Ready to be Entertained?

Kyle:
July 12th: There was no pressure to be anywhere by nightfall. We poked our heads out of our tents sometime around 9:00 a.m, eyes fixed on Zion’s tan navajo sandstones which outline the park’s grand scenery, to find that nearly all of our fellow car campers had already set out to explore Zion National Park’s mystified canyons and tourist-crammed paved trails. Well, not all our fellow campers had vacated the area- our campsite was swarming with ants. Thomas had claimed that these particular red white and blue striped ants were nocturnal; rather, the morning light only illuminated the creatures’ presence on their apparent stomping grounds. We packed up the car and went to town. Each time we re-pack the car, we discover new ways to compact our belongings. If everything fits, why does it matter if it fits so perfectly, you may wonder? To put it simply, we left Andover with twenty gallons of reserve veggie oil. Today, we have the capabilities of keeping fifty gallons on reserve. Anyhoo, it was on this day that we would first treat ourselves to a fine dining experience. The small town of Springdale, Utah sits at the foot of Zion’s south entrance. Modeled around a brief strip of restaurants, elegant lodges and gift shops, the town caters to the park’s guests while refraining from the overwhelming attractions that make places like Gatlinburg, TN nearly unbearable. We chose to eat at Wildcat Willie’s (what a name, right?), a pad at which we inquired about grease on our way into town the night before. Our first meal cooked on something other than a camp stove fueled us for the grease hunt that would ensue. While Thomas went to an internet cafe to “charge his camera” and presumably email his twelve-year-old girlfriend he met under the Delicate Arch in Moab days before, Alyssa and I headed down opposite ends of the street in hopes of hitting a honey pot that would propel our french fry fragrance well into California. Our grease reserves were not brimming their compartments, but by no means had they hit rock bottom like the Miami Redhawks’ Football team on day 2 of every season since the locally adjudged scoundrel Ben Rothelisburger left campus (without picking up his $300 bar tab at Oxford’s most frequented bar). However, with the addition of their newly acquired lion-heart left guard Thomas Herrick, who sits shotgun in the veggie mobile and has served as a luminary for collegiate athletes worldwide, Miami’s football team was recognized as the NCAAs most improved squad in the fall of 2010. Now that you the reader, have been familiarized Herrick, Thomas G, we can proceed in sharing our adventure with you the informed blog follower. We spent a few hours in Springdale searching for grease. Only a few hundred yards from Zion’s entrance, we found ourselves in a prolonged search that lasted longer than we had expected; potentially unsoiled grease we had been tipped off to the night before proved to be rancid, and most managers who had the inside scoop on grease collection policies didn’t arrive at their respective posts until the afternoon. Approaching the park we noticed a natural shrine that, to us veggie hunters, can make the most downtrodden of landscapes appear winsome: a Thai restaurant. Alyssa hopped out of our automotive and dashed for the front doors. As I recall the fateful moment, she made a little European girl, one comparable to Thomas’ newly found soulmate, tumble into the adjacent exotic fish tank in the restaurants foyer. Believe me, that young lady will do anything for some fat free waste veggie oil. Minutes later, we were pulling the Benz behind the joint. The manager, a kind Asian man with a thick accent, brought us three cubes of oil, clean as a pine cone. When we popped the trunk to begin the filtration process, the man gaped at our configuration in astonishment. “No Way! No Way! Rocket scientist! I don’t believe it! No way!” the man exclaimed, repeatedly. We surely appreciated the compliment; however, now Alyssa thinks she’s a rocket scientist... We filtered the oil and drove through the entrance to the park. Our waitress at breakfast suggested