Monday, November 9, 2009

I can't believe its been so long.

Before you get the wrong idea. The Green Traveller is still on its way. After Haida Gwaii, it was back to reality for ol' Rob, and let me tell you, I've been BUSY. Of course I'm now back to work, and that's been fine and dandy. Since my return, I've been to Vancouver for an award benefit (Jack Webster award finalist, not a winner though), and Toronto (for union stuff). On top of that, I've been working full time, and raising my beautiful daughter. So excuses aside, what have I been up to on the Green Traveller front?

Well, last month, I submitted an article for the Spirit of the North magazine. At first i thought my first submission would be a sum up of the BIG adventure. Nope... It's the winter publication, so it just didn't fit. In lieu of that article, I was asked to write something 'wintery.' Being that I'm not green travelling expert, I had to really rack my brain. After weeks of going back and forth, I decided to make up a grab bag list of random fund winter things to do. It was a fun piece, no real hardline focus, or green preaching. Just a mishmash of things to check out or do. When I say mish-mash, I really mean mishmash. It includes an ice fishing destination, ski resort, ice carving festival, winter parade, and a festival of trees. Something for everybody. I'm sure there are a billion things I've missed, but what can you do. So have a looksy, it should be out soon.

I have fallen hard on my bad habits again. Eating out, less active, drinking tonnes of coffee. I did try one new thing, that I think I'm going to keep. Jude (my wife) and I decided to do a non-tech day. Basically we spent a WHOLE day without internet, TV, cell phones, movies, handheld game systems or ipods. I had grown tired of constantly feeling wired in, so we decided to spend a whole Sunday disconnected. It was a rousing success... I made it til 11:30 pm. I think we're going to try doing it once a month. Its not only a great way to enjoy the little things in life... it also cuts down on energy consumption.

My coffee cup experiment has failed.. miserably. I wanted to cut out my coffee cup waste. I'm failing hard... super hard. Anyway, I'll give it an honest go... soon... this week... okay tomorrow.

The next few weeks should see a pickup of sorts. Marc has been tirelessly logging our tape. I'll be meeting with him soon, to start piecing it together. The narrative will happen concurrently. Also, i've been researching cool eco-tourism type things to do IF we get picked up. If it does in fact happen, the first season, I envision, will be a green travel trek across Canada. After that? North America and beyond. I've already dug up things to do in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and recently finished Ontario. Over the next three weeks, I've got to pour over Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, PEI, and Nova Scotia.

So there you go. I'll be back with more VERY soon. Promise.