Unifried just returned from yet another excursion out into the desert . . . she was a big hit, the anchor to an excellent and chill-worthy camp, home of FUBAR, the recycled door bar, post of the dirty monkey Fu.  There was a little trouble getting out there, turned out some gear had crushed an uptake valve in the veggie tank , yet another reason to give the veg system a massive upgrade, as well as other improvements slowly being implemented. Before I launch into stories of sustainability and Burning Man, let me just ask: what do you think Uni's future should be? Ideas? Contributions? Post a comment! The theme of this journal entry is sustainability and controversy.

So, the GREEN MAN!
This is something green burners like Trevitt have been excited about for some time. The theme turned out to be a volatile issue-- Piss Clear, the alternative newspaper of Black Rock City, devoted most of its final year of publication to trashing it. The ultimate question being: does a political statement like "Be Green" cramp the free spirit that Burning Man has become famous for? Is Harvey's decision to let small companies plug their eco-products in the pavillion under the man damaging to the vision of the capitalist-free gift-economy?
The conclusion by Adrian, the editor of Piss Clear, is that is doesn't. Indeed, every year the theme is either celebrated or ignored by the citizens of Black Rock City, so why should this year be any different?
For those who were stoked to be all up in sustainability, however, the pavillion was full of eco-installations and games, including the Conscious Carnival by our friends the Sustainable Living Roadshow, a Permaculture Maze, a display of algae that eat CO2, and a disheartening but educational game call "Myopoly." Companies who displayed their products could not use logos or brands.
I had a good conversation with God in the "Talk to God" phone booth about the whole issue. He says the realization of the Green Man theme was disappointing and comprimising of the original concept of Black Rock LLC, but that the burning of the man on Monday signaled an opening of new possibility for the event. Indeed, the pavillion under the man was only open Friday before being taken down for the burn-- it was closed the rest of the week to rebuild the man.
The good news is that despite those who would see it as restraining or too political, Burning Man is becoming greener. This year all of Black Rock's City generators ran on biodiesel, a project Unifried helped to launch in 2004. The man was also powered by a massive solar array, donated by a small solar company. The presence of non-petroleum fuels in camps increases every years-- there was even a WVO filling station on the playa this year. Trevitt and I also took a tour of the Alternative Energy Zone, which is a generator-free zone, powered by solar and wind. We saw some great examples of simple sustainable technology demonstrated by folks who really knew what they were talking about. I would definitely recommended it to anyone. Our tour guide, Christy, stopped by our camp by chance the next day for some orange juice and stories. Blue of Recycle Camp has had a tremendous impact on the sustainability of the event. Trevitt and I had a good chat with him out on the playa. To quote Blue, "Be a warrior, not a worrier." Thanks, Blue.
The art also dealt with climate change and sustainability-- many works were  powered by solar panels. My favorite was a sculpture of two penguins with suitcases and a polar bear, all three looking to one another, lost in the middle of the desert. Funny and poignant. There was also a vine sprouting green wine bottles and a "mangrove" of trees surrounding the man.
The largest spectacle of the event was the burning of "Crude Awakening," a series of recycled metal sculptures of prostate people worshipping an oil derrick. Saturday after the man burned (and following a long wait), the oil derrick burst into a huge explosion of flame that required an entire truck of propane to light. The derrick toppled to huge cheers. I was one of the folks keeping the crowd from running into the flames too early. I heard from Melissa that the next day the derrick was replaced by a massive tree, a sustainable object of worship. Besides the famous animated monkeys installation, which was solar-bike-and sonic-powered, this was the most talked-about artwork on the playa.
Throughout the week, Uni hosted one of the chillest and friendliest camps ont he playa, sharing village space with Hair of the Dog Bar and Black Rock Elementary, as well as various friends. Rob decked out the chill space with flair and Eric hooked us up with some amazing green solar-powered flamingos. I made some impromptu uni-colored veggie lava-lamps, but they didn't quite dance. All the lights were LED Folks wandered in to pleasure Fu, escape a white-out, talk veggie oil,  or just hang out. It was really great to connect with crew folk I hadn't seen in a long time, as well as meet new people. Many of us agreed that it was the first year at Burning Man we were happy just hanging out at camp.
Despite the white-outs, heat, and political maelstrom, it was a great time. Thanks to everyone at Unifried camp and our friends in our nameless village. Thanks for a great burn and have a great year!
Love,
Moe

Sooooooo there's still a big to-do with Uni, but she is considerably cleaner and nicer smelling than she once was. There's a temporary bench in er, library is gone, new shelves and seating gonna go in. New veg tank on the list as well. And updating the solar water system . . . list goes on. You want it? I send it to yah. Jes ask.

