Perhaps one of the hardest parts of living an eco-friendly lifestyle so far has been when I am not at home or close to home. Normally when I am out and collect some amount of trash that is recyclable, I save it and take it home to put in my recycling bin. This past weekend I was in Branson and it was more difficult for me to do this. I did save my trash that was recyclable and bring it home, but I had to deal with packing trash. Obviously I wanted to do this, but it was more of a challenge. Because of this, I tended to reduce my impact by trying to really eliminate my trash. I mainly used a resusable water bottle and used only one shopping bag for all my purchases. I forgot to bring a reusable bag, so I got a bag from the first store where I bought something, and then I used this bag for everything else I bought. When I came home, I then put that bag in the recycling.

We spent two days at Silver Dollar City (SDC) and I was worried about two things: recycling and vegan food choices. I was very surprised when I saw plastic only recycling bins next to many trash cans. At first I wondered why there was only plastic, but after walking around the park for a while, I realized that a majority of food items are served in plastic containers. As for the vegan diet, I was surprised to find several options. One morning for breakfast we went to a bakery in SDC and I nearly died from the smell of cinnamon rolls and other non-vegan breakfast foods. But, they also had a fresh fruit cup and that was nice to see. If you have ever been to SDC, then you are likely familiar with the "skillet" places where you can get a bowl of fried potatoes, veggies, and meat. I used to love these places and was happy to find a vegetable only skillet stand. This was probably not added to the menu for vegans to enjoy, but I sure was thrilled to see it was available.

As promised, I investigated how much it would be to buy carbon offsets for the trip. I tried to use terrapass.com, but I think you can only buy offsets for one year at a time. This is only about $70-$80, so it is not as much as I anticipated. There are several different websites on the internet where you can purchase offsets, and I need to investigate them some more before purchasing offsets. For the time being, I am going to keep a record of miles driven and likely purchase a credit at the end of the year to offset my driving for this entire year.