(The lack of them, that is.)

I live in Color Country. My parents live in another part of Utah, a five hour drive away … even at freeway speeds. (See my blog, Conservation for the the speed that I really drive.)

To travel to Color Country for a visit, here are our choices:

• They can get on a train that stops in a neighboring town (but not in their town, even though they live just a few blocks from the railroad track), get off in Salt Lake at close to midnight, wait for 9 1/2 hours somewhere (Ever try to get a room at midnight?), and then take a bus from Salt Lake to St. George in Color Country. Total trip time: 19 hours.
• A bus isn’t an option. Even though they live in the largest town in the whole region, the bus goes right through and doesn’t stop there.
• Flying!? Surely you jest.

My parents are getting up there in years. For the last visit, I drove up to where they live, and drove their car back, doubling the highway milage. Chalk up another few dozen gallons of gas from our friends in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela.

It sure would be nice if there was some sort of public transportation.

Since it’s election season, I read with interest that one of our candidates has a strong, outspoken position about it. In his role as chairman of the Senate Science, Commerce and Transportation committee, McCain has killed more transportation funding than just about anybody else. In his role as chairman, he was quoted as saying, “There’s only two parts of the country that can support a viable rail system - the Northeast and the far West.”

Similarly, his campaign website doesn’t mention rail travel. Instead, he wants to provide a $300 million prize to design battery cars. By contrast, the Bush budget that he supports kills $20 million for the next generation of high-speed rail, and $250 million for railroad rehabilitation.

Pardon me … but I think there are lots of people working on high tech batteries now. After all, there’s money to be made, with or without McCain’s $300 million dollar cake frosting. But if the government doesn’t do something, rail travel will just get worse and worse.

By contrast, Obama is a Senate cosponsor of a bill that will create a partnership with states to invest in rail service. Obama has said, “In many parts of the country, Amtrak is the only form of reliable transportation.”

Oh ja! I hear that.

If you’re driving up State Road 9 to Zion Park and you find yourself behind this dumpy little car going about 50 … wave. It might be me.

My family is enjoying the fresh difference of clothes dried on our clothesline rather than in a dryer.

We keep our air conditioning set at 90 degrees. It’s summer! It should feel like summer!

Conservation happens in small steps. You can increase your gas milage by twenty percent by driving slower. I enjoy the trip a lot more that way. The difference in my power bill is in the hundreds of dollars.

Recently Columbia University climate scientist James Hansen warned Congress that the Earth has long passed the “dangerous level” for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Twenty years ago, Hansen told Congress that global warming was already here. Now he’s telling them that the point of no return is very near. That’s, “ten or twenty years” near. According to Hansen, “This is the last chance. We’re toast if we don’t get on a very different path.”

If you have kids, take a good look at them. Imagine the Earth you’re giving to them.

March: A Democrat beat the Republican in the Illinois district formerly held by House Speaker Dennis Hastert. The Republican had spent $9 million of his own money trying to get elected in the last six years.

May: A special election in Louisiana elected a Democrat to a Congressional seat held by the Republicans since 1974.

May: In a special election in northern Mississippi, a Democrat beat a Republican supported by the establishment in a district held by Republicans since 1994. Dick Cheney campaigned personally for the the Republican.

And now in Utah, six term congressman Chris Cannon has just been defeated by a relative newcomer. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Cannon raised seven times as much money and was supported by Bush, Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett. It was a stunning rejection of the Washington establishment. The victorious candidate, Jason Chaffetz, proclaimed, “The Republican Party is broken.”

I agree with that. And I think the Democrats are broken too. In my recent blog, Congressional Earmarks, I urged everyone to vote against anybody who is now in office.

Will Hatch, Bennett, and yes, Matheson too, be next? I sincerely hope so.

According to Gallup, only 18% of us approve of the way Congress does it’s job. But we still keep sending the same Bozo’s back, term after term. Hatch originally beat Frank Moss for the job with the campaign slogan that Moss’s 18 years in the Senate was enough. Now Hatch has been there for over 30 years. In the dictionary, the word “hypocrite” has his picture by it.

In a way, Bennett and Matheson are worse. Both of them essentially inherited their seats from their respective dad’s. Bennett even looks just like his dad. I feel like I’m in a bad time travel sci fi movie when I see him. Is this a democracy or a monarchy?

Whenever you can, vote against anybody who is now in office.