A Lengthy, yet educational Thursday

Friday Morning, October 10th, 6:42 am – A Lengthy, Yet Educational Day

A wise man once said, “The secret to life is not timing, it’s learning how to choose the clock.” The past 24 hours have been in true BioRide fashion. A flurry of events have occurred, none of which were ever in our control.


A 36 degree, 5:30 am Friday morning, has found us in northern California, 150 miles north of San Francisco, after several run-ins with local law enforcement, a magnificent drive down the Oregon coastline, and numerous repairs on Doogie. We are pleased to report that we are continuing to receive support from the communities that we are visiting, and the good folks from pig n’ pancake donated 15 gallons of waste vegetable oil, without which, we would have never made it where we are now. In addition to making friends with Kelvin, the manager at Pig N’ Pancake, we also had the auspicious opportunity to be introduced to local law enforcement of Eureka, California, who, after the obligatory identification check, actually turned out to be most helpful by recommending several local sources for waste vegetable oil. Since crossing the border into California, we have found it exceedingly difficult to locate waste vegetable oil (WVO). Plenty of veggie oil receptacles and bins abound in this region of the country, but local biodiesel manufacturers have this area on lockdown. And after checking in with the Eureka police department, several miles down the road, Nick was pulled over again for ‘erratic driving’. It turns out that trying to take a sweater off because you are too warm is not the best practice at 2:00 in the morning when ‘Johnny Law’ are actively pursuing drunk drivers.

THIS JUST IN: After stopping in Ukiah, California, we actually drove thru a Jack in the Box and had an “odd request” for the lone employee that was working for 5 gallons of Veggie oil from their waste containers out back. She asked us how long we would be. Our response, in unison was “10 minutes. Tops.” She complied. Thirty gallons and twenty-five minutes later has found us pushing hard to San Francisco for our first ‘educational stop’ at Mills College.


An update from the mechanical front: Ryan has been pampering Doogie with general maintenance and a watchful eye. Every time Doogie required attention, a brief, but intense burst of inclement weather found us. A small fuel leak in our biofuel component was discovered and confidently resealed with a quick change to a more suitable size of o-rings.


After the initial 30 hours, the moral is strong, and the crew and vehicle are adapting well to one another.
Next stop: The Bay City.