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WHO? Oliver. oof San Francisco again, Brooklyn before, Atlanta & Chicago wayback. RECENT: The magical hour Something midwestern My Two Front Teeth oh yeah album titles Hello Summertime wow, i was tired Lists WRBC 2008 bike > car TRAVELS: Biodiesel trip across America (January, 2005) Paris (April, 2005) Election work in NM (November, 2004) ARCHIVES: June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 August 2003 June 2003 LINKS TO PALS: elly Toshok Pete Tuggy Workstatus Nathan Express Train SEARCH: RSS: Get your RSS feed here |
Biodiesel AdventuresHere are all the entries about my January 2005 trip across the country on biodiesel! January 06, 2005 05:03 PMnew car!I just bought this. I'll go to Chicago soon to get it :) BioDiesel here I come!! I can't wait to drive the lovely miss elly all around California is this fine vehicle :)
whooo! January 09, 2005 06:46 PMroad trip planningSo, I bought a car. It is in Chicago, and I need to get it to California. I am buying said car so that I can run Biodiesel in it. (Curious about biodiesel? Ask me about it!) The catch is that Biodiesel is currently not very widely used. The majority of distributors service farmers and fleets of cars, not individuals (eg: there's not a neighborhood gas station!). Since I love to make things harder than they have to be, I thought I would chart my route out from one Biodiesel station to another! The National Biodiesel Board keeps a list of retailers! If you know of more, please tell me and them!!
Start off by fueling up basically in Chicago, 30miles from home:
Or, go about 137 miles west to:
This is 75 miles west of Madison, WI, which is a bit out of the way, but ...
or 52Miles North of 90 to Northfield, MN:
or maybe go 28M north of the 90 to Slayton, MN: (550M from Chicago)
January 17, 2005 11:17 PMroad trip: southern routemaybe I'll take the southern route, and visit Coan in Austin, Steve/Greg in Oklahoma, The Boyds in ABQ, Bret/Alona in Long Beach. Who knows. If you know of any biodiesel locations (or decent vegetarian food, or friendly faces!) along this route, PLEASE email me, and I'll stop in to see the people.
Service and Supply Cooperative Hampel Oil Austin Biofuels LLC Ever-Ready Oil Company Western States Petroleum, Inc Ventura Harbor Marine Fuel, Inc. Pacific Biofuel January 19, 2005 05:38 PMmy new car!Today, after an 8 hour flight mishap from SFO->ORD, My mom drove me to Evanston from their house in Chicago, and I bought my first new car. I am really excited, quite pleased, and alltogether grinning. Here it is:
Also available are pictures of my first radio station, and where my ass goes. Whee! soon, I will drive the happy diesel all over this fine land! January 20, 2005 08:40 AMChicago, ILIt snowed last night! My new car is covered in white stuff!! hehehehe Today, I will start a roadtrip!
January 20, 2005 07:49 PMColumbia, MOToday, I drove 500 miles out from the snow, through some gloomyness, and then into a beautiful sunset, and to a nice college town. I used my first tank of diesel, and got 38 miles/gallon. I'm pretty damned excited about that. I'm currently drinking a beer in a cute college coffeeshop, listening to some 6 piece band, relaxing, and excited about road tripping. I made serious progress today, and that's positive. I'm looking forward to seeing friends in Oklahoma City tomorrow, and then on into Texas, and parts farther West. I miss being with elly: she's a great passenger and right hand girl. Its also nice to be alone, but doing something. I've spent a lot of time in the last few months being alone and not acutally focusing on self: just constant distractions. On the road, it's different. I can see things clearly. I can think about what matters, and what is superfluous crap that I'm obsessing about without need, or cause. I'm having fun in my new car. Every thing that happens is a new excitment in and of itself. First night drive! First 100 miles! (still in Chicago) First tape! (the DaVinci Code audiobook) First CD! (Talking Heads Stop Making Sense) Good stuff.
January 21, 2005 09:24 PMOklahoma City, OKA second day of gloomy morning driving, and then into clear setting sunsets: from Columbia, MO to Oklahoma, OK. I like driving. Another about 550 miles. I listened to the audiobook rendition of "The DaVinci Code" it was really quite entertaining, if not well written. Today was my first tank of Biodiesel on my grand adventure!
