November 2005 Archives
Megan and I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you're all able to be with friends and family.
On Friday we completed the second to last leg of our trip around the world. (Though we've been back in the States for a few months now, we won't consider the loop complete until we get back to Boston where we began our journey on August 11, 2004). We made it to Scott and Charlotte's new house in Golden, Colorado late Friday night. It turned out that we had collected enough vegetable oil during that first stop at the Chinese restaurant in California for the whole trip, and didn't have to stop again as Michael had mentioned.
It was great getting to see parts of the States that neither of us had seen before. After a yummy dinner and comfy night's sleep at Dave and Lexa's friend Kathy's new place we got back on the road and enjoyed some beautiful views of Lake Tahoe. Then it was into Nevada and onto HIghway 50, "the Lonliest HIghway" as it's officially called even on our map. I guess there's not much to do out there, so people find creative ways to entertain themselves, like writing messages in rocks on the side of the road and throwing their shoes up into trees.
We didn't quite make to Ely, our goal for the day, but we pulled off on a small dirt road and camped for the night in blissful silence. Dave's camper turned out to be a surprisingly comfortable for all three of us and Dave cooked some great meals for us in there. We made it to Ely the next morning and enjoyed some lunch and gambling at the Nevada Club. We spent our third night in Fishlake National Forest near Salina, Utah. Dave got a little excited after the turn off and drove us just about all the way up the mountain. We noticed from the burning smell that ride down the next morning was a little tough on the brakes, so we had to stop for a bit to let smoke and cool off.
On Friday we got to enjoy the beautiful red cliffs of Utah and a brief blizzard near Vail before making it to Golden around midnight. It's great to see Charlotte again and finally get to know Scott a little better. We spent the weekend catching up, hiking the hills behind their house, eating good food, wandering around Boulder and helping Scott win his hockey game. Wednesday we fly to Boston to complete our journey! More from there...
Megan and I have left Berkeley and started our holiday travels. We're driving to visit Charlotte and Scott in Denver, Colorado with our friend Dave Silver. We wrote about Dave way back in April when he appeared in a newspaper article about a truck he converted to run on vegetable oil. As I write this update we're cruising in that very same truck down highway 50 towards South Lake Tahoe at 60 mph--all under veggie oil power!
Dave's truck, a 6.9 liter diesel 1985 Ford F250 can run on diesel, biodiesel (filtered vegetable oil mixed with methanol/ethanol and lye) and vegetable oil. He gets 12 miles to the gallon regardless of which fuel is used. Dave usually gets his oil for free from fast food and family-style restaurants. Most restaurants have a grease bin behind their location where they store used oil until a company comes and picks it up.
We packed up his truck at around 10AM this morning and drove half an hour outside Berkeley to Vacaville where Megan spotted a strip mall Chinese food shop. We parked the truck and went in. Dave explained to the manager that he has a truck that runs on vegetable oil. He then asked if we could have their used oil. After a moment's pause the manager agreed and we went out back to begin the process.
The first step was pumping the used oil out of the grease trap. This particular restaurant used cottonseed oil that was a nice amber color. Some places Dave has visited don't change their oil very often and use low-quality oil (partially hydrogenated oil) that isn't as good for the truck's system. Using a hand pump with a filter screen on the bottom we filled 5-gallon jerry cans with the old oil.
Next, we used a 3-step filtration system that Dave engineered to filter out any remaining food particles. After 4 and 1/2 hours we pumped 90 gallons out of the grease pit and filtered 30 gallons for immediate use. We've put the other 60 gallons in jerry cans to be filtered later. Diesel at the pump sells for about $3 a gallon in California and we got 90 gallons of fuel for nothing--saving us $270.
We'll drive 180 miles and will spend the night with a friend of Dave's in South Lake Tahoe. Tomorrow we're heading towards Ely, Nevada and will probably camp overnight somewhere. We'll have to find more oil to pump on Thursday. Hopefully we'll have as much luck then finding a good restaurant as we did today.
I'm currently at the 2005 Green Business Conference in San Francisco. It's exciting to be able to meet with so many business leaders and fellow small business owners who believe that the products and services they produce can have a beneficial impact in their communities and on the environment.
Some of the speakers we've heard from come from businesses and organizations such as Clif Bar, Burt's Bees, PAX Worldfund, FairTrade, and the Global Fund for Women.
This weekend is the Green Festival here in San Francisco and we'll be going with Sanna, David, Alexa and Dave. And we'll be celebrating an early Thanksgiving/Christmas because on Monday we leave for our holiday travels. I hope everyone's doing well.
