Truckin' On

We finally made it to San Francisco! What an amazing city! We had a long day of hiking up hills that seemed almost vertical and catching the trolley Full House style. We smelled our way through the fragrance section of the botanical gardens, walked the Golden Gate Bridge and down Lombard Street, ventured into the hectic markets of Chinatown, browsed City Lights, and had a drink in the same spot as Kerouac! Absolutely unforgettable. AND THE FOOD! Within the first thirty minutes of getting off the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), we were already munching on locally grown sausage egg and cheese muffins, some of the best pesto and artichoke pizza, and spicy Thai food. Later that afternoon in Chinatown, Louis bought a pork rind that could have made a football, just to have onlookers grimace as he crunched away. We left Chinatown full of Chinese food, bubble tea, and Louis's eerily accurate fortune "Something on four wheels will soon be a fun investment for you!" Lila (Ryder's sister) then took us to one of San Fran's untapped views. She kept our destination a mystery as we walked through the posh Westin St. Francis Hotel lobby and into the elevators. UP we went to the 31st floor where we were greeted with an amazing view of the city. Tired from a long day of adventure, we made our way back to cozy Oakland and indulged in some of the unique flavors of Tara's organic ice cream( Rosemary pear, sage, white pepper chocolate chip!)

Yesterday, when trying to leave the beautiful city of Oakland, Cassandre noticed a problem with the trailer. The truss of the trailer had cracked and needed to be repaired. The boys rushed off to buy a welding kit and weld the trailer truss back together so that we could leave for the Redwood Forest. Many hours later, with our trailer fixed and our belly's full we headed out of the city. Unfortunately, minutes later, the weld-fix cracked and we were back to square one. Goodbye trailer!

Now we are chooglin' up the 101 in a sea of redwoods with spirits hopeful. Tonight we will be exploring northern Cali, a place few of us have experienced.

The sea was red and the sky was grey...

Friday, May 28th
Bakerfield, CA

We made it all the way across NM and AZ running on veggie oil, and had just enough to take us over the border into California and Joshua Tree National Park. Even after seeing the overwhelming scenery of the Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree's rock formations and stunning desert views are breathtaking. Despite a higher demand and more awareness here in California, we have still been able to get vegetable oil fairly easily. We filled up just outside Joshua Tree and made it to Pasadena, CA to visit with Cal-Tech students who were sympathetic to our cause. Thanks to the Rickett residential house everyone got to spend a fun night exploring the beautiful campus and meeting people very interested to hear our story. Just outside of Los Angeles we were once again relieved to find two nice business owners who let us fill our veggie oil tanks, and now we are travelling north less than two-hundred and fifty miles from San Francisco, CA.

The Trip So Far

May 24, 2010
3:17 pm
Middle of Nowhere, New Mexico


We're running on vegetable oil for the second day now. Yesterday we drove from Austin, TX to Clovis, NM. Austin was amazing! We drove into the city early in the morning on Saturday. We spent most of the day walking around Austin, seeing the sights. At dusk, we walked down to the bridge where the famous bats fly out at sunset. We were patiently waiting for the much anticipated flight of the bats, along with several hundred other people, when we were abrubtly informed that there would be no bats on account of it being mating season and all. Disappointingly, we wandered around downtown Austin and were soon overtaken by the beauty of the city. The next morning we swam in Barton Springs, a natural spring fed pool in the heart of Austin. We also filled the tank full of vegetable and made it all the way across Texas ENTIRELY ON VEGGIE OIL!! We stopped at a truck stop in Clovis, NM for the night.

This morning we woke up and we're once again on the search for more fuel. The idea of running on waste and actually doing it are two different things. Now that we are "on the veg" it's hard to imagine doing it any other way. People are constantly interested in the bus and what we are doing. We have received a lot of support everywhere we go. We filled up today at Taco Villa in Clovis and all of the employees were so kind. The manager, John, was thoroughly impressed with our bus and he gave us enough oil to make it all the way across New Mexico.

So here we are, traveling in the desert, snow capped mountains in the distance and all the while we are running ENTIRELY ON VEGGIE OIL! Next stop: Grand Canyon.

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May 26, 2010
Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon was absolutely breathtaking. It was honestly indescribable. We hiked down a couple miles and watched the sunset on the way up. The canyon really put some perspective into all of us. You realize how small you actually are in comparison.

Now we are once again on the chase for more veggie oil!

Heading to: Joshua Tree
Goal: Completely on the veg

We are proud to announce...

Not only, after welding went on well into the night, did the bus pass her most challenging task to date, making it almost two hundred miles on a newly converted engine, but also was tracked via GPS the entire way thanks to the generous support of the folks at Optigro.net. The system will allow anyone with an internet connection to view in real time where the bus is and where it's headed. Also thanks to Optigro, the bus is now a rolling 3G hotspot, so we'll be able to update this blog as things happen. She now sits in Starkville, receiving a few last minute cosmetic touches, before 6 A.M. May 21st.

To login to Optigro, follow the link above and enter with:

Username: followus@msstate.edu

Password: bulldog

Once logged in, search on the map for the asset named Bulldog.

Only a week to go...

Time seems to be flying by and the departure date is getting close; in one week the bus will hit the road. As mentioned earlier, all eyes are under the hood. With the help of a very gracious volunteer welder the bus has been fitted with a new fuel tank better suited to hold waste oil, pump, and heating element. The last piece to the puzzle will be mounting brackets to hold the waste oil filter in place, which should arrive today. The entire fuel system should be complete by Sunday, when the bus will take her first converted test run from Moss Point, MS to Starkville, MS. Wish her luck and stay tuned!

More pictures of the entire process can be seen here http://s999.photobucket.com/home/amazingbustrip/index

Only twenty days until liftoff..

The finishing touches are being put on the interior, and the wiring is done. Right now, the fuel conversion process is at the forefront. Refitting a diesel engine to handle waste oil is a matter of replacing the fuel pump to handle different a viscosity, installing a heating element to keep the oil flowing, and keeping contaminants out of the oil. So far about half of the physical conversion is done, and the final decisions are being made about the best fuel lines and heating element to ensure reliability depending on the quality of the oil we can expect to find out on the road.

As soon as the engine is in working order, more detailed pictures will be posted showing exactly what we had to do. Stay tuned!