news update links
January 17, 2008

Salem, Wa
By Laurie White

Today, Marcelo & I visited with Jim & Liz Haberman in the morning and then headed back to Salem at 930 hours (9:30 A.M).. Marcelo has convinced John (& his trusty dog, Jack) to join us for another day, hurray! We meet our Salem host, Bill Bishoprick and set the solar car up to charge the batteries in a park near his beautiful, self-designed, passive solar home. We charge the car’s batteries up at Fairmont Park, very near the Governor of Oregon’s mansion. We walk over to see the Governor, but can’t get past his guard. Frustrating!

We charge the car’s batteries most of the day and are able to reach 104 volts, a little more than half-way charged. Both Marcelo and I are trying to talk John and Bill to join us for more days on the tour. We are planning to go to Corvallis, Eugene, and Florence tomorrow.

Marcelo is constantly looking for new crew members. The Portland man I thought was going to join when I leave is worried that he can’t be back in Portland by Friday, so decided not to join the tour. I am very happy that the weather has been so beautiful; it has helped Marcelo get further than we both thought he would go!

Bill, Marcelo, John and I eat a very late lunch today, so we aren’t hungry at dinner time. John drove on to Eugene to stay with his parents for the evening. Marcelo and I decide to try to find an internet café that is open at night so he and I can work on our emails and update his Web site. He is unable to update his Web site in the time we have available, unfortunately! We had to go to two different places and still didn’t get everything accomplished that we needed to do. We arrive back at Bill’s place (he wisely opted to stay home) at 2100 hours or 11 P.M.



Our Portland hosts, Jim and Liz Haberman with Laurie. Thanks, Jim and Liz
The solar car’s protective cover is completely iced over
Marcelo finds that his spray water bottle is completely frozen. Brrrrr! It was cold last night
Laurie gently cleans the solar array and car when we discover how much dirt and grime it collected on the way from Mulino to Salem.
Our new host, Bill Bishoprick, becomes acquainted with the solar car and us. Bill, taking a photo
We set up the solar array to charge the batteries near by at Fairmont Park, it attracted lots of the neighbors.
It is another beautiful, sunny winter day in Oregon! We are hoping the batteries will fully charge so we can go even further tomorrow.
A neighbor leads us in a celebration song, Marcelo achieved another record today in Salem! Hurray!

Xof1 on the way back into the shelter of Bill’s carport for the evening.

Salem host Bill Bishoprick, with John and Laurie