Dave:
The T-shirt is available at Café Press, linked from our Cliff
Rassweiler's EV racing site; I got one as soon as a photo of him in it
appeared on the FLEAA list:
www.ProEV.com
Got one of the WKtEC shirts, too. We had about 200 people stop by
the Ride & Drive in a large parking lot at whopping-big UCF. I spotted
Chelsea walking up and made a fuss over finally meeting our EVangel
film star. Chris Paine appeared soon after and asked about my T-shirt,
too. We gobbled free pizzas.
I was video-interviewed by the school paper, the Future, and by
the Orlando Sentinel. I'm getting better at sound-bites, I think.
Maybe our Tribune-owned daily will actually break its blackout on EVs;
my last letter to the daily's local hierarchy was a bit tetchy about
that.
Charles counted over a hundred attendees at the film showing. He
drove, with two recharging-stops, over 125 miles in one of his RAV4
EVs to bring boxes of EV literature, Sherry's books, WKtEC DVDs and
the cool black T-shirts. What a guy!
The local City-owned Orlando Utilities Commission had set up at
the podium, with their literature stacked along the stage edge. We set
Charles up with the bulk of the EV merch near an entrance at the back
of the audience; being the local pain-in-the-butt, I put some of the
literature (that I'd brought,) including my own one-page primer, up
next to OUC's stuff down front. We interrupted the OUC presentation to
introduce Chris and Chelsea, who then took over the Q & A. Our Bill
Young, who's been building EVs since the 1970s and runs the program at
UCF's Florida Solar Energy Center, contributed quite a few facts about
PV and EV ups and downs in the Sunshine State.
The EVent was quite a success, considering that UCF is huge and
has trouble publicising the dozens of events there every day. Hybrid
Technologies brought a Smart ForTwo EV, which I especially liked
driving (briefly, as the R & D had lines of people waiting.) Our local
GEM dealer had two NEVs (I'd test-driven one last week - the new 2007
steering upgrade feels sloppy-.)
We ran out of time for the many (and involved) questions; the
theater staff had not handled the lighting properly and finally
darkened the main area (the podium and stage were never lit at all.)
I enjoyed talking with Chelsea, Bill Young and Charles Whalen for
an hour outside after we cleared out of the auditorium; I continued
bothering everybody with my camera. Chris came back from dinner and
sat with us for a few minutes before we all said good night at 11:30
pm. I went for a beer or four at my local punks' pub and got
compliments on my "Gas is so..." shirt there, too.
Breathe free,
Hugh E Webber
Florida Chapter, Electric Auto Association www.eaaev.org
Earth Shuttle Pedalcab www.pedalcab.us
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