Much progress made in preparation for Melissa's wine country b-day trip, a grand soiree through sonoma county, with a load of friends and wine. Some a that best heard from her. . .

Uni went out on a Bike Aid tour with Global Exchange last week, brought students from Leadership High School to their campsite near Salinas after 30 miles of biking, visiting educators, social justice workers and an organic farm . . . the students were enthused but exhausted. The next morning we did a presentation on biofuels and watched skits about what they had learned over the trip. A real understanding of food and fuel systems is what it was. And some hilarious bits with a banana.

Next gearing-up is for Health and Harmony, where there is set to be a Clean Fuel Convergence, huh-yah. And she rolls forward.

Loven,
Moe
(digs.)

As of two days ago Uni started up. In earlier times this would be no big deal. But Uni, well, she's been keeping it lo-pro this past year or so. Low-pro-so that the mice crawled in and took over. Ate up the big bag of brown rice and pooped in it. Chewed apart the pillow that T's grandma gave him when he was three, and his tassled multi-colored purses of all. Nibbled the educational literature up and dropped little black pellets on every flat surface and peed on all the bedding there is. You opened the door to Uni and she smelled of Fog of Mouse. We found a pink wrinkly nest of them under one of the bunks.

So T and I went up over a few days and cleared out her fuel lines and charged up her battery and primed the engine with B100 and bzzzzingo! She growls with grinny glee and smooth-rides on over to the car wash where T and Steve and me give her the good lovin scrubdown. She's spewing some white smoke occasionally but otherwise she runs so good it's cheesy.

Andy came by the next day and four of us all took all potentially mousified parts and aired them out. All blankets taken out to be washed. Everywhere vaccummed. And we took apart the library, as well. The plan is to relocate it to shelves along the sides and above a new workstation in back. There was also talk of turning the cloud into a circular bench around a table, and installing opposing fold-down futons in the front. She's also got some serious bodywork to be done, dents and scratches and broke windows from some busts at the end of the 2004 tour. Talk is now of a fundraiser to get her shining again. Energies, anyone? Uni is going through a metamorphosis. From yum-fuzzy caterpillar of golden goodness to seriously greased motherfucken butterfly. From beautiful to beautiful: with more seating. And an office and shit. Yo.

Rick and Sue are the bomb-ass-diggities, to put it in plain language, for hosting the bus onsite at their home. They even lent us Taj the cat for mousing, and a have-a-heart humane mousetrap. I wish the mouse all the good and fine luck in the world, may she find it before she finds the snap-yer-neck traps, or at least lays low until we get rid of them and line the bus with catnip.

Much of the inspiration for the shakedown has come from our recent trip to San Diego for the National Biodisel Board's conference and the Biodisel Council of California's Conference on Sustainable Biodiesel. Steve, T, Melissa and I rode down to San Diego with Charris, Dolcie, Kashius, Sarah Hope, Becky and Nathan in the Oxygen Collective's vintage greyhound bus. Much thanks to Charris for motivating and organizing, and Becky and Nathan for their fabulous bus-hosting. Charris and Dolcie are putting together a film about biodiesel, grassroots style (Biodiesel Gone Wild!) with the producers of "French Fries to Go" and spent much of the week with the camera crew filming the goings-on. We also caravaned with Jorah, Kent, Daryl, Kimber and Chris,and the puppet-and-guitaring organic-powered Kopali crew and their beautiful black bus.

I myself spent a lot of time running around with 3-year old Kashius, who had a lot to observe and play and run around on. Every place is a playground, thanks Kashius. Every moment is full-up of kid intensity. Whew glory.

The world of grease fuels--technology, production, distribution, consumption-- is rapidly expanding. There were 75 million gallons of biodiesel produced last year in the US, three times as much produced in 2004. There are folks making biodiesel from trap grease in Philadelphia, there is a boat gettin' built in Australia that will do a 'round the world tour on biodiesel. One in four Americans know what biodiesel is, this is not the oh-mah-gawd it was a few years ago. (yes.)

