1 down, 49 to go...

Hi. My name is Ben. I'm a taurus. I like long walks on the beach, Thai food, puppies, and whistling. Better still are Thai puppies who whistle while walking on the beach. I know - they're a dime a dozen.So here we are a week into this crazy adventure and we're already drowning in wonderful, unscripted experiences. Everything from seeing a coal mine through the eyes of a miner to noshing with a true-blooded Italiano turning his pizza parlor eco in the middle of Pennsylvania to an impromptu interview with the mayor of a "town" of 10 people that's been sitting on top of a raging inferno for the last 40 years - and that was just one afternoon. As some of you may already know, we've set up some challenges for ourselves on this trip (generating only a shoebox worth of waste per month for all three of us, etc.), but it's starting to look like the biggest challenge is going to be finding time to edit all the juicy footage we're shooting along the way. My directing/editing brain is already overflowing and we've only just begun - what I wouldn't give for 60-hour days.And now, a haiku and a limerick:Pennsylvania hilldrinks sun hiding her stone stillburning black heartThere once was some coal from PAThat didn't have much to sayWhen asked why it burnsIt said, "No one learns,But I guess some folks like me this way." (cough, cough)until next time,Ben