to us a local watering hole. We were not locals, and we did not find the watering hole. But we did take the free bus through the park with all the other tourists. We made one stop at Emerald pools, a series of three shallow depressions filled with mucky water. As undesirable as that may sound, a beautiful path, partly paved and filled with tourists, wound through waterfalls and overlooks en route to the pools. The hike was enjoyable- Way too many people... But to be honest, Zion was the least exciting part of our day. We bussed back to the car and headed for what we’ve all been waiting for: Vegas. We drove through before dark set in, but the sight was entertaining non-the-less. Equally as entertaining as Las Vegas is Tehachapi, California. We planned to drive through the night until we reached the Tomo Kahnin State Park, located on rt. 202 in majestic Tehachapi. Extensive single lane roads lead us through a maze of California truck stops, not without a standstill in traffic among fourteen thousand semi-trucks. We stopped at a rest stop to change the car’s secondary filter as it acted up without warning on 15 South. Thomas likes rest stops. In his autobiography exploring the rise and fall of a collegiate football hero turned WWE announcer, he recounts many of his fondest memories with rest stop vagrants in northern Canada, Iceland and Mongolia. Eventually we pulled off into Tehachapi. The town was small and Route 202 was not easily identifiable. Where would you stop at two in the morning if you were looking for a state park? We stopped at Del Taco. At the drive-thru we inquired about directions to Tomo-Kahnin State Park. Kind late-night Del Taco employees met us in the parking lot and explained that Tomo-Kahnin was a state prison. Amused with the prospect of what we thought would be the perfect place to spend the night, we soon found ourselves driving up a mountain road to a nearby campground. “Tehachapi Mountain Camp: $14” the sign read. We all laughed. Not that we would ever dodge such a fee- we simply didn’t know where to put our bills. So we pushed the Benz up the hill. The car appeared to be overheating faster than the turtles we roasted that night in Kansas. We pulled over, smoke pluming out the hood. Alyssa was balling her eyes out as if someone had left a snake in her sleeping bag. The car was about to blow. Actually, it was just a bit too excited to be in Tehachapi. The turnoff we occupied sat at the edge of a group’s campsite. Two guys walked down the hill in bewilderment, unsure of who could possibly be rolling up their drive in the wee morning hours. California backcountry, unfamiliar bleach-blonde hair- before I could eat a chicken bone, Thomas had taken up a survival knife in each hand. But it didn’t take long to realize that Cameron and Keaton were just the Cali-folk we were in search of. They invited us to join their fire and we exchanged a series of east coast/west coast thrills that each side, respectively, was quite unfamiliar with. Keaton and Cameron, along with their friends Tom and Jenna, shared S’mores with us in exchange for some insider stock tips on veggie cars. Thomas sucked the juices out of a Lamb’s leg until about four a.m. when he set the tent up, while Alyssa befriended the Cali’s with the ulterior motive to steal the remaining marshmallows and taco seasoning from the vehicles of our newly formed acquaintances. Meanwhile, I spent the early morning searching for Toto, the fly we kicked out on the Kansas Colorado border. We heard he was at large in Tehachapi. Cameron, Keaton, Tom and Jenna were just what we’d been looking for: some kind, generous, amusing local fellows to take us in and tell us what the west coast is all about. It’s the people like them who can keep a road trip interesting and, more importantly, make you realize that there are all sorts of characters anywhere you go, each of whom you can closely identify with no matter what planet you think they may have been born on. But Cam, Keaton, Tom and Jenna, they were pretty cool. Born on Earth, I think. Certainly some of the friendliest people we have spent time with on our road trip yet.

