Memorial Day Weekend, Summer Travelers Can Cut Gasoline Costs in Tough Economy with Drive $marter Challenge Interactive Website, Money-Saving Tips, Resources

Washington, D.C., May 2009 – With the Memorial Day holiday weekend and heavier summer driving season approaching, and with gasoline prices nowhere near last summer’s record highs, thoughts turn to weekend and vacation road trips as a great escape from economic reality.

The Alliance to Save Energy’s interactive Drive $marter Challenge fuel efficiency website provides vacationers and everyday drivers with hundreds of dollars of money-saving gas tips, resources, and myth busters that respond to the call of frugal drivers: Why pay more for gasoline than you have to, particularly in this economy?

Whether you are headed to the big city or the great outdoors or staying closer to home, you can start saving money on gas even before you are on the road with a little advance planning, basic maintenance, and your driving and other choices:

Planning your vacation:

* Get a customized vacation map with low gas prices along the route. Getting lost while driving in unfamiliar areas could lead to an expensive waste of gas. Resources on the Drive $marter Challenge website (http://drivesmarterchallenge.org/money-saving-tips/fuel-efficient-resources.aspx) can help your family print a customized vacation map that highlights low-cost gas stations along your route. Choose the right vehicle. If your family has more than one vehicle, drive the car that gets better gas mileage if possible.
* Rise and shine! When possible, drive during off-peak hours to reduce gas costs and stress by avoiding stop-and-go or bumper-to-bumper traffic conditions.
* Investigate other travel options. Consider trains, buses, or public transportation to your vacation destination when possible.
* Explore new ways to get around at your destination. Find information on biking, public transportation routes, car sharing, walking, and renting hybrid or fuel-efficient vehicles on the Drive $marter Challenge websiteresources page at http://drivesmarterchallenge.org/money-saving-tips/fuel-efficient-resources.aspx .

Before you leave: maintenance tips

* Inflate your tires. Keeping your tires properly inflated improves gas mileage by around 3%.
* Select the right oil. Using the manufacturer’s recommended grade of motor oil improves gas mileage by 1 to 2%. Motor oil that says “Energy Conserving” on the API performance symbol contains friction-reducing additives. Change your oil as recommended to extend the life of your vehicle.
* Tune up. Fixing a car that is noticeably out of tune or has failed an emissions test can improve its gas mileage by an average of 4%.

On the road: driving tips

* Decrease your speed. Gas mileage usually decreases rapidly above 60 mph. Each five miles per hour over 60 mph is like paying an additional 20 cents or more per gallon for gas.
* Drive sensibly. Speeding, rapid acceleration (jackrabbit starts), and rapid braking can lower gas mileage by 33% at highway speeds.
* Use cruise control and overdrive gear. Cruise control cuts fuel consumption by maintaining a steady speed during highway driving. Overdrive gear, when appropriate, reduces engine speed, saves gas, and reduces engine wear.
* It’s a “drag.” Avoid carrying items on your vehicle’s roof. A loaded roof rack or carrier increases weight and aerodynamic drag, which can cut mileage by 5%. Place items inside the trunk when possible to improve fuel economy.
* Turn down the air. Operating the air conditioner on “Max” can reduce mpg by 5-25% compared to not using it.
* Avoid idling, which gets 0 mpg. Cars with larger engines typically waste even more gas while idling than cars with smaller engines.
* Navigate with a GPS system. GPS systems can help you find your way and, increasingly, GPS programs can search for low-priced gas at nearby stations.
* Fill up before returning rental. Rental car companies charge higher gas prices if you don’t fill up the tank before returning the vehicle. Keep your gas receipts in case the company requires receipts to remove a gas surcharge.

The Drive $marter Challenge website, www.drivesmarterchallenge.org, has been updated with 2009 vehicle models and current campaign partners. The website calculator and all tips will be further updated May 19 with new projected gas prices for the year.

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The Alliance to Save Energy is a coalition of prominent business, government, environmental, and consumer leaders who promote the efficient and clean use of energy worldwide to benefit consumers, the environment, the economy, and national security.

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Drive $marter Challenge website – http://drivesmarterchallenge.org/. It’s the only website where drivers can find out up front on many hundreds of dollars they can save on gasoline with their specific vehicle by taking six driving and maintenance actions.

This kind of travel creates opportunities for greater interaction with local communities, so it’s essential that we consider the impacts these trips can have to ensure there are benefits for local people and their environments.

Our friends in the media need to be as concerned as we are because the health and welfare of communities and cultures can be at risk when purposes and good intentions go awry.

Planeterra Foundation (http://www.planeterra.org/), the global non-profit dedicated to sustainable community development through travel, challenges you to look closely at the following questions and insofar as possible, share our concerns – which we are sure you will be yours as well – with your audiences.

• When is my need to “do good” potentially a selfish act on my part?
• Am I helping or hindering by taking time and resources away from the community and project managers just so I have a “feel good” project to work on?
• Are valuable time, effort and resources being wasted and misappropriated just to prepare for and accommodate a voluntourist?
• Can I really make a contribution in a lasting, significant way in the short time I’m there?
• What is the optimum duration for a meaningful voluntourism stay?
• Is the project just a “front” for fundraising or attempt to generate exposure, creating contrived situations for my benefit and not really the benefit of the community?

