Female Friendly -- and Eco Friendly -- Summertime Road Trips

Jody DeVere -- Ask Patty — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:57:23 -0500

As summer approaches its end, we're reminded that even with the high gas prices, this season has had no shortage of fun, female friendly, road trips to share and enjoy.

We started the season off by enjoying ~~Bossy's Excellent Panic Attack~~, oops, we mean "Bossy's Excellent Road Trip," a five-week journey across the United States in Saturn vehicles that helped this funny lady meet a nationwide collection of blogging friends. Even though it has been weeks since she embarked on her journey, we still laugh out loud when we read about Bossy's ~~mishaps~~, oops, we mean fun.

We also enjoyed the adventures of five moms who went on the road from Washington, D.C. in a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid SUV to drive to the 2008 BlogHer convention in San Francisco. These hilarious and irreverent women were equipped with wireless internet access in the vehicle, a GPS system, cutting-edge cameras and video recording technology, video games, music, gasoline, hotel stays, and food. Mainstream media -- including Katie Couric -- covered the road trip on the internet and television as they drove coast to coast, picking up their fellow SV Moms Group Contributors along the way.

Well AskPatty just heard about another fun female road trip, this one with a green theme! ary Logan Barmeyer -- National Geographic Green Guide research specialist -- and her cousin, Trish Harris, took off from Atlanta on July 20 and have been driving across the country while trying to keep their eco-footprint as small as possible by crashing at friends' houses, hypermiling, and spending just $25 a day.

The adventuresome duo was in AskPatty's neck of the woods last week, when they passed through Los Angeles. They were supposed to meet with local blogger GreenLAGirl, but unfortunately the time they were available conflicted with a Green L.A. panel GreenLAGirl was attending.

Mary and Trish have been blogging about their adventures in low-consumption, low-budget travel at Two Green Girls on the Road and are posting their progress using GeoMaps, so you can check out their route, and read all the fun details of their adventures, complete with photos of their eco-friendly field trips along the way. The girls have packed their trip full of adventures! They learned about biodiesel at Willie and Carl's biodiesel truck stop near Austin, Texas; visited earthship sustainable housing in Taos, New Mexico; went shopping at "The Most Energy-Efficient Wal-Mart in the U.S." in Las Vegas, Nevada; camped at Lake Mead and visited Hoover Dam; stopped by Gehry's Disney Hall in Los Angeles and dipped their toes in the Pacific Ocean at Santa Monica Beach; learned about biodiesel engine conversions in Lovecraft; stopped by Google's green headquarters near San Francisco; and bought music at Amoeba records in Berkeley. After spending nearly two weeks on the road, the girls are finally passing through the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe -- and are on their way back home. Whew!

Now that gas prices have slowly begun to drop back down from the drastic increases we saw at the beginning of summer, are you planning any last-minute summer road trips?

Jody DeVere
President
www.askpatty.com
www.carblabber.com

Two Green Girls Photo courtesy of National Geographic

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Female Friendly -- and Eco Friendly -- Summertime Road Trips