June 24 -- Portland, OR

Note to self ... when custom building RV systems that have never been built before, it might be a good idea to add a few extra months to your expected finish date.

The SolTrekker RV project, a non-profit evolution of BioTrekker, is making progress toward our goal of building the most eco-friendly motorhome the universe has ever seen, but it'll take the rest of the summer. Our planned completion date is September 5, 2008.

In the past few weeks we debuted the nearly finished SolTrekker exterior at the ReDirect Guide Greener Homes and Gardens show in Portland and stripped out the remaining interior walls and ceilings. We've finished the designs on nearly all the systems except for the radiant floor heat, have most of the new materials assembled and we plan to begin the reconstruction in the next week or two.

We're also excited to announce we have great new partners in the project. Portland-based Kaya General Contractors, and their affiliate Seed Architecture Studio, and Fuez, are all managed by entrepreneur Greg Martin, who has agreed to lend us assistance in finishing the interior retrofit. All three companies are focused on providing environmentally conscious building solutions and working to create community improvement, which just happens to be an important part of our mission as well. It's great when things click, and we're looking forward to working with Greg and the crew at Kaya, Seed and Fuez.

In other sustainable community news, in early June we played host to a peer in the eco-touring circuit when the Live Lightly Tour came to visit. Matt and Sara Janssen and their daughter Bella have been touring the country and living in their remodeled motorhome for the last nine months, fueling the entire journey with waste grease from restaurants. They are truly living their passion and living lightly, and we had fun spending the day with them, chatting about the touring life and searching out free grease in Portland's highly tapped grease market. It's always a pleasure to spend time with light hearted and like minded people. We wish them all the best in their journey.

We're looking forward to getting the SolTrekker out on the open road soon, but for now, the build goes on.

--Ty...

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