January 22, 2005 10:10 PMAustin, TXHi. It's only about 400 miles from Oklahoma City to Austin, and after a late night of drinking at random dive bars, I got off to a late start. Steve & Greg took me to "Juniors," a bar which can best be described as a Geriatric/Hipster Piano smoking lounge. The cheese factor was so high, it can be described as off the hook. Before going low class, we went high class to Nick's, which is one of those rotating-floor-at-the-top-of-a-building thingers. The view was awesome; I expect that during storm season, there's nothing better! The white man's overbite was in full effect on that dancefloor. Today, I only listenened to music, including CDs with awesome, lovingly inscribed descriptions from elly. Tuggy's CD with the Auggie March track on it was played many times. Soon, I will share the mp3 of it with you all, because it is awesome. Coan & Jen welcomed me into their house, which has had a LOT of improvements, and painting and nice things done to it since I last saw them here like THREE YEARS AGO. We went for tasty mexican with their pals, and sat outside in the DAMN COLD, but I had my bunny hat on, so it was all fun.
January 23, 2005 04:53 PMfun in austinHi. I'll update more on the last few days driving, but first, here's a picture of me in Austin, TX with my college roommate, Coan. We're at the Spider House, eating girlscout cookies and generally getting caffeinated!
January 24, 2005 10:26 PMmore AustinI spent an extra day in Austin, because it is great, and because I wanted to spend more time with Joanna, Coan & Jen. It was a good decision. Coan got sucked into work things, so Joanna took me out drinking to Showdown, where I was regaled with stories of Brian drunkenly meeting her, and their escapades. We also played a lot of darts, and at the end of 3 pitchers of Lone Star, there is the possibility that I gave a wooden indian a hand job.
January 25, 2005 10:58 PMScottsdale, AZHello. Today, I crossed three states (somewhat). I woke up in El Paso, TX, drove through all of southern New Mexico, and then up to see my Uncle in Scottsdale AZ, where I am now. I ran only Petro diesel today, but will get more B100 tomorrow after I go to Taliesin. I really do love New Mexico: it is quite beautiful, and vast. There's nothing else on earth quite like the pink and blue of the sky as the mountains reach up to touch the far-away clouds, which surely hold heaven beneath them. Today, as I drove into Tuscon, Arizona, I thought of my grandfather who is long gone from this earth. He was a car dealer for decades in the midwest. I bought my (German) car on what would have been his 100th birthday, and thought of him then too. I visited him and grandma Dorothy every Christmas in Tuscon, it becoming like a second home to me over the years. I'm sure he was smiling with me as I put all the windows down (sunroof too!), cranked Modest Mouse (thanks for the CD elly!), and watched all the familiar street names fly by me. Many of my learning-to-drive memories are with him, in Tuscon. The lanes are so much wider, and I was always the official family chauffeur, even from age 15. He used to love it when I drove him places. Now, I understand that there was much more to that emotion than I ever would know. I miss him often, and love him dearly.
July 16, 2005 06:15 PMBiodiesel Car Show!HI! Today, there was a Berkely Biodiesel Cooperative sponsored Biodiesel Car Show in Crissy field on the Presidio! It was really great fun. I saw people who I've been working with at the San Francisco Biofuels Cooperative, people who started to educate me about Biodiesel in the first place, and educated lots and lots of happy newbies! It was so much fun! I'm totally exhausted.
