pounds / 363 kilos of stuff we removed in January 2009 while in Ecuador that we hadn’t touched in 18 months of full time living in the rig.

Stuff. We have seen the enemy and the enemy is us.

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The interview is here: http://www.truckcampermagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=841&Itemid=34

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Four months, in fact.

It’s been almost exactly four months since we handed over the keys and paperwork to ship our Fuso from Guayaquil, Ecuador to Long Beach, California.

I know what you’re thinking, “What could possibly take four months to ship an expedition vehicle from one port to another port on the same ocean, with no canals in between?”

It gets even more baffling when you learn we were standing just a few kilometers from the docks in Guayaquil at the time.

And it gets even more incomprehensible when you factor in we transferred our truck to an American working for a U.S. freight forwarder company.

But that was then. And this is now.

And we’re no longer in Guayaquil, Ecuador, we’re in the U.S., where we’ve been most of this time while our Fuso has been, ummm, elsewhere.

It’s been a challenging and interesting four months. Along the way we’ve lived in abject terror, unbridled fear, isolation, frustration, anger, amusement, curiosity, and, most of all, within a framework of “the need to know,” which has severely limited our ability to communicate with family, friends, peers and fellow overlanders.

The only people we could communicate with, even to a limited extent, were within a very restricted circle of trust.

If things go well, I may be able to post an update on our situation within a few days and expand that circle of trust a bit.

Keep your fingers crossed…

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I’m not caught up in the wave of greenery, and I most often view it as a positive trend that can finally move America towards my ultimate and primary goal: energy independence. Nonetheless, if you’re going to talk energy today, then you must use the popular lexicon and denominate yourself and your transactions in the coin of the realm, which in this case is definately CO2.

We didn’t set out on this travel with any kind of environmental mission, carbon dioxide demonstration project or anything of the sort. But, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that one of our big goals was to simplify our life and learn about the realities of living off the grid, in anticipation of our next chapter.

But, in terms of lifestyle, we are not making any concessions or compromises. We continue to live a very electron-rich lifestyle, and our accommodations are like living in a Hyatt in the woods. No complaints. In that regard, we did not set out to wear hair shirts and shout from the mountaintops about the debauched lifestyles of those who live a more conventional lifestyle. Our goal was to see what the off-the-grid life was like while living a pretty comfortable life surrounded by any systems we thought we needed.

So, off we go on our journey to determine the size of the Hackney Fuso expedition vehicle lifestyle carbon dioxide footprint.

Our expedition vehicle did require resources and energy to create, fabricate and construct. The camper shell is fiberglass with an injected foam interior layer. Wood, wood and fiber laminates and fabrics are used in the camper interior. Surprisingly, there is minimal use of plastic in the camper. Most of the rest of the vehicle construction is steel and aluminum.

I honestly don’t know how those materials and energy inputs compare with the average American home in terms of resources, energy, etc. required to construct it.

The expedition vehicle, its systems and the auxiliary vehicles (motorcycles) use four types of energy:

• electricity (almost always produced independently by the vehicle itself, we are very rarely plugged in)
• diesel
• propane / LPG
• gasoline (motorcycles only)

We use solar to generate electricity. We do not have a wind turbine, but do produce 12VDC electricity to recharge the batteries and run the electrical systems via parasitic drag on the chassis motor while moving. We also have a very efficient diesel generator for those times when we need it. We can draw on external sources of electricity (120V60hz or 220V50-60hz), but we are very rarely plugged into external power. We can do all of our primary energy needs via electricity (cooking, heating, purifying & sterilizing water, etc.).

Our primary external source of energy is diesel. We use it to power the vehicle and to run the diesel generator. The generator uses 1/10th of a gallon / 38/100 liters per hour and we’ve run it about 300 hours in 1.5 years. The vehicle itself gets ~10 m.p.g. / 4.24 kilometers per liter / 23.63 liters per 100 kilometers. We’ve used about 2,338 gallons / 8,851 liters of diesel fuel since we left 4 June 2007.