Many of us who caravaned down also volunteered for the Spitfire Agency, on-site to green the NBB conference. We gathered the compostable and resuable cups strewn about and manned the recycling stations to make sure items were propery sorted. Much thanks to Sarah Haynes for her work in making the event as zero-impact as possible. Many of the attendees of the California conference attended the NBB conference with their B100 pins proudly displayed and were very active in emphasizing sustainability in conference question-and-answer periods. Joe Jobe and Daryl made an emphasis on sustainable growth in their presentations to the general assembly at the NBB conference, as well. But the biggest mind-blower (to me)was the information that came out about NOx in both conferences, information that put into question NOx's previous role as contributor to greenhouse gases, and its supposed increase in biodiesel emissions (now known to be so small a percentage as to become a non-issue).

It's tingly, and exciting, and a bit overwhelming and scary. Big-eyed like that.Yes. yes. Hoo-yeah. To me.

We got Uni started again. There's a waking up, a kind of stretching, a scratching of the armpits and rubbing of the eyes. Smacka-the-lips, grin a nervous little, and here we go again.

loven,
moe digs.

I mean: we’re a veggie bus. We go around to big black grease bins and put straight-up golden goo in our tank. We get all glisten-nasty. We get black fingernails and chunky hair. We get a whole ‘nother shiny layer of skin.

And for this, kids have asked us for autographs. For this, strangers have offered us a place to stay. Food stores give us their throwaways. Ex-hippies give us pocket money from their desk jobs. People say Wow and No Kidding.

Because as crazy and nasty as it is: this makes sense. Not petroleum. Renewable. Cheaper. Nicer to the air. Smells good. Feels good.

Jas*n can tell you below about the response in Rochester, and our travels through Massachusetts. Portland, Maine was another place where people got all wide-eyed. Leaving notes on the bus. Inviting us over for pancakes. Asking us for help on their documentary project for school.

What’s fun about living on a big, bright school bus is that people find you. And all over.

We just got done with Tennessee, for instance. Spend a night wandering silly through the streets of Nashville: all bolo-tied and fur-coated, dancing groove-side to the honky-tonk. Kept getting asked “So where y’all from?”
Spent a night at the Sequatchie Cove Farm, where they have a rope swing. They have the fire to go biodiesel. They may convert their delivery truck.
Spent a night atop Signal Mountain dancin’ to old-time music with eight-year-old cloggers and everybody’s granddad.

Then over to North Carolina, to the Arthur Morgan School, and dang if it isn’t the childhood we all wished we had. School in the forest. Big ol garden. Nice big clean kitchen with good stuff in it. And the kids run the daily meetings. Oh also, they have a catapult. Well, it’s not a catapult, it has a French T-name to it (trebouchet?), but it’s exactly the thing Morgan wanted to build when he was a youngster. Like I said.

We’ve got a show now, a spiel. We set up stations around the bus: biodiesel- straight vegetable oil- filter system and alternative technology- life inside the bus. And we split up the class into groups, and tour them through the separate stations. We learn everybody’s names. We tell stories from the road. In Philadelphia the students asked a lot of questions about the boy-girl ratio on they bus. Everyone wants to know who drives, who sleeps where, where the girls change, how come the guys don’t shave. Everyone loves the cloud, the cloud is what sucks us all in. Big soft curly fluffiness. Come on and ride the veggie bus, folks. Step inside and sink in.

After Arthur Morgan we went back into Tennessee. Knoxville this time, where a crowd of local punk activists were ready for us with dumpstered bagels. We spent a day as part of their clean air initiative, did the biodiesel cooking show and passed away in their die-in. Kip and Missy and Eva and Tiger’s Eye, our glowing on-fire hosts.

The bus gave an SVO conversion workshop on a Jetta in Athens, Georgia. I’d tell all about that, but I’m in Atlanta, watching my cousins’ two-year-old dump the world on the floor. The crew size is ever-shifting, it makes the bus a kind of a gleeful jell-o mold. We’ve gone from six to eight to six to three. I’m joining back up in a day or so. Some other folks might hop back on. Some folks might hop off. It keeps us all on our toes. It’s all love, though, all love and grease. Moving on to New Orleans for Halloween.

see ya,
moe digs.