July 20, 2005 09:50 AMBiodiesel FAQI tell lots of people how much fun and success I've had with Biodiesel, and they tend to really be interested. There are some seriously FAQs, and I'd like to put them here for all to read about!Q: How do I convert my car to biodiesel?Any diesel engine car or truck will just work (JFW) with biodiesel. You don't need to convert anything, buy any special hardware, or anything. The common misunderstanding is the difference between Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) and Biodiesel. Both setups require a diesel engine to start with, but the SVO gets really complicated in a hurry. You need to install a second fuel tank, a heating system to heat the vegetable oil, and lots more. It's definitely harder core, but it's also much more effort. The one caveat about standard biodiesel is that cars made before 1984 have natural rubber fuel lines, which need to be changed out (but hey, you've got a 20 year old car! some maintenance ain't so bad!) Q: How do I run my car on biodiesel?You just pump it into your diesel automobile & drive!! The beauty of biodiesel (IMHO) is that it is a splash blend fuel. This means that you can run a tankfull of biodiesel, followed immediately by a tank of petroleum (or "dino") diesel, with no changes, effort, or anything done to your car at all. Envision this scenario: You live in a nice urban area where there are biodiesel fueling locations. You have a full tank of B100, and you head down the coast to Big Sur. You have fun, and on your way back up, you realise that you're going to run out of fuel. You can just pull into any petroleum-diesel gas station, put in 1/2 a tank, or however much you'd like, and you'll just keep on motoring. No worries about range of your car, etc. (read more on the numbers below). Q: Why should I run biodiesel?Q: What kind of car should I buy?Any car or truck with a diesel engine. Many people like the Volkswagen TDi's (myself included) or the older model Mercedes. I know people with F150/250/350 pickup trucks, VW Vanogans, brand new fancy MB 320 CDis, Jeep Liberties (they ship from the factory running B5 !!!) old El Caminos, you name it. You just need a diesel engine! Q: Where can I buy a car?You can buy a used diesel car with ease in any of the 50 states. New? Anywhere except California, Maine, Massachusetts, New York or Vermont. There's the rub. In a classic story of the government being about 18 steps behind the rest of us, you can't buy new diesel passenger vehicles (read: CARS) in those 5 states until 2006 because of the high sulphur content of petroleum diesel fuel, which you're not going to run anyway. So, if you live in those states you have to either buy a used car (used is determined as having more than 7,500 miles, by the California DMV), or buy a new one out-of state, and take a LOONNGG road trip to get it here. Q: Where can I buy Biodiesel in the San Francisco Bay Area?Berkley at the Biofuel Oasis Q: Where can I buy Biodiesel?The National Biodiesel Board has a nationwide list of retail locations Look into Biodiesel Solutions in Canada! Q: How much does fuel (biodiesel) cost?About 10% more than petroleum diesel. Right now (2005/07), we're paying between $3.30 and $3.75 in the SF bay area. There are major tax incentives that have recently passed congress, offering up to a $1 tax credit per gallon of biodiesel. More on that later. Q: What kind of mileage do you get?The same as I get with petroleum diesel. Diesel cars tend to get better mileage than gasoline cars, but the crux is that mileage doesn't really change when you go to biodiesel. Q: What are all these numbers? B2? B20? B99? B100?It's the percentage biodiesel in a blend. Well, as I alluded to above, biodiesel is a splash blend fuel, so you can be running a certail percentage biodiesel with a certain percentage petroleum diesel. A common blend is called "B20" which means 20% biodiesel, 80% petroleum diesel. "B100" is pure biodiesel. All will run in your diesel car! Q: Does your car smell like french fries?Some biodiesel is made from recycled oil, some from virgin oil (mostly Soybeans in the USA). The recycled oil-based biodiesel is what I try to use, since it's using a waste product for something good, and yes, sometimes, it has a tint of a smell of french fries, but never enough to make me crave McDonalds. Q: Does it cost more to maintain a biodiesel car?The maintenance for a biodiesel car should be the same as a petroleum diesel car. There are only two additional biodiesel specific costs: pre-1984 rubber fuel lines need to be replaced with synthetic lines, and you'll need to deal with fuel filters. The deal is that biodiesel is a much better solvent than petroleum, and if you buy a used diesel that's been running dino-diesel for its whole life, your new biodiesel will flush out all of the soot & junk from your fuel system into your fuel filter. So, you'll need to replace your fuel filter now and then. It's not much harder than changing an oil filter, so you or your mechanic can do it easily and cheaply! Q: Will biodiesel void my new-car waranty?Nope. VW of America eve has published some literature supporting biodiesel! Q: Where can I read more about biodiesel?Fred's TDI Club has one of the best FAQ's around, IMHO. The Portland folks have a great faq.Do you have more questions? I hope so! I'm trying to make this a newbie starting resourse for biodiesel. There are lots more places to read about it, and I'd love to answer more of your questions. PLEASE email me your questions, and I'll happily answer them here, and help people in the future! :) |
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