I ain’t gonna lie, I was scared to visit New York. Somewhere in my small-town hippie-chick psyche, I was convinced that city would eat me alive, and spit me out broke onto a westward-bound highway.

But my poverty and naïveté have never stopped me before, right? So I headed for the Big Cheese, and (thanks to good buddies Landry, YP & Eggie) found myself in safe and luxurious Brooklyn digs. All that was left, then, was for me to tackle Manhattan.

I saddled up The Navigator and hopped a subway, and soon became enthronged in the teeming masses of New York.

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Read the rest of Chicken in the City (934 words)

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Post tags: adventure, alternative, art, buy nothing, chickens, counterculture, diy, eco travel, ecotourism, ecotravel, featured posts, freegan, green living, hiking, how-to, New York, outsider art, photography, rubber chicken, starving artists, superhero, transportation, travel, walking

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Howdy folks! New Orleans was a blast, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it. But let’s pick up where we left off: the one, the only, the ever-fabulous New York City.

As you may have noticed, my blog’s a little out of date: this photo, for example, was taken back in August. I’ve spent the last couple of months traveling faster than I can write: now I’ve landed for the winter, and I’ve got tons of stories to tell.

That’s Luciano and Brian shakin’ they bacon at the roller skate dance party in Central Park.

For the next few weeks, I’ll be catching you up on everything I’ve done and learned since August. It’s been a great adventure.

From New York we’ll blast through New Hampshire to Maine, Massachussetts, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Louisiana, then stop off in Nevada before landing safely in California. You’ll meet hippies, foodies, party kids, dirtbags, volunteers, artists, normal folks, dogs, chickens and (my personal favorite) The Navigator.

Ready? Here we go…

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Post tags: adventure, eco travel, ecotravel, tourism, travel

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How did I do it? Baby, I took the Megabus.

Megabus bills itself as “America’s first low-cost inter-city bus service,” but it’s oh so much more. Its buses are brand-new, double-decker behemoths—practically limousines compared to Greyhound’s rusty clunkers—and what’s more, they offer wi-fi en route.

Megabus isn’t the only bus company offering dirt-cheap fares: $1 bus fares are popping up everywhere following Megabus’ success. Greyhound itself has launched a competing service, BoltBus, covering essentially the same service area at the same cost.

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Read the rest of How to Travel Cheap & Green: Take the $1 Bus! (467 words)

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Post tags: bus, eco travel, economy, ecotourism, ecotravel, energy-efficient, environment, green living, how-to, megabus, New York, starving artists, transportation, travel

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Remember when you got your first bike? Was it a Christmas present, or maybe a birthday gift? Remember how much fun you used to have on that bike, how fast you went, how great it felt?

Well, these days, most kids want an Xbox for their birthday; their parents ride around in cars with seatbelts, talking on their phones. Cycling is a thing of the past: a sport, a hobby, but rarely a mode of transportation. But I’m here to tell you: riding your bike is still fun, and still fast, and it’s the cheapest and most socially responsible workout you’ll ever get.

And there are no two ways about it: if you give a kid a bike, that kid will ride.

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Read the rest of Save the World, Ride a Bike (883 words)

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Post tags: alternative, art, bicycle, biking, buy nothing, citizen science, community, counterculture, dumpster diving, eco travel, ecotourism, ecotravel, education, energy-efficient, environment, free sources, freegan, garbage, green living, how-to, politics, radical, recreation, recycling, reuse, starving artists, sustainable, teaching, transportation, travel, volunteer

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I’d never seen a Great Lake before. “They’re huge,” people had told me. “You can’t see across them.” But that still didn’t prepare me for visiting one in person.

We drove up to the Indiana Dunes State Park, an expanse of protected shore along Lake Michigan. We were hoping to find a spot to camp, but it was the weekend: the park was full of families from the nearby cities. No campsites were available, and we’d have to keep moving.

Still, it would be absurd to get this close to Lake Michigan without seeing it. The National Lakeshore was free and open to the public; we made our way to the beach, and I finally saw my first Great Lake.

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Read the rest of Indiana Dunes State Park (185 words)

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Post tags: animal, buy nothing, eco travel, ecotourism, ecotravel, environment, Great Lake, Indiana, Indiana Dunes, Lake Michigan, nature, outdoors, photography, pollution, recreation, state park, summer, tourism, travel, water

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So I met up with Quiet Earp in Columbia, Missouri. I’d been staying in Louisville, and he was driving from Nevada to New York. Going to Missouri was a bit of a backtrack, but it turned out to be the best backtrack ever. Why? Because we discovered Marble Creek, that’s why.

It was dumb luck and maybe a little synchronicity that got us there: you see, the town of Columbia doesn’t have a lot to offer as far as recreation. Earp & I conferred, and decided to hightail it back to Louisville to visit Kevin and Nicole. That meant we’d be heading southeast, straight into the Ozark Mountains.

As you know, I’d already tried once to get to the Ozarks and failed. But this time it was happening for sure, and what’s more, we were going camping out there in the backcountry!

We picked out a random campground from Earp’s atlas, but somehow drove right past it (possibly because I was navigating). Instead of turning back, we looped around to hit Marble Creek—and wound up driving into the only free Forest Service campground in Missouri.

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Read the rest of Marble Creek, Missouri: Free Camping in the Mark Twain National Forest (730 words)

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Post tags: buy nothing, camping, eco travel, ecotourism, ecotravel, free sources, freegan, lodging, Missouri, national forest, nature, outdoors, recreation, summer, tourism, travel, volunteer, water

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Look at that, I’ve been awarded!

Uprooted was selected as a finalist in the Tripbase Blog Awards, in the Eco Travel category. There’s quite a list of excellent eco-travel blogs up there, and I’m proud to be listed among them.

Looking back over what I’ve done and seen this year, I feel I’m just getting started. The upcoming months hold a lot of promise: big cities, beautiful people, fabulous food… and foreign shores! Soon I’ll be traveling internationally to show you some of the coolest things going on around the world. 2009 has been an excellent year, and 2010 is only going to get better.

So, to my readers, friends, supporters and visitors: thanks for your support, keep reading, and look for me at the top of that list next year!

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: award, eco travel, ecotourism, ecotravel

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