Indian Summer in Northwestern New York, (Rochester's ONLY summer this year, so the locals say) -- Carole, Unifried Honorary Member and mother of Devin, hosted the bus and our six crewmembers for 4 days at her home. Who are we six? Trevitt, Devin, Moe, Mara, Morgan, and your faithful narrator, jas*n. Carole, Honorary Member and Hostess, is also a stunning event planner – 2 days of hustle and bustle visiting 3 high schools and 6 junior high science classes, spreading the Word. The word "Grease", that is. Not to mention, and it needs to be mentioned, our first school assembly! Yes, a musty auditorium of wooden fold-down seats filled with eighth graders happy to be missing last period. Little did they expect Michael Franti to be blasting through the speakers, as 6 flamboyantly decorated greasers, wielding objects of greasiness, danced down the aisles.

"Hello, we are Unifried!", Trevitt begins, shining smile and rasta-colored goatee beaming forth.

Moe, good book in hand, passionately delivers The Grease Sermon -- "I LOVE grease, I LOVE the way it GLISTENS on my teeth and SLIDES down my neck!".

Veggie Fuel: it's clean, it's cheap, it's easy, it's fun, and it's COOL! Oh, yes, it's cool...

And so are those kids: chilling on the lounge, banging on drums, smelling grease and french-fry fumes, cheering us on, challenging our knowledge, ready to hop on the bus and go for it!

Lest you think it's all "work", school gets out by 3, in time for frisbee and some cold ones at one of Devin's many childhood hangout parks ("I used to drink beer here, and here, and there..."). Sheets of NY-style pizza for lunch, evening feasts prepared by that amazing mother, hostess, planner, and Unifrier all wrapped into one, yep, you know who I mean, CAROLE!!!!

Rochester Grand Finale Feast and Farewell to Devin: Baked Polenta covered in Mara's organic sauce, sweet potatoes, monkey bucket salad, Bell's Beer, wine, friends and family. My Rochester lawyer cousin, Frank, and his partner, Paul, made it for late-night dinner. An evening of sipping wine and pleading the veggie oil case to my cousin, NY's #1 skeptic. Fortunately, he was in a good mood and ceded us some points, perhaps only BECAUSE he had celebrations of his own: he was just offered partnership at his law firm AND reached his 10 year anniversary with Paul! Hooray, hooray!

Devin and Jason venture off to California; Unifried and crew of 4 to Vermont, NH, Maine...

Peace, Greasers!
j*

Farewell, Veggie Bus! I've fallen off the bus in Dayton, Ohio – magnetically pulled here by the love of my family and the seasonal pull of autumn. Yet the adventures of the past few months squirm to escape my lips and fingertips! The tour stats are at 26 states (so far this year) and 45k veggie-miles in Unifried's career, but life is measured in moments, the magical and unforgetable moments that decorate this bus like the constellations in heaven. Like this magic moment...

A rainy day in Boston, fresh from a delicious stay at Eleanor's (Hannah & Heather's Mom) place, Unifried arrives right on time an hour and a half late to pick me up at the subway station. I've only been gone 4 days (back to Calif for a wedding), but it's warm welcomes and a hello to two new bus travellers – Silk Screen Compost Queen Super Gardener Extraordinaire Hannah, and her lovely sister Heather. Enroute to Cape Cod, the clouds are heavily forbidding in the wake of hurricanes riding high through Georgia the day before. We arrive amidst slight sprinkles, in time to meet the girls' sweet Nana Banana, Lilian, and race to the sandy Atlantic Coast to thrust our bodies in its cold water, and say, "We're here!". Beachtown Santa Cruz-raised Morgan led the charge, energized by his raw food diet, shunning all foot cover at all times as it might slow down His Monkeyness. The Moon Snail gave us hello kisses, and we retreated to Lilian's beachhouse to watch the sheets of water and screaming winds from warmth and safety.