Here’s how we at Planeterra think the growing voluntourism industry needs to address these concerns:

• Programs must be set up to engage the voluntourist in task-specific scenarios so people can see the tangible results of their contributions.
• Voluntourism programs are ideally no shorter than five days and optimally 14 days.
• It’s vital to have a designated tour leader or guide who helps facilitate the volunteer experience so that project staff aren’t taken away from running their regular programs.
• Designated projects are ongoing and sustainable; they are not simply there just to ‘entertain’ travelers. This being said, many of the activities would be taking place without travelers present, but it is because of the voluntourists that these tasks are able to be completed.
• It’s important for voluntourists to have realistic expectations; while they won’t change the world by volunteering for a few days, they will open themselves up to learn more about a local community that can be shared with others when returning home.
• There’s an overall need in the voluntourism travel sector to shift the focus toward sustainability. This enables projects to be taken over eventually by a community, thus minimizing dependence on outside help.
• Everyone needs to recognize that the end game is total community control and quite possibly the disappearance and solution of issues and conditions that brought the original need for the project – and voluntourists — in the first place.

Here at Planeterra, where there is a need, we recognize it, and we act quickly to meet it. Whatever the voluntour project Planeterra has the insight, agility and technical and financial wherewithal to successfully see it through. Our goal is to empower local people and communities to strengthen their well being while promoting long-term, environmentally responsible growth.

The Top 10 Scenic Drives in the Northern Rockies spans five U.S. states (i.e., Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washington and Oregon) and two Canadian provinces (i.e., British Columbia and Alberta) and is composed of four All-American Roads; 10 National Parks and Recreation Areas; and four connecting National Historic Trails. Please visit our Web site at www.drivethetop10.com to view the online video from the Drives, download photography.

On a side note, I’ve been to almost all of the Top 10 as a child and those memories still are with me 30+ yrs later (wow I’m old! lol ok so I’m 41, but those memories from my childhood still linger today)

You can see some of their activism here. They’re involved in a lot of excellent causes.

The festival fits the bill as a green destination seeing that they’ve made tremendous efforts to eliminate waste throughout the past few years, incorporating a solar stage, encouraging carpooling with incentive, providing attendees with green guidance, along with a number of other efforts.

The heritage of the festival stems from the passing of Grateful Dead lead-man, Jerry Garcia, attracting a diverse and environmentally conscious crowd and very notable bands.

You can check out all their green vibes info here

If I wasn’t 1200 miles south of this event, I’d be there!

Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens is located at 1590 Goodlette Rd Naples Florida 34102

My daughter nor I were overly impressed with the zoo itself though.
The most impressive part was the fact that they had multiple recycling bins throughout the park.

The brochure for the zoo was printed on recycled paper too so that was a green plus.

However, there weren’t any guides or people to really discuss the zoo and any green efforts or any animal conservation efforts.

The zoo itself was mediocre at best. Half of the animals they show on the site weren’t to be seen. Their “mane attraction” (the lion) was nowhere to be seen. Most of the animals were hiding under shade provisions (probably laughing at all the people sweating walking around in the heat of the day looking at them lol).

The most unique animal they had was the fosa (daughter got a pic but it’s not downloaded yet) known as Madagascar’s Legendary Carnivore.

One of their biggest exhibits was for a Toucan who was formerly used on signage to Naples.

Overall, I’d say save your $19.95 for 13+
and $11.95 for kids
unless you like walking around trying to figure out where the few animals are hiding.
Though they are opening a black bear exhibit at the end of the month.

Take reusables with you when traveling

To prepare, I took To Go-Ware since I knew our hotel room had frig and yes I used the microwave there too (no hot plate or oven). I took our filtered water in reusable stainless steel bottles so I wouldn’t have to buy any water there.

Fortunately most places there had recycling containers, so they were available for use when daughter has drinks, etc. that we brought from home that weren’t in reusable containers.

So, just because you’re traveling doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still take steps to be eco friendly.

We made a stop at Life is Good (why isn’t there one of those stores in SE FL?). My daughter also bought nail polish from Del Sol where the items change color when in sunlight. I’m pretty sure it’s not chemical free nor eco friendly, but the nail polish is pretty cool along with the other items and I’m not going to deprive a 13 yr old of color changing nail polish.

On Saturday night they had a “movie in the park” for people to come, gather, enjoy.
This past Saturday was Beverly Hill’s Chihuahua and wow was the park full of kids and dogs! We had our chairs and were amongst the crowd enjoying the free movie. It started at sunset and other than the bugs bothering my daughter it was really cool to see people all together like that.

They had little shops and stores located in the buildings that used to be a 1920’s clam processing plant. In 1976 they converted the plant into what is now Tin City. All the shop owners/workers were friendly and went out of their way to say “good day” even if you were just walking by their shop.

Of course my favorite store was of course the Peace Frogs store. Yes, I know I can get that anywhere..but there’s not one in SE FL, so…..I bought 2 new dresses, tee and daughter got a dress and bracelet.

There’s a SeriousCookie store there and OMG the smell of their cookies being baked filled part of the shop area.

There are waterfront restaurants where you can eat and watch the boats go out and enjoy the outdoors.

It was truly an unique place to visit!

The sand is white, clean and the water is clear!
Things we don’t have on the SouthEast Coast of Florida!

There were numerous public beach areas complete with restrooms, showers, the Naples Pier and recycling bins on the beach too!

You could get up close to birds–we watched this one catch crabs and eat them (course that grossed out my daughter though).

Sea Turtles nest on the beach as well, though we didn’t get to experience that.

Other than it being mega hot this past weekend, the beaches were awesome.