Plugged IN, Charged UP 4 PEACE One Woman, One EV, and One Million-Mile Movement

IGNITION: Where Glaciers Meet the Road

Thirty years ago, I landed on Grewingk Glacier in a helicopter. Massive. Ancient. Eternal, or so I thought.

Today, it recedes 98 feet every year. Where solid ice once stood, two mountains now emerge, a black serpentine river of rocks curves into a broad glacial lake dotted with turquoise icebergs that shouldn't exist yet.

Every morning from my bedroom window in Homer, Alaska, I watched it disappear. Every morning I asked: "What could I do?"

The answer arrived in the form of Rouge, my electric vehicle, my therapist, my companion on what would become a 12-week pilgrimage across 31 states.

THE LEAP OF FAITH: Departure and the Great Unplugging

When my TEDxVail leadership era ended after bringing a team of four to replace me and amplify ideas worth spreading, I faced a choice: What comes after you've helped change everything?

I chose motion over meditation.

I hand-painted 100 rocks from Homer Spit, pieces of Grewingk itself, to gift to special people along the journey. I created "Note to Self" art ribbons asking one question: "What is one thing you'd like to see in America's Finer Future that we are driving toward together?"

Then Rouge and I unplugged from routine and plugged into possibility.

First charge. First state line. First conversation that shifted from "Can an EV really do that?" to "Tell me how."

THE LONG HAUL: Miles of Trust and Rolling Revelation

Across 31 states and 15,000+ miles of TESLA Supercharger stops, something unexpected happened.

Range anxiety became range awareness.

Every 200 miles, I'd arrive at a charging station, and Rouge would audibly release pressure (kind way of saying farted - an Elon Musk imprint on his car company) as I walked away. Like clockwork. Like a patient teacher reminding me: You can't control everything. Trust the infrastructure. Trust the journey. Laugh at the fart sound as I scurried to the nearest potty.

My copilots let me sleep during 2 long-distance shifts from event-induced 4-day and 6-day coast to coast sprints. Hosts fed me, sheltered me, asked me about those painted rocks. Thank-you notes flowed with feelings of gratitude for their generosity.

We weren't just crossing America. We were weaving a web of connection.

The pilgrimage became a flow state, mile after mile of conversations that began with "How far can you go?" and ended with "How soon can I get one?" Eleven Times! That's what I call 11-Xing. All for peace on the planet.

THE RECKONING: Desert Discernment and White-Knuckle Wisdom

Then came Amarillo.

South through El Paso. Across to Tucson. Up through San Diego. Back through northern Arizona.

The gauntlet. The crucible. The doubt valley.

In those stretches, range panic became real. Charging stations felt impossibly far apart. The desert tested every assumption I had about trust, preparation, and surrender.

Rouge taught me: The infrastructure is there. You just have to believe it before you see it.

This is where transformation lives: in the white-knuckle territory between fear and faith.

THE SHIFT: Awakening Arc and the Blooming

By the time we crossed into California, something had fundamentally changed.

Not just in me. In the people I met.

Eleven people bought electric vehicles.

Not because I lectured them. Not because I shamed them. But because they watched one curious, courageous woman prove it could be done, one glacier rock, one thank you note, one charging stop at a time.

They began to feel connected not just to cleaner air, but to each other, to the land.

They began to feel responsible like nature wasn't a backdrop anymore, but a relationship they'd been neglecting.

They began to feel like restoration was possible.

We collected stories from our hearts, tiny packets of hope carried in our pockets, just like those painted stones from a dying glacier.

HOMECOMING: The Gathering and the Ripple

After 12 weeks, Rouge and I returned close to home. An unXpected encounter seven hours before the finish ended with a close-encounter-of-the-drunk-driver-totaling-Rouge-kind. I am traumatized, but physically fine.

But the journey didn't end.

It multiplied. 1 became 9 became 10 became 11...and counting...are becoming?

Those eleven EV buyers became ambassadors. Their friends asked questions. Their communities watched them charge up, drive on, live differently.

A voluntary, self-driven, heart-led movement was emerging, one that turned a single idea into visible green on the ground.

My TEDxVail team taught me: Ideas don't need megaphones. They need motion.

We didn't just talk about ideas worth spreading. We drove them. Mile by mile. State by state. Charge by charge.

THE SPREADING: A Million-Mile Vision for Rotary

Here's what I'm proposing to Rotary Clubs across Hawaii and beyond:

The Green Drive Movement

43 Hawaiian Clubs drive EV's to Peace Poles Earth Day 2026 that builds into

1,000 Rotarians

1,000 miles each

1,000,000 miles toward climate restoration

Imagine:

Roads humming silently while flowering trees bloom healthier along cleaner air corridors

Children growing up knowing bird names through the Merlin app

Communities using iNaturalist so the shoulders of our roads aren't adorned with the bodies of deer, squirrels, and porcupines

Rotarians modeling what it means to live with nature instead of near it.

Each driver becomes a mobile climate awakener, not through preaching, but through showing up.

Document the journey. Share glacier rocks (or lava rocks, or coral fragments, whatever your place offers). Ask the question: "What do you want to see in our finer future?"

Then watch what happens when service above self meets electric motion.

PERPETUAL MOTION: The Legacy Miles Begin Now

All it takes is one person behind the wheel looking for their first followers.

I found eleven.

Rotary can find ten thousand.

Because ideas change everything but only when we move them.

Mile by mile.

Club by club.

Island by island.

Heart by heart.

Plugged IN. Charged UP. Driven by PEACE and 4 PEACE.

Let's restore the forgotten path one electric mile at a time.

Ready to be Plugged IN, Charged UP 4 PEACE yourself? Or bring a presentation to your Rotary Club or local service group? Or to join the Green Drive Movement, comment below.

#GreenDriveMovement #Rotary4Climate #ElectricPilgrimage #IdeasInMotion #PluggedINChargedUP

P.S. Further wonderings:

What would your "glacier moment" be, Earth change that calls you to action?

How could you or your group document a 1,000-mile EV journey in your region?

What stories of hope are waiting to be Xchanged & collected in your community?

Who are the eleven people you could inspire to shift toward sustainable transportation?

How does "service above self" intersect with climate restoration in your place?