A big family dinner hostessed by spunky 92-year-old Lilian, some tour planning and scheduling (an oft-occurring topic, as you might imagine), and aspiring entrepeneurs retired to hone their skills with a round of National Parks Monopoly, while sleepyheads like me retired to dreamland punctuated by rain and wind beating on the windows. For those on the bus, the howling wind and rain was more of an overriding theme than punctuation. A hindsight highlight -- this night was to be the only time that I saw Heather eat any food in the week and a half that I travelled with her, our little Gandhi.

"You are the change you wish to see in the world." –M. Gandhi
"We're my hero!" –Mara

Luv'n,
j*

(This happened back in June and July, but I wanted to get it on record as one of the most amazing times of my life!)

Unifried Caravan Northwest Tour – The Watery Perspective! Water has been such a huge part of our trip that I wanted to dedicate an entry to the swimming holes and hot springs that have cooled and relaxed us between travel and events. It's hard to pick a favorite, as they've all filled such a vital role in the tour, whether cooling us on a hot day, providing a refuge from busy cities, loosening weary muscles, providing a meeting space, or simply allowing us time to play!

I first joined the crew at my first hot springs of the trip, Umpqua Hot Springs, on the North Umpqua River, south and east of Eugene, soon after the Rainbow Gathering. Arriving in the middle of the night, I came upon quite a scene: banjos and guitars strummin', people dancin', drummers drummin', lights twinklin' from a crowded veggie bus! "Take a whiff on me! Yee Haw!" Greeted by big smiles and hugs, I arrived just in time for a late-night dash to the hot pools above – a short but difficult hike climb to 4 or 5 medium-size pools hanging out over the cliff above the river. Apparently, the trickling hot water created its own bulge of limestone deposits on the side of the mountain, in which the pools had been carved. Hot and relaxing, perfect after a long drive, and filled with good company, including the friendly folks from Port Townshend. Benny showed me the way to the hidden pool below, involving a sliding climb down some slippery rock, but oh so worth it for some solitude and sounds of the rushing river below. The camping area was large and easygoing, though in a fee area of the national forest. Lots of Rainbow Folks around, but the crew was out early, even after a late night – a trend in the busy caravan schedule as I'd come to find out. But not so early that I couldn't take a splash bath in the icy Umpqua and use Super Van to pull a little car up off the side of the steep and slippery river bank. Go, Veggie Power, Go!

After a dry, though extremely productive, spell in Eugene and Portland, we journeyed north to the watery Olympic Peninsula. I preceded the bus to Port Angeles, when they diverted for Seattle, and went direct to join my friend, Ja, at the Olympic Park Institute on Crescent Lake -- a stunningly clean and clear body of water surrounded by the jutting peaks of Hurricane Ridge, Pyramid Peak, and Storm King, among others! Another night time arrival, I joined Ja in sleeping out under the stars on the shore of the lapping lake, waking to a watery blue mirror and snowy peaks. I wouldn't jump in until later, after a hot and sunny farmers' market in downtown Port Angeles. Instead, Ja and I, along with his co-worker, Storm (his legal name, complete with no last name) went to the most diverse, pristine tide pools that I've ever seen: multiple species of anemone including a bright orange flower-like plumose anemone, sculpin, all kinds of crabs, urchins, giant chitons, colorful limpets, and a gray whale mother and pup feeding just off-shore! As their students trickled away, Ja, Storm, and I explored our way to a secluded section of the lake near the outflow to relax (more) and where I took my first wade into the crystal lake. The rest of the Unifried Crew joined us the next day for a small-town Farmers' Market in Port Angeles, followed by many a celebratory swim in crystal clear Lake Crescent. A rookie ranger with a chip on his shoulder gave us a hassle for camping out in the Olympic Park parking lot (where OPI is located), but Leisure Man's Jedi Mind Tricks mellowed his attitude. The next morning, park visitors and rangers supportively checked out our re-fueling operation in the parking lot before our departure (after one final swim, of course!).

Next stop, Canada, or so we thought. Uni, with just 5 inches to spare between the biodiesel reactors atop and the ferry roof, boarded the ferry at Port Townshend to cross Puget Sound. Captain Trevitt steered us across, as the chilly ocean winds blasted us in our front-row slot on the ferry. Unfortunately, complications at the Canadian border turned us back around to the states, so what better way to recuperate than at a hot springs? We drove late, far to the east of Bellingham, glacial creeks below, hot springs above. I walked down to the convergence of two forks of the creek, amazed at the difference between the two: one a milky gray color, the other brilliantly clear. I suspect the milky side came straight from the glaciers above. I'm forgetting the name (Swift Creek?), but the icy swim in the gushing beautiful flow won't soon be forgetten.

