And how good it feels! After quite a late start, we’re on the road. Just barely – it’s Sunday evening and we’ve just crossed the GW Bridge into Jerseyland, then we’ll cross Pennsylvania and make our first stop, Cleveland OH.
We had a nice greasy day pumping oil into the tanks and tweaking the veggie system, but it’s “all systems go” now! That physics degree must really be something, because Dr. Ben is as good with a wrench as he is with a microscope. Our fully functional vegetable oil fuel system will get us all the way west and back on less than 50 gallons of diesel fuel (diesel is necessary for starting and shutting down the engine. More on Wikipedia). Thats almost 2,000 miles! Waste vegetable oil, or WVO, is a recycled, renewable energy source. So next time you’re munching down on some tortilla chips or a crispy egg roll, think of us! Many thanks to Taqueria Y Fonda for donating all the oil.
Our first tour date is Tuesday at Horizon Science Academy in Cleveland, OH. We will be teaching several high-school biology classes about interactions between organisms in an ecosystem, including habitat, survival relationships, and energy flow / trophic levels. It should be a good one!
It’s been a long day. I rescued my amplifier from our storage unit so we’ve got some good tunes here on the road, and I’ll be checking in with you all every day or so. Keep track of us via GPS on our website mainpage, and tune into the BioBus Daily News for updates from the road!
Ric Becker, signing out.