Thomas:
With a $500 bounty on our heads and Great Wall management hot on our tracks, we knew we would have to make moves...and fast. The stale smell of Vegetable Oil, now a prominent ingredient in our un-showered funk, would be all the incriminating evidence any undercover VegCorp Vigilante would need to take us out. We ducked into the local speakeasy, Frosty King, to lie low and reorganize. We would head for Yosemite, where we could slip into the backcountry, deciding to take our chances with the local bear population rather than sticking around the main roads. Rolling into the park, Smokey the Bear looked down upon us with contempt as Kyle threw his Cuban into the dry shrubbery surrounding the “High Fire Alert” sign.
With a grimace and a shrug, Kyle made his stance clear; “Whatever! I don’t even care!”
We stopped in at a supermarket to stock up on food and ammunition. After being followed around the store by an elderly lady with a radio, hidden inconspicuously (to the untrained eye) in one of the tennis balls on her walker, told me it was high time to get out of there.
Where to stay the night? Campgrounds weren’t safe, we knew that much. Parking lots? No, no, they would be expecting that...a patch of dirt behind a local diner would have to suffice.
Huddled, under a nearly-full moon, over a boiling pot of Raman, the only thing we knew for certain; the noodles were delicious.

Alyssa:
Okay, the boys had their fun. Please don’t take half the things they say seriously - their blog posts should come with a disclaimer. If you’re still reading this out-of-control post, you should know the truth. In these past few days, we have met some really cool people, our car did almost blow up, we do have a $500 reward for someone to report us to a biofuel company (thankfully in a town that we will not be going through again), and we have slept in some super sketchy places. We’ve been having a super fun time though, and have seen so much of the country that we would not have had the opportunity to see had we not been running on free waste vegetable oil! Now, in Truckee, CA, we can proudly say that we’ve made it to California on only one tank of diesel fuel and gone over 4,000 miles on WVO. We’ve used less than $70 worth of diesel and have practically eliminated our sulfur emissions, not to mention that our fuel source creates a closed carbon cycle. That means that the carbon we are burning has come from carbon already in the atmosphere, absorbed by the plants that the oil was extracted from. Since fossil fuel, like gasoline and diesel fuel, requires extracting carbon that was already stored away deep in the Earth, burning it adds excessive carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which exacerbates the greenhouse effect, thus contributing to global climate change, as well as other environmental hazards.

Crossing into California was an amazing triumph. Kyle, Thomas, and I each gave a loud “woo-hoo!” when we saw the welcome sign. I hope that the feat of driving a car on WVO cross-country proves to people that the use of alternative, more sustainable fuel is possible for anyone of any age or technical ability.

Walking through Yosemite National Park for three days, I was never short of awe-inspiring moments where life, in every form, surrounds you. The thick forest, rushing falls, and endless sky filled my heart with peace and serenity. As we hiked for miles, I meditated about the connection between nature and humans, and I realized that there is no separation. The connection is that all living things are made of the same elements, and the only way we can protect our species is to protect all species and even non-living abiotic elements in our environment. It is our responsibility to preserve the environment around us - water, air, land, animals, plants - to ensure that life after our generation will have the same potential for peace and health that we have today. It can only be individual efforts that start the snowball of change, as small as they may be.

After three amazing days of hiking and camping in Yosemite, we drove five hours to Truckee, CA - home of my brother Danny and his roommates Sam and Chris. We got to the north Tahoe-area town around 3 am, perfect timing since Danny was just coming home. On Sunday, Danny showed us around Truckee and enjoyed his first time driving the vegmobile. We hung out on a dock at Donner Lake and saw the amazing view from rt 40. Later, we meandered over to Burger Me for lunch, a burger restaurant featuring locally and sustainably grown food. I’d recommend the homemade veggie burger to anyone! The rest of the day was filled spending time with good friends and meeting new ones. The community in Truckee is unlike any other; I can completely understand why my brother lives here and loves it. After a night of celebrating Sam’s birthday, we woke up this morning and are heading to the American River to go rafting with six people and two dogs! We got grease from Zano’s, the restaurant where Danny works, and are planning on getting more in Truckee before we head to the redwoods in Arcata. The trip has been amazing so far! We’ll be staying in Truckee until the replacement pump that I ordered for my car arrives. Then we have our eyes set on Arcata, Portland, OR, Yellowstone, and Bad Lands! I'll edit this post later to add tons of pictures of the beautiful scenery! Until next post, we'll be staying green and greasy. Thanks for the support everyone.