– Carl Bidleman

There are many wonderful aspects of living in the San Francisco Bay Area but for my money, the  greatest is it’s parks and open space.  (Tip:  Be sure to watch this video in HQ mode.)

I should explain why we’ve been AWOL from blogging for a while.  This economic storm has forced me to take a full-time job leaving only Saturdays and a few hours during the week to attend to OpenRoad.TV.  I’ve been fortunate to land at the George Lucas Educational Foundation working with and meeting great people and getting paid to make little movies (as George calls them) about what works in public education. I’m very grateful. If you know any educators or someone who cares about educating our kids, tell them to visit the site.  It’s good and it’s free.

Meanwhile, Doug hasn’t blogged because he’s busy producing a new OpenRoad series for Public Television with the help of our pals Dan Herz, M’Gee Johnston and Stefan Ruenzel.  We’ll be launching the series in the Bay Area on KQED this April and syndicating nationwide in the fall.  Kaiser Permanente and East Bay Regional Parks are our first sponsors and we’re HUGELY grateful to them and our investors for making this possible.  We are determined to stay alive until the economy improves and we can find enough advertising support to let us continue to travel the West and bring you intriguing tales of the people and places that make this one of the most fascinating regions in the world.

In the meantime, I’ll plan on putting up at least one story a week from our library of travels.  Don’t have the time and resources to bring you the full updated information, links, Google maps, etc. just now.  But I think the videos are too good to just leave sitting on a hard drive on the shelf.  So here we go.  Let us know what you think.

– Carl

– Carl Bidleman

Even if you can’t afford or find a new hybrid or CNG vehicle or you’re waiting for the new Chevy Volt, Tesla sedan or the plug-in version of Toyota’s Prius, there are simple, affordable and effective ways to improve your gas mileage.  You can save money and do a little less damage to the environment while enjoying the many road trips featured on OpenRoad.TV.  (These tips also work anywhere you drive, of course.)

EcoDriving USA is a website sponsored by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and supported by Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger of California Bill Ritter of Colorado.  There are driving tips and mileage calculators to point out where you can increase your fuel efficiency.  A good place to start.

What tips do you have on traveling greener?  We’d love to hear them.

– Carl Bidleman

Our friend and highly-respected travel troubleshooter, Christopher Elliott has an enlightening post on elliott.org titled Greenwashed: How to spot the Travel Industry’s Eco-lies that’s worth a read for anyone trying to make sense of the trend toward promoting environmentally responsible travel. Reality or marketing ploy? Let us know what YOU think.