Well, our next appointment was way back down in Ashland, at the Mayan New Year/Time Is Art Festival. I'd left my van back in Port Angeles, so I found some rides back to Ja's place while the rest of the crew journeyed south. Ja and I arose early for a morning paddle on the lake, beautiful misty mountains arising on all sides, and plummeting underwater cliffs amazingly visible in the clear water. I hung in town long enough to fix my brakes and change a tire on my van with a new friend, Dan (a Common Vision alumni) before travelling to Ashland. The summer heat wave broke! Over 100 degrees all along the Hwy 5 corridor through Oregon! How thankful I was to arrive in Ashland, home of The Fairy Pools – a string of cold-water pools along the creek above town. The festival was small and mellow, and, due to the weather, we escaped many times to the Pools. We held a great workshop at a New Futures conference going on in town, lots of laughing, getting silly, and a great flow amidst the education that was going on. Other events, we gathered and filtered over 100G of grease, and had some time to chill with Charris and fam, before we went on our way to Pacific Botanicals Farm and Aprovecho.

At Pacific Botanicals, near Williams, OR, we gathered a batch of biodiesel that the rest of the crew had brewed with a group of farmers while I was away on the OP. Next to the farm, the river beckoned us. I felt my salmon spirit come through as I pulled myself through the rapids, feeling the water rush over my body, finding little pockets of protection behind big rocks. Lots of jumping and playing on the hot, hot day, munching on blackberries that Mara and I had gathered. We saw the cutest thing at the farm – tiny baby quail, no bigger than a golf ball, crawling along through the tall grass along the path. So cute to see them hop along, not yet able to move very quickly in the grass forest, as mama called to them from the field of echinacea flowers.

Aprovecho, and our intrepid guides Sebastian and Ruben, introduced us to The Leap off the 25 ft ridge of rock jutting out of a local creek. Jump, count to 3 while screaming, and plunge into clear blue coolness. And nearby, the Emerald pools, where you can swim underwater, eyes open, and see 30 feet in front of you. Makes ya feel like a fish! And soft green mossy rocks and forest all around to warm up, dry off, and explore.

Cougar Hot Springs in the mountains above Bend! Hot pools lining a sloping forested valley. Midnight drumming and dancing underneath a shiny pregnant moon. Chilling with Singer, our musical guest for a few days on the caravan. A cold morning dip in the fast-flowing river below (a prize for the chilliest water of the trip?).

In another magical watery moment, we descended down into the volcanic bowl known as Crater Lake. There, the water seems to get lighter blue the deeper you go! A fully spiritual moment to take that plunge and feel the electricity of the water. And not as cold as we thought, either, considering there was snow along the shore on the opposite side of the lake. From Crater Lake, we headed southward to the headwaters of the Sacramento River near Mt. Shasta to drink incredibly pure water from the springs and fill our water bottles.

The last watery stop for the Northwest leg of our journey was in Lassen NP. Arriving in the evening, we hiked under the full moon 5 miles to Rainbow Lake. Exhilarated, but exhausted, we slept and woke to our own sparkling lake with Mt. Lassen rising above it in the distance. We stayed for 2 more days full of relaxing, hiking, swimming, and letting the peacefulness soak through our pores, recovering and celebrating a busy and successful journey through the Northwest!

T, Benny, Ben, Mara, Emily, Devin, Moe, I love you guys!

