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Earlier this morning, while driving along the coast, we got a text message telling us to where to report for our next adventure. Thanks to our savvy bus driver, who knows the coasts of California like the back of his hand, we had a couple of hours to kill so Tommy decided to swing by and pay a visit to Pam Anderson. He was happy to see her again, but it might not of been the best idea Tommy ever had. Like Nina, Pamela is really knowledgeable about being ecologically friendly and going green, so she was cognizant of how much Tommy has actually changed.
After her unofficial tour of the bio-diesel digs, Pam wondered whether Tommy has actually done anything truly significant to change his lifestyle. After all, changing out light bulbs in a restaurant to be more green is one thing, but living a completely "green" life is quite another. So, in order to prove himself, Tommy showed his commitment to being green by pledging to become a vegetarian. After all, the way that we breed animals for food pollutes and damages our environment – it causes us to consume huge amounts of water, grain, petroleum, pesticides and drugs.
Tommy spoke a little too soon with his promise to stop eating meat – everyone was starving and our next stop, before beginning our mission, was to grab some lunch. We went to a nice little seafood joint overlooking the ocean. I had the best crab cakes ever. As for Tommy - he got to enjoy a vegetable plate. He didn't exactly love it when he was eating it, but he appreciated it later when we were relaxing on the beach across from the restaurant and we saw signs warning us of the water pollution.
The down time was nice, but it was finally time to get moving if we were going to make it to our challenge in time.
As we rolled up, we saw Persia White standing down by the LA River. While it was nice to finally see a beautiful girl, it was really hard to not focus on the riverbed behind her. I knew that water pollution was a problem, but I didn't know that it was this bad. The mud was literally littered with trash – old soda cans, plastic bottles, candy wrappers, and even shampoo bottles! The worst part is that most of it could be recycled.
Persia let us know that the trash that we saw behind her wasn't atypical, nor has it been compiling for months. In fact, Heal the Bay, a local organization that cleans up California's coastal waterways, was at the site just a few weeks ago to clean up the trash that had accumulated.
After learning about different ways that we can reduce water pollution, Persia sent us off on a fishing trip. Some people (I won't name any names) almost refused to go, but Stephanie and Dave, our captains and saviors on the high seas, convinced us otherwise.
Once we were out on the water, everyone started to have a little bit more fun. Willie bonded with the bait, 4-ize kept everyone entertained with some improvised, ocean-inspired jam, and everyone had a little bit of fun grossing Nina out with the worms.
All the while, we were actually catching fish (which Nina, Stephanie, and Dave made us throw back, of course) and Stephanie and Dave taught us about how big of a problem water pollution really is. Did you know that over 40% of America's lakes are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life? Pollution in our water affects aquatic life, humans, and our environment in more than just the obvious ways.
Back on land, just as we were getting settled back into our busses, we were coaxed out of our comfort zone once again. I looked outside of the window to see what all the commotion was about, and Stephanie was out there yelling for us to get up, get changed, and get into the Long Beach Aquarium.
Just like our school days, she asked for a "volunteer" for a mystery assignment. Of course, Big Willie jumped at the chance. I'm glad I didn't volunteer for that one, because he ended up knee-deep in a shark tank...in a wet suit. We all got a good laugh.
After learning a little bit about the sharks that were circling Big Willies toes, Stephanie issued our next challenge – a pop quiz. Now it was REALLY starting to feel like we were back in school. We had 30 minutes to prove that we've actually been paying attention. Lucky for us, we had an advantage – not only did we have the aquarium at our disposal, but we also had tour guides to help seek out the answers. The only problem was that the tour guides were a quarter of our age!
I hate to admit this, but I'm not sure that we could have completed the challenge without them! And, we still had time to enjoy the aquarium! Nina and Diggity Dave got to feed and play with a walrus! And Ludacris and his team played around in the Lorakeet Forest.
At the end of the day, we finally got rewarded – and unlike elementary school it was a little better than a Gold Star and a "Good Job!" After watching a band jam outside of the aquarium we went to the beach and had a fish fry! It was the perfect ending to a great day on the ocean. Even Tommy, who was pining for some fish, but had to settle on vegetables instead, had a great time!
~Roadie T
Get more info on this episode of Battleground Earth.
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