Winter WVO- O No, O Yes!

It’s been a mild winter so far here in VT- last week (mid January) we had temperatures in the upper 30’s. However, right before we left to visit Philly for Christmas, we had been having subzero temps. The Beast was feeling it especially on the cold mornings at 6 am when we had to start her up to get Amy into Montpelier for her babysitting gigs. For the most part, “Kali” cooperated, but not without putting up a fight, she was angry and hating it. Since the house on the property is solar powered, we are unable to plug the truck’s block heater in overnight; in fact we can’t even plug it into the house at all because it drains the house batteries too quick. So our solution was to wake up 2 hours before we had to leave and plug it directly into the generator and run it until go time. This seemed to get her warmed up, and we were able to get Amy to Montpelier. We didn’t bother trying to run her on the vegetable oil, our ride to the city was a bit too short, and we didn’t want to take chances. So we had to buy some diesel (VT has treated winterized diesel) and some diesel additive to aid the cold starts.

Much Brotherly Love

Back to our wonderful homeland. It was Wintertime 2009 not so long ago. We left Walden and traveled through Montpelier (so Amy could get one more day of babysitting in) and headed southbound with a full car and a full tank of veggie oil. The plan was to make it back in time for Robert’s annual Grinch Party, and we did just that (sans a sleepy Amy). This is also where I begin my unintended journey to gain an upwards of 10 lbs…

The Grease Beast and other Beasts…

So, yea, we’ve had some “car trouble.” Nothing we couldn’t handle, though. Well, let me (Amy) start from my first day of work in early October, when the truck wouldn’t start. I awoke early to prepare for my 45 minute commute to a babysitting position I had accepted, and found snow covering the ground everywhere. It was a beautiful sight, but when the truck didn’t start and we discovered there would be too little energy from the solar panel system to support us plugging in the giant diesel, I knew I had to act fast. I quickly called a neighbor, who told me our other neighbors hadn’t left for work yet and were heading our way. Since they had no phone, I proceeded to put on a jacket and I ran. I ran up our driveway, I ran underneath the maple canopy along the road, and then down the long path to their cabin.

Route 2 and Car Camping

After heading out of the east end of the park, we decided to take the scenic route across Montana. Route 2 passes through many small towns as well as a few Indian reservations and follows a railway that will transport most of the wheat that is harvested from all the fields along the way. Montana is quite a large state and we spent the rest of the day and evening driving across route 2. Later, we decided to duck back down to the highway rather than continuing on 2 into North Dakota. Just before crossing the state line, we stopped to rest for the night.

Moses Lake

Before slowing our pace in Missoula for three days, we treated ourselves halfway there to a night at a trucker’s motel in a faithful town called Moses Lake. Here, aside from stepping out for a short walk to see the nearby lake reflecting the setting sun, we needed to give some attention to the Truck. Actually, it was the veggie oil system that was out of order. We were continuously blowing out fuses in the pump that we use to pull oil from restaurant bins and then to fill our tank with. Jon went to work as Inspector Gadget, and after blowing about three additional fuses he found some crossed wires! Picking up another fuse, the pump was working again and more oil was filtered into the tank for tomorrow’s drive.

Got Grease?

We were warned a few times that it would be hard to find unclaimed grease throughout California, and gas prices are usually much higher there. So, a couple of weeks before our arrival in San Diego we sent an email thru fillup4free to a person who stated there was a network of grease car owners in the SD area who may have extra WVO to give away for free. After corresponding with Frank, he sent out a mass email to a few other grease car owners and WVO collectors in the area. Then I received a call from Ned who said he could give us enough to fill our tank, so we arranged to meet with him. It was great to see fillup4free work like it did, and just like the couchsurfing network, it will be very fulfilling to give back to the cause once we settle down.

White Sands and Las Cruces, NM

Our next drive took us from desert landscapes to steep climbs and forests to White Sands. As we descended from higher elevations, we came upon a vast open area. Mountains hugged the skyline ahead in both directions, and at the base of the range we were able to make out the sea of White Sands. We passed a sign advising us not to pick up hitchhikers (they may be escaped convicts) and then we passed another informing us that we were soon to be surrounded by missile ranges. Dodging hitchers and deadly flying objects, we made our way to White Sands National Monument.

Vinh Binh

Let’s talk truck!!! We devoted chunks of time in Fort Worth searching for a pot of gold, for a sweet waste oil find. No discoveries yet, though we did learn that the chain “Pei Wei Asian Diner” has a secret dungeon where the oil is mysteriously dropped and later extracted by what sounded like a super futuristic machine, possibly the Terminator’s only source of work nowadays. I did say “I’ll be back” to the lady since the menu looked pretty good.

The Beast Needs Grease

Ironocally when we arrived in Athens, our host Abby had been working on this great drawling of Kali and her roomate John was writing a report on her… Anyway, the black beast has been running pretty well. We seemed to be loosing a little coolant somewhere so a rather easy DIY gasket placement in the thermostat housing seemed to do the trick (thanks Kearin for spotting that for us). We have been running on grease from Philadelphia to Charlottesville to Asheville, Athens and about halfway to the meditation center in Jesup, GA. Unfortunately in Asheville, Blue Ridge Bio-Diesel has the waste veggie oil market monopolized, so no luck collecting there, and only a few gallons discovered in Athens. Luckily diesel prices seemed to have dropped to about 2.25 a gallon down here. I think our best luck is going to be in more populated suburban areas and hopefully we can stock up in Florida.

Cubies!

Found these 2 cubies of oil on our way home the other night on out way home. Turn out they are about 1/4 filled with food chunks and sludge. No good, refund please.