Road Trip 2009 hits 1,000 miles in the Rockies

Road Trip 2009 hit 1,000 miles in the beautiful town of Glenwood Springs, Colo.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo.--It still feels like Road Trip 2009 has just started, but I've already hit 1,000 miles. Unlike Road Trip 2008, where I hit the 1,000-mile milestone while driving along a nondescript section of forested, deep South highway, this time the odometer turned over to four figures while I was rolling slowly in the Audi Q7 TDI "clean diesel" SUV I'm road-testing down a picturesque lane full of high-priced houses with fantastic views of the Rocky Mountains.

I like to use each of the thousand-mile points along the way as an excuse to blog about what has happened on Road Trip since the last such point. I suppose it's kind of arbitrary, and perhaps on my next trip I could just as well blog about where I'm at when I hit 843 miles, 1,843 miles, 2,843 miles and so on. But I'm a fan of round numbers; what can I do?

The odometer rolls over to 1,000 miles on the Audi Q7 TDI that CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman is driving around on Road Trip 2009.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

On Road Trip 2009, the first thousand miles has certainly been full of interesting stops, with a lot of variety.

I began by visiting the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colo., and learning about founder Amory Lovins' highly-efficient house in that high Rockies town. The house, which focuses on finding ways to reduce power consumption, produces more renewable energy than it uses, allowing it to feed electricity back into the grid. Also, because of its use of a greenhouse, it features banana trees that can even produce fruit at over 8,000 feet of altitude.

I also visited Boulder, Colo., and among other things, I talked to the folks at Transition Boulder County, a nonprofit focusing on how to help local communities figure out how to thrive in what they say is a not-too-distant future in which the world has passed peak oil production.

In Boulder, I also talked to a scientist at the University of Colorado who is spearheading a nearly half-billion dollar project to investigate what happened to Mars' atmosphere in an attempt to find out if the Red Planet once was able to support life.

Then I moved on to Colorado Springs, where I spent several days doing a number of things.

Photos: Inside Cheyenne Mountain, America's Fortress

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First, I arrived at the United States Air Force Academy for a day witnessing the in-processing of the class of 2013, a group of 1,376 new basic cadets who are willing to endure four years of hard work and at least a year of humiliation at the hands of their older classmates for the chance to serve in the "Long Blue Line."

The next day, I had a very rare opportunity to visit Cheyenne Mountain, the underground facility also known as "America's Fortress," where NORAD and many other arms of the U.S. defense and military community maintain command centers and other facilities. The focus of my visit, however, was on the infrastructure of Cheyenne Mountain.

And then, before I left Colorado Springs, I returned to the Air Force Academy to watch dozens of firemen (and women) compete in the Firefighter Combat Challenge, a nationwide tour that pits teams against each other in a bid to show who is the strongest, fastest, and best at the many tasks these brave public servants have to perform on a daily basis.

Now I'm already well on my way to the next thousand miles. Where will I be the next time those three zeroes show up on the odometer? Only time will tell.

For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.

[Pete Bardo]

Hey, where is the "highest paved road in North America", aside from somewhere in Colorado?

[Vesicant]

How do you like the TDI clean diesel? Volkswagen has been pushing theirs on MythBusters, and it looks interesting.

[vivek164]

Road safety first. This should be the priority of all the drivers to avoid accidents. I have found best gadgets to keep you safe in terms of road safety. First is No Nap . If you are feeling drowsy but needed to keep yourself on the road and just want to make it to your destination as soon as possible without causing a major accident. And you have tried all the un-effective strategies to keep you awake just like drinking 10 cups of coffee, blasting some punk music, or drinking some old stuff like energy drink this is the best gadget for you. The No Nap is a small, easy to use, device that will keep you and others safe during a long, drowsy drive. All you need to do is turn the device on, adjust the wake up angle switch, and place it behind your ear. Then when your head slumps forward as you begin to doze off behind the wheel, the No Nap produces a loud, powerful beeping noise that will snap you out of your snooze. It runs on low battery consumption, and its ergonomic design fits comfortably behind your ear. This gadget has been popular with truckers who spend long hours on the road and it could be useful for keeping many others safe on the highway as well. So why take a risk in driving you might not just save your life but start caring for others too