"The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools." 
    -Confucius

For the Wilson family, our summer vacation represents 75% of the driving we do each year.  At home we've chosen to live in a walkable/bikeable community where getting in the car is not usually a necessity.  We also chose a small house to keep our environmental footprint even smaller (our home is 1000 sq ft -- the average American home is 2500 sq ft.), and chose to make that small home as efficient as possible through insulation, new windows and doors, and high-efficiency appliances (we use an average of 400 kwh of electricity each month -- the average American home uses over 1000 kwh/month).  Since nearly all of the electricity in our part of the country comes from coal, we purchase "green power" from our utility.  Then we bought a farm where our only activity is restoring the heretofore heavily abused woodland.  All of these choices together (along with plans to turn the house into a net-energy producer with solar) make our version of the American dream not only more environmentally sound, but also more sustainable on the home economic front, since this lifestyle is, by our own design and definition, one of decidedly conspicuous under-consumption.  The Wilson family summer, as it stood up until now, didn't seem to fit into that picture.

So, this summer vacation is not only our largest expense, but also our largest contribution to global warming and instability.  Getting our fuel consumption under control is not only an economic issue for our family, but also an ethical issue.  It's important at all levels that we find solutions and not ignore the problems or quit traveling as a family altogether.  It's important that we all travel -- travel is part of what makes us more tolerant of cultural differences.  Travel helps us to understand one another.  If anything, tolerance and understanding are things America needs more of, not less.  The homebuilding industry, where I make my living, has made great strides in efficiency and sustainability in recent years.  Our modes of travel need to make those strides now, too.

When we originally started talking about "greening" our summer vacation, we weren't sure where it would lead.  It became apparent right away, however, that it would require new tools.  The old pick-up and camper couldn't be improved upon -- w had already chosen one of the most fuel efficient pick-ups and a small, 14-foot long travel trailer.  With that, we'd earned a respectable 11mpg.  Compared with most RVers, who average well under 10 mpg, we were model citizens.  To really make a difference, however, we needed those new tools.

The camper was first.  I knew that a lighter, low-profile camper might bring up the mileage by a few mpg, and we'd been informally polling other campers about their rigs on our travels.  The weight was an important issue, but reducing wind resistance while driving can be even more important.  We were familiar with the Aliners, and liked the idea of a hard-sided pop-up.  Since we encounter harsher weather and have to live in our camper longer than your average weekender, the hard-sides would give us more weather protection and privacy than a standard tent-camper.  Also, they set-up in under a minute (really), which beats the heck out of the average tent camper.

Another option:  simply travel with a tent.  A possibility, but since we live on the road for three months of the year, setting up a tent every night, enduring the cold at high altitudes, worrying about animal invasions, and listening to neighboring campers yodel all night long made us decide to stick with the camper.

In the end, we went with the Aliner Ease.  The Ease has all the comforts of our old travel trailer (bathroom, shower, sink, stove, refrigerator, sleeps 4), but significantly decreases the weight and traveling wind resistance.  Here's the score:

OLD TOOLS:  3000lb+, high-profile
NEW TOOLS:  2500lb, low-profile

NEXT, we worked on the vehicle.  Our Tundra pick-up had served us well, but it couldn't compare to the new generation of hybrids on the market.  If you know me, you know that I'm not a big SUV fan, but our travels, work restoring the woodlands on our farm, and recycling tons of green glass from Sherri's wine-bottle furniture (see www.bluemoonbottles.com) requires at least a little towing power.  I soon learned that most Hybrid SUVs can't tow much, but the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid can tow 6200 lbs, well within our 2500lb-3000lb range.  As Green Car Journal's Green Car of the Year in 2008, the Tahoe Hybrid gets the same city gas mileage as the four cylinder Toyota Camry (21mpg).  It kind of makes you think -- you wouldn't give a dirty look to a single guy driving a Camry, would you?  I find it remarkable that the Hybrid Chevy Tahoe makes such a vast leap forward from its predecessors.  Still a lot of vehicle for most people (how many need to tow 6200lbs?), but an amazing solution for those of us who need that towing.  This even got Sherri and I talking about becoming a one-car family -- in the past, we needed the truck for towing and the Subaru Impreza for driving the rest of the time.  Now we could envision driving one vehicle for both purposes.

