The End is the Beginning…

Dear readers, today is a very special day for us. It was exactly a year ago today when we left to embark on this crazy grease journey. So happy anniversary to us! Our beloved Kali (the Grease Beast) took us on quite a journey across the states meeting many interesting people and visiting many familiar faces and beautiful places on the way. We want to take this time to send our love and gratitude to all of the people and places that helped us along the way.

She’s Frozen!

So continues our adventures with the mighty Goddess Kali, aka “The Beast…” We were expecting some troubles having a diesel vehicle in the cold, cold Northeast Vermont winter, but having such a mild winter so far she’s been taking the cold very well. After our Christmas visit to Philadelphia we returned to VT, and after a very warm January (temps in the 40’s) February brought the sub zero temps back. After a couple nights of -15 degrees we attempted to start her up on a cold morning to go visit our friend David as he did some filming at a local elementary school.

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.

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.

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.

Eugene, Oregon

Totally last minute, we wrote to couchsurfers in Eugene, OR the day we were leaving Melissa’s. On our way there, we received a phone call from one of the couchsurfers girlfriend saying his place was full, but she could host us still. We got there late, which she had generously said would be fine with her, and met up at her place. We hung out chatting for a bit with Holly and Richey, and they were rad.

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.

Buckets of Grease

Saturday, while making a run to the health food store Amy and I decide to stop into the Thai restaurant in the same shopping center to see what they can offer us in grease. First we went out back to check their grease barrel and all looked good. Out of curiosity we also checked a couple of other barrels from other restaurants in the same center. There was a dumpster from a pretty popular franchise stakehouse, which will remain nameless. Oh man, gross… first off there was some kind of piece of animal carcass sitting right on top and as you open the lid there was globs of gross grille grease and other various animal parts sitting on the screen. I peered into the dumpster and there was a tan foam floating on the surface of the grease. This is exactly the type of grease we have to avoid.