Dai·ly Rum·mag·ings

It has been awhile sense I have updated this site so I thought I would give a quick run through of the crazy week that was the last week. After Chicago, we landed in Minnesota with my Aunt and Uncle in their beautiful home near Fergus Falls, Minnesota. We ate home cooked meals and explored their 80 acres. It was a great day off. Then we got news that we needed to hurry back to California and re-routed our trip. We then drove through the series of unfortunate states (South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska). After that long drive we stayed in Wyoming with my buddies long lost cousins and once again found ourselves surrounded with nothing to do. Then came the great state of Colorad to see my grandparents. Such a great visit. I love them with all my heart even though my grandma beat me in Scrabble by 5 points. What a punk. Then we drove through most of the South West part of this country (Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada) until we hit Las Vegas. I loved driving through the desert and zipping through dunes and mountains all around. Las Vegas, I came to find, has nothing for me and I first enjoyed it then soon realized that it is just filth. So much going on. Then came CALIFORNIA!!!! Bakersfield was fun but I needed to explore this great state so I hopped on a bus to Irvine. I explored Venice, Irvine, Newport Beach, L.A., Anaheim, and Disney with friends and now I am in San Fran for a few days. I found a place to stay in San Fran called the Adelaide Hostel and I am in love. So many people from all over. More coming soon!

With Peace & Love,
Charles Coats

Hello all,

We made it to Chicago and found a hotel to stay in! We drove 12 long hours and plan on another 12 tomorrow. Look out for a video soon!

Manifest plainness, Embrace simplicity, Reduce selfishness, Have few desires.

With Peace & Love,
Charles Coats

Hello Friends,

Big things are happening. My first year of college is a week away from being over with and summer 2010 is right around the corner. You may or may not know that I am going to be road tripping to California with my friend Kirk Born who lives in Bakersville, California. On this road trip, we are planning to stop in Chicago, Minneapolis/Fargo, Minnesota, Missoula, Montana, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and many other cities along the way. We are grateful to have a place to stay in each city along the way. With that, this will surely be an adventure of a lifetime.

As most of you know, I am constantly acting upon issues that I care about and with this opportunity I was thinking what could I do on the road to help a certain cause along the way and today I figured out a brilliant plan. In light of the utmost urgency of the impacts of the Gulf of Mexico BP oil, I plan to do my part by finding a hair salon or a pet groomer in every city we stop to collect hair donations to help assess the impacts this terrible spill.

A few months ago, my friend Cameron told me about donating hair clippings to help clean up oil spills. Naturally, being an environmentalist I check out this organization (http://www.matteroftrust.org/) and soon feel in love. This organization is doing incredible work right now on the grounds of the coastal regions near the Gulf of Mexico and needs hair clippings. They use recycled hair clippings into hair “blooms” which are sausage shaped. The hair is stuffed into the recycled nylons and then these booms are used then to tied together and used to encircle and contain oil spills to keep oil from spreading. Once the hair soaks up the oil the organization properly disposes of the oil.

As of today (05/05/2010), the organization has collected over 400,000 pounds of hair to addresses along the Gulf Coast for boom making and they still need more.

SO…Kirk and I are driving in his sweet 96’ Geo Prism. For those people who do not know cars too well know this is not a large car but we plan on packing this baby to the brim with hair clippings to help protect fragile coves and habitats as well as business and tourism in this region.

This blog will now act as an update for the trip and pictures and videos will be on the way. Trust me this will be incredible.

Though this spill is immense. We can all do something about it. We all are capable of acting upon issues that we are passionate about. This oil spill, if not acted upon, will destroy our marine wildlife in the coast and along the coast, as well as business and tourism in this region. We must do what we can to help clean up and contain its impacts.

Things you can do!
1) Know of any hair salons along our route? Tell us! We will go. Also, get your community involved in this effort!
2) Donate money to organizations that are dealing with the oil spill first hand. Matter of Trust (http://www.matteroftrust.org/) or Gulf Restoration Network (http://www.healthygulf.org/)

With Peace & Love,
Charles Coats

Just got home from seeing Passion Pit, Joss Stone, Robert Randolph, The Roots, Bob Weir, Booker t and the MG’s, John Legend and Sting in DC. FOR FREE IN DC. With beautiful weather and people. I wish every weekend including this much singing and dancing.

El futuro es tuyo, si quien lo quiera!

From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-rifkin/empathic-civilization-is_b_469546.html

“The new sensibilities of the younger generation are beginning to usher in a different idea about human nature and the dream that accompanies it. Today’s youth find little value in the Enlightenment caricature of human nature as rational, calculating, detached, and utilitarian. They prefer to think of human nature as empathic, mindful, engaged, and driven by the intrinsic value and interconnectedness of life.”