I think we’ve probably used about 250 gallons of propane in that time. Our primary use for propane is cooking, although we have used the propane furnace extensively while in cold regions of Patagonia and the Andes.

The dirt bikes are very fuel efficient, so I will allow 50 gallons of gas for them. That’s probably generous.

If I convert all the energy forms of energy we use to pounds of CO2, it looks like this:

Annualizing our utilization derives these results:

Sources:

www.generatorjoe.net/html/energy.html 
bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/energy_conv.html
www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/coefficients.html
www.epa.gov/greenpower/pubs/calcmeth.htm#propane

The EPA states that the average American household outputs 41,500 lbs / 18,824 kilos of CO2 per year.

The EPA has a calculator to help understand what your household CO2 emissions are here: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html

I used the calculator on our previous lifestyle living in Carlsbad, CA and it produced an estimate of 53,396 lbs / 24,220 kilos of CO2 a year. That was just our trio of four wheeled vehicles and our home. The calculator doesn’t include a way to calculate for motorcycles, so they are not included. But, even so, it’s probably a close enough estimate to give us an idea of the contrast between then and now.

The calculator returned the following estimates for the major categories for our life in Carlsbad:

• Natural Gas – 5,118 lbs / 2,321 kilos CO2 annually
• Electricity – 16,442 lbs / 7,458 kilos CO2 annually
• Waste – 1,149 lbs / 521 kilos CO2 annually
• 4-wheeled vehicles – 39,163 lbs / 17,764 kilos CO2 annually

Note that the EPA calculator uses your zip code to calculate heating CO2. Since we lived in probably the most moderate climate in the U.S.A., others who live in colder regions using similar amounts of energy would have a higher CO2 load. Using our old zip code for Hudson, WI, the CO2 load was 70,442 lbs / 31,952 kilos of CO2 a year.

Another useful EPA site that can help you get an idea of your annual CO2 emissions is here: [url]http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/pubs/calcmeth.htm#propane[/url]

To give you some ideas, from the EPA site:

• electricity: 1 Kw/Hour of electricity = 7.12 x 10-4 metric tons CO2
• home electricity (avg): 7.55 metric tons CO2/home/year
• vehicles (gas): 5.46 metric tons CO2E /vehicle/year
• gallon of gasoline: 8.81*10-3 metric tons CO2/gallon
• barrel of oil: 0.43 metric tons CO2/barrel
• BBQ propane cylinder: 0.024 metric tons CO2/canister

Here’s how we stack up in our current lifestyle vs. our former lifestyles and the EPA average:

We’re obviously not going to win any medals compared to the EPA average U.S. home.

On the other hand,  we’re doing better than either of our last two homes, we’re seeing the planet  and we’re gaining valuable experience about the realities of a life lived off the grid, in which you are responsible for managing, if not creating, all of your own energy.

During the year of this sample, we’ve covered about 20,000 miles. If your vehicles average 20 MPG and you’ve driven 40,000 total miles in them, your vehicle CO2 about matches ours. If your vehicles average about 10 MPG and you’ve driven about 20,000 miles, again, your CO2 about matches ours.  

As you can see, the vast majority of our CO2 footprint comes from moving our truck around the planet. When we are parked, our annual CO2 footprint is a lot smaller.

 Viewed in this perspective, we’re doing pretty good.

At the same time, we are not at all interested in making buttons or t-shirts with our carbon footprint emblazoned on them and strutting smugly about among the great unwashed masses. This is the first time I’ve ever calculated it.

I’m not a CO2 or carbon footprint zealot. Frankly, I find those zealots as devoid of rational thought and critical thinking as any other zealot. I do, however, think it is a serious issue when the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere has increased from 280 parts per million (ppm) to380 ppm.That’s worth some attention, if for no other reason than for the acidification of the oceans it drives.

But for me, if a focus on reduced CO2 takes us towards the goal of energy independence, then it’s a good thing.

I’ll play ball with anyone who moves us towards that goal. Even CO2 zealots.

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Click here for the rest of the story: http://www.hackneys.com/travel/ecuador/stuff-o-holic.pdf

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