In actual use, the Hybrid Tahoe got 22.5 mpg without the trailer, and over 18.5 mpg average towing the Aliner Ease.  The Hybrid Tahoe gives us the great base mileage rate, and the Ease barely puts a dent in it while towing.  All in all, the two vehicles together increase our mileage by 70% over last year -- for most RVers, it would more than double their mileage.

OLD TOOLS:  Toyota Tundra;  towing mileage 11mpg
NEW TOOLS:  Hybrid Chevy Tahoe;  towing mileage 18.5mpg

NEXT, we had the issue of power -- electricity to charge up our laptop, HD video camera, digital SLR, hard drives, mics, shaver, etc. -- and run the pump, fans, and lights in the in the Ease.  That's not a problem when we're on the road for part of the day -- the vehicle charges the camper battery so that it's full every night when we stop.  Since we like to stop and stay in places, sometimes for a week or more, the trailer battery can run down pretty quickly if we're not careful.  Most folks opt for a gasoline powered generator, but that runs counter to our "green" ideals.  I know a bit about solar, so I called Tal at www.talcoelectronics.com and asked for his help designing a system.  He asked all the right questions about exactly what I'd be trying to charge and power, working out the size of the system to suit our needs.  He also brought up something I hadn't even know existed:  wind power for RVs.  Since we spend a month parked on the Columbia River Gorge each summer where the wind blows almost constantly, the portable wind generator could pump out a remarkable 400 watts of power when spinning.  The wind generator ties in nicely with the solar, since it seems like the wind blows more when the sun isn't shining -- especially at night.  Tal sized the system to include a 65 watt solar panel, the 400 watt wind generator, two deep-cycle marine batteries for storage, and the miscellaneous charge converters, controllers, and a small inverter.  I was glad to have the expert help.

Sean and Eddie at Aliner installed it all for us so that it was "plug and play." Actually, I didn't need to do anything with the solar -- just try and point that side of the Ease toward the sun.  The wind generator requires about 15-20 minutes to set up, but only really requires three hex wrenches to do the job.  Sean and Eddie had been able to fit the telescoping, tubular aluminum tower into a capped length of 3-inch black waste pipe which they mounted under the rear of the trailer for storage in-transit.  The base and head fit in the rear storage, and the blades just lay on top of one of the beds while we drive.  Set-up is simple:  I drive one of the Aliner tires over the base, assemble the collapsed tower into the base as it lays on the ground, telescope out the tower with the power cord threaded through, attach the head, attach the blades, and then tilt the whole tower up, locking it into place with a couple of short bolts.  Once it's up I just plug the power cord into its mate on the Ease and wait for the wind to blow.

While we've never used a gasoline generator (we've always considered them the scourge of campgrounds), this kept us from having to go that route.  The wind generator is portable enough that I can use it on the cabin at our farm the rest of the year, where it can power lights, a fan, and possibly a pump.  A great idea -- thanks Tal and www.talcoelectronics.com.

OLD TOOLS:  Noisy, polluting, gasoline generator
NEW TOOLS:  65W solar panel, 400W wind generator -- clean, renewable power on the road

SO FAR so good, we thought, but couldn't we really cut our emissions by just staying home?  Sure, and miss the opportunity to have those family experiences you can only get through travel -- through getting out of your own element and enduring a little of the unknown together.  We would also miss exposing our kids to wilderness in its many forms across the country, a problem that has even the Sierra Club encouraging people to get back in their cars to show the kids the world (see "Are We There Yet?",Sierra Magazine).  Why would one of the premier environmental organizations be encouraging people to drive?  How else to bring up the next generation of conservationists?  Who will care about nature if they've only ever experienced it on HD video and post-cards?

Travel does all of those things, but it also creates a lot of CO2 in just moving our bodies around.  Even with the best tools at hand, cutting our emissions by 40% this year, we would still be emitting tons of CO2.  Until our automobile technology provides us with extremely low- or no- emissions vehicles, we need to deal responsibly with the CO2 we do create.

Enter TerraPass carbon offsets.  Carbon offsets are fairly a fairly straightforward idea:  if you create carbon in one place, it can be balanced out on a global scale if we cut back somewhere else or capture it and store it away somewhere.  Carbon offset companies help you estimate your CO2 emissions for any given activity -- in our case, the amount of CO2 our vacation will create -- and then sell you an offset to balance out that amount of CO2 somewhere else in the world.  This could be done by investing in wind power, for example, or planting trees, or any one of a number of other, carbon-busting projects.  TerraPass is third-party audited, so I felt confident that their carbon accounting would be rigorously checked and that my investment would be put to good use.

