Vignettes II - Tidy Campsites, Parmesan Cheese and Striving for Carbon Neutral

Here is another group of quick impressions.  They are not in order as they happened, just as I am remembering to write about them….

Vocabulary building at the pump

I have seen “gas station TV” before and dismissed it as just another way to sell advertising.  But in Casper, Wyoming there was a twist.  It featured the banal video, as usual, but it was followed by the “Vocabulary Word of the Day.”  On October 19th, it taught us the word “Onomatopoeia” which, of course means the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g., cuckoo, sizzle,) or the use of onomatopoeia for rhetorical effect.

Antigo Campground

Leave no trace - Antigo's City Campground

I don’t recall who, but someone we talked with has a relative that works for Antigo Parks and Recreation, that manages the City Campground where we stayed.  I’d like to extend my thanks and appreciation.  This is a truly remarkable place, featuring level spaces, surrounded by lawns, full hookups (RV term; means electricity, water and sewer) even though we didn’t use them, clean restrooms, showers and more.  They have good high speed wi-fi accessible from the RV, a variety of sizes of bicycles chained up, all apparently well maintained; I found no soft tires, with the key to the lock hanging in the restroom.  You get a security code when you camp there.  There was not a candy bar wrapper or cigarette butt in sight.  I always try to leave a campsite cleaner than I found it.  In this case, I couldn’t!

Antigo Cheese Factory

Our contribution to Antigo's GDP

They make cheese in Antigo.  Well it is Wisconsin, after all.  They make a really good quality Parmesan cheese.  It was made by the Antigo Cheese Company until that business was acquired by the Sartori Cheese Company in 2006.  Sartori decided to move production to Plymouth Wisconsin to consolidate it with their other factory. However, there was just something about Antigo that made the cheese different, and arguably better.  When this was verified, Sartori chose to keep production in Antigo.  We visited briefly and bought some of the “Award Winning” Parmesan Cheese.

Carleton College Reduces Greenhouse Gas

“The last major upgrade for energy efficiency for heating buildings at Carleton College was over 100 years ago when we went from Coal burning fireplaces in all of our buildings to a large Coal power plant that also supplied steam heat to all of our buildings.”  This is paraphrased from a brochure that discusses their new project.  Now they have embarked, and are working hard, on a system that uses wind and solar power, together with geothermal resources to reduce the carbon output by 35% by 2020 and to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Geothermal Bore Map -- so much for Frisbee this term

Geothermal is different than using the earth as a heat source to generate electricity such as is used at the Geysers in Northern California.  In this case, it uses the stable underground temperature of the earth itself as a source of moderate temperatures and heat pumps to convert it to heat air.  A heat pump is an efficient way to pump out the heat from air to heat a building. Obviously, the warmer the air or other heat transfer medium (water, for example) is, the more efficient it is to produce heat. The mid-range temperature underground helps with this.  To achieve it they are drilling a large number of “heat sink” type dry wells that go down several hundred feet.  When done they will restore lawns and other landscaping over these wells.  The wells are not for the purpose of obtaining water, just static heat exchanger resources.  This is simply a brilliantly efficient approach.

A Random Act of Carleton College Kindness

On October 18th we visited Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.  Peter had a chance to spend some time with Abby.  In the evening, as she was about to meet us in Sayles Café, we decided to get just a bite of dinner, still full from earlier in the day.  We approached the cashier and as I was pulling money out of my wallet a young woman named Bree interrupted and said “I’ll get that.  I have so much left on this card that I just have to use it up.”  I assumed that she wanted to change the accumulated money on her card into cash and started to pay her directly.  She adamantly refused.  We were both reminded of Tony Larson, the UU minister in Racine who had suggested paying for other people as a way of breaking through in an otherwise cold world.  Yes, it made our day!

--David