We arrived in an empty parking lot and decided to find Mary Ann Petri, an organizer of the Round-up Independence Days Events (RIDE), at her restaurant, the Busy Bee. She welcomed us with tasty food and we headed back up to the parking lot for the Roundup Independence Day Events (RIDE).
Elizabeth and Wilbur Wood of AERO were there waiting for us, eager to tell us about the Renewable Energy Bus Tour that they had embarked on in 1976. It was inspiring to hear their story of a traveling renewable energy theatre spanning the state of Montana. With thirteen participants varying in expertise they had a regular street theatre, announcer and all. Leaving behind a hand crafted solar hot water heater in each visited community the first year, the tour continued for 6 years running.
Though there are over thirty years between the two tours, so many things are right in line with each other with regards to the times. We are in a time of need for energy independence with rising oil prices and decreasing accessibility of oil. Therefore, a need for renewable energies such as solar, wind and geothermal has set in once again. The Difference now is that our technologies are so much further along, efficiency and availability wise.
The RIDE events themselves were great! Performances by community members and a flag ceremony from the Boy Scouts preceded our introduction from Senator Kelly Gebhard. After being introduced, the spectators were much more open to visiting the bus, cloggers and cowboys alike. We found out some interesting things in the community. For example, the school and many of the homes in the area are run on diesel, and are perfect biodiesel candidates because it is so expensive to switch the equipment over from running on diesel. There is also a guy looking to make a human powered glass crusher, as well as a few people running their homes on locally owned wind generators.
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