Check out their web-site -- www.terrapass.com -- they have a nifty calculator which will help you calculate your carbon footprint for travel, your home, and other activities.

We were also glad to find The Better World Club, an alternative to that other automobile club we'd been members of for many years.  The Better World Club promises not to lobby for more roads (we have plenty of those as it is) and instead to lobby for better mass transit and other, greener technologies.  All of that while still providing excellent roadside assistance.

OLD TOOLS:  Non-existent
NEW TOOLS:  TerraPass Carbon Offsets, The Better World Club

Unavoidably, the space we're living in this year is smaller, so careful packing is a must -- enter Mountainsmith and GSIOutdoors.

Mountainsmith's "cube" system of organizing duffels and rubber-bottomed totes were the perfect way to store and organize our clothing, shoes, books & games, etc.  The rubber-bottomed totes can be set on wet or muddy ground without getting the contents damp.  The color-coded cube system makes finding what you're looking for in a crowded vehicle easy.  We were also in need of new backpacks, since our 20-year-old models were fraying and falling apart.  We were able to keep our green ideal in choosing from backpacks made of recycled materials, and are very happy with the comfort and durability of all four packs.

GSIOutdoors has travel cooking down to a science.  Or is it and art?  Maybe both, since their nesting nForm cookware allows us to store an entire kitchen full of pots, pans, and eating utensils in a space the size of a basketball.  Since our galley space is limited, this ingenious system allows us more space to store food.  We chose the larger nForm system for four people.  We use the whole set when we're in the camper, then raid that set for our backpacking trips.  The set includes a whole kitchen's worth of cooking gear -- two large pots with strainer lids, frying pan, four plates, four insulated cups with tops, four non-insulated cups, and a water-tight cloth bucket to use for gathering water or doing dishes.  On top of the cooking gear, I've been enjoying GSI's great line of coffee gear.  With their lightweight, lexan coffee grinder, french-press, and stainless, stove-top espresso maker, I haven't had to do without my gourmet coffee in the morning.  We also couldn't resist their compact travel bar -- martinis at 10,000 feet anyone?  All of this gear packs and nests snugly, saving lots of space.

OLD TOOLS:  Cheap duffels/The "hodge-podge" kitchen
NEW TOOLS:  Space saving "cube" system duffels/Gourmet nesting kitchen

TO SAVE space on maps, we've been employing the service of the Garmin Colorado 400t hand-held GPS unit.  Now, I like a good gadget as much as the next guy, but I'm not about to carry around an extra piece of gear if it doesn't pull its weight.  The Colorado 400t does that and then some.  This unit comes with topographic maps pre-loaded, and has an optional SD card loaded with US street maps available.  Between the two sets of electronic maps, we've been able to find our way while backpacking up in the mountains but still use the same unit to navigate streets and highways across the country.  Our favorite feature is the ability to put in a category of destination -- say, "grocery store" or "park" or "Vietnamese Cuisine" -- and get a range of possibilities.  We were able to find city parks where we could comfortably eat our picnic lunches without driving all over town, or relying on sketchy directions from the locals.  If we wondered where the closest Trader Joe's was, we could ask the Garmin -- and stop looking if it was still 500 miles away.  A nifty tool which has saved us untold hours of driving around looking for things.  How much gas has that saved?

OLD TOOLS:  Copious maps, dubious directions
NEW TOOLS:  Garmin Colorado 400t GPS unit

FINALLY, while we wanted to be able to give people tips and recommendations on the gear which would help them have their own "Green Family Summer,"  we also wanted to use this opportunity to become a tool ourselves.  Anticipating thousands of hits on the web-site this summer, we decided to visit and highlight three of The Nature Conservancy's Preserves across the country this summer.  We shot HD video in the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Ball Creek Ranch Preserve, and Yellow Island Preserve.  We'd like everyone who enjoys our story to consider joining TNC in their efforts to preserve wild places across the world.  We trust TNC and give memberships in lieu of holiday gifts every year -- you can join, too, at www.nature.org.  Stay tuned for upcoming blogs and video of our travels to these sites.

WITH all of that, we've made a huge dent in our environmental impact this summer.  The new tools all come at a cost, but the payback in fuel savings as gas prices go ever higher will only increase over time.  We're hopeful that technology will continue to improve and to play an even bigger part in cutting our fuel use and emissions.  We're supporting those improvements this summer, and will continue to support that kind of innovation next year, too.

And the payback in peace of mind?  Priceless.