sorry for all the words

June 23 155 Km

Today’s Points 0 Total Score 3

The oil spill is hiring. Anyone without a job should come down to Louisiana.

June 22 145 Km

Today’s Points 1 Total Score 3

Talked to an oil man

I talked to a guy that works in oil. Louisiana has three businesses down by the gulf, oil, fishing, and shrimping. Russell, I think his name was, is in charge of looking after the wells oncethey are drilled. Now he has 7 wells he is looking after. The best one produces 700 barrels of oil a day, and 100 barrels of water, (salt water). The well also produces a gazillion gallons of natural gas (simply referred to as gas). The water that is collected needs to be injected into a landfill. The oil needs to go through a separator, to separate the oil from the gasoline, and benzene, and other stuff. The gas is pressurized and pumped all over the country, in the natural gas pipelines that we see everywhere. So those of us that use natural gas stoves somehow are connected to these pipelines all the way down here in Louisiana.

I asked Russell, what he would have done differently about the oil spill that happened in the gulf. He said he would have had some “heavy mud” ready to plug up the pipe. From what I understand heavy mud is a very dense mud solution that plugs the oil well while it is being drilled if something started to go wrong.

The platform for the well was an old platform but the well that actually broke was a new well that was being drilled

To drill an oil well, they drill roughly a 15 inch hole and put pipes in as they go down the keep the hole from filling in. After let’s say a 1000 feet they decrease the hole size and drill a slightly smaller hole. The new (slightly smaller) pipe is slid down inside the larger upper pipe. They do this for the entire length of the well, which can be up to 20,000 feet.

Once the well is in place, a release valve, (150 feet below sea floor) is installed. In case anything goes wrong the release valve can be turned off the oil stops flowing. The release valve was not installed yet on this well because it was still being drilled.

According to my friend Russell, this was business as usual. They were taking many of the precautions that they always do for drilling, just with this well they got into an oil field that was larger than they expected and that’s why they ran into problems. Russell says that as long as we are drilling for oil this will continue to happen.

We need to stop using this stuff. Try driving one less time today.

June 21 156 Km

Today’s Points 1 Total Score 2

Those lost souls that we see

Tonight after I left the last town of the day, while I was looking for my resting place for the night, I noticed a dog was running after me. To use the word chasing would conotate that he was trying to get me in a bad way, which isn’t true, I got the impression that this dog was interested in me for some other reason. I got the impression that this dog had something to say to me. Something important. Maybe a warning about some impending danger that lies up the trail for me. Maybe it was about some great spot to camp for the night. Or maybe the dog was a metaphorical adventure trying to chase me down and shake me up. Or maybe the dog was lost, lonely and was looking for a firend. Somebody to sleep with at night, and share meals with during the day. From the dogs point of view, I was a beacon of hope, a city on a hill, a friend, a companion.

. So I pedaled away from this dog. And with nothing around except oil rigs, cows and fences, the harder I pedaled the greater sense of desperation that I got from the dog. He couldn’t keep up and was abandoned by a lonely stranger on a lonely road. Eventually I got far enough ahead of the dog that the gdog stopped

I left you. I left you and never will know what you wanted to tell me. I left you to fend for yourself. I left you because if you were all those things that I think you were, once I said hello to you I knew I could never say goodbye. I am sorry I left you, may you find food, water and shade tomorrow and a home the day after.

It was a simple yet profound experience for me, I guess I have been on the road to long.

It smells like oil now and its so humid that fish can breath the air.