j*

Blueberries! We went blueberry picking today; haven't done that since weekends at the cabin as a kid! And what luscious blueberries they are! As I speak, the rest of the crew (Trevitt, Benny, Emily, Ben, Mara) are outside at the kitchen here at Aprovecho mixing and baking bread. Oh yeah, it's midnight, and we recently finished a late night stir fry of vegetables from the garden, shitake mushrooms we gathered from the logs, rice from one of the 40 or so bulk food buckets they stock here, all cooked over a super-efficient wood-fired wok stove. That's what they research here, simple and extremely efficient stoves and ovens to introduce to the world, especially parts of the world that need a boost in resource conservation or health issues. Have you heard of their rocket stoves? The stove we used had a chimney of insulating bricks rising to a hole shaped to the wok, with a chimney pipe off the back to release the smoke after most of the heat has been transferred to the pan. And there's the coffee can campstove, and the barrel oven, and so many other kinds! This, in addition to the baby goats, chickens and ducks, solar showers, sustainable forestry and building projects, a sweet garden, and interns and teachers learning and sharing their knowledge and caring for the farm and the earth. Our kind host, Sebastian, and the rest of the interns have given us such a warm welcome. Excellent fresh food, a solar water heater for the bus, tips on the best swimming holes, late night drumming and music playing... Can we ever leave?

Oh the swimming holes we found! After a visit to Pacific Botanical Farm to pick up our biodiesel brew and say farewell to Devin (near Williams outside of Ashland) we visited the local river to frolic in the pools and plunge into the rapids. We had two guests on board, Satya and Jim, hitching from the Time Is Art Fest in Ashland. They biked the 20 miles into Eugene today, loaded with all of their possessions. And the other swimming hole: a 30-foot plunge from the rock into a blue-green pool. So fun! That was just outside of Cottage Grove, near our current resting place at Aprovecho. The biodiesel at Pacific Botanical wasn't quite ready – needs some more washing – but we got some excellent feedback from the local engineering guild about biodiesel processing. And we gave the interns here at Apro a short presentation on veggie oil systems. Really informal – we're doing some gardening and advertising for them to give thanks for their kindness.

The bus, running well, with a steady veggie oil drip from the rear. Seems we overfilled the tank in our zest to use all of the fuel we found in Ashland. 150 Gallons of grease found and filtered in one day! One very hot day – the temps in Oregon have been hovering around 100 degrees for the past few days. Luckily, Ashland had some refreshing magical fairy pools to cool off in. The festival last weekend was small and mellow, mainly the Rainbow Crew re-gathering in celebration of the Mayan Day Out of Time. Unifried didn't have much of a part in the festival, though we did do a workshop at a conference being held in town. Small, but a few very interested people. I can see evolution in the smoothness of transitions and the fun factor rising. I travel with truly fantastic educators and entertainers: Super Fry Trevitt, Chef Bio D(evin), Emily Grease Elf, Leisure Man Benny, Professor Ben. Oh, and we got to hang out with some of our favorite people in the veggie oil world: Charris, Dulce, and Cassius – the Grassolean Gang from Telluride. So good to spend some time with them!

We have a big schedule change: the SVO conversion scheduled in Oregon has been cancelled, giving us a few extra days. We get to make the most of our time here at the farm, leading into a day at Cougar Hot Springs and Eugene, and possibly a little backcountry adventure before re-grouping for vehicle work days somewhere to be determined in NorCal (Chico,Marin?).

The Veggie Van has its travel difficulties; still getting it dialed in. The positive: the veg system works, and it's been a sweet people mover for town trips. It needs work on the transmission and fuel storage system, though. The mileage is not so good, so we want to add storage capacity to increase the van's range. Hence the work days needed! I'm going to try and get the van across the country to NYC for the Rep Nat Convention in August – though the bus and much of the crew will be at Burning Man.

jsun

We have shelves. Above the plush plush cloud bed. This isn't the most exciting addition to the bus. Or the most recent. They aren't even done, they're bare plywood with no molding on them. But we started with them. They made us happy.

We have shelves because Sobi is the sawdust king. While he was building them and our back-of-the-bus altar, Janice gold-leafed "UNIFRIED" onto the nose (and the sun hits it and it glows like hallelujah grease) and Trevitt and I installed a four-bike rack onto the front bumper.

So we got new bits and toys, and we went to Health and Harmony. We feel pretty grinny and we stare down at the bikes a lot. And shelves! Look at our shelves! To put stuff on.

New stuff is swallowed up by more stuff and other stuff as we arrive at the festival and get ten-plus more new people and their stuff, and the humming crazy begins. We set up our table on the soft grass behind the mainstage, by People's Pizza, by Lydia's Lovin'.

Betty Biodiesel comes on the bus to chill out from the stage chaos. Darryl and Charris come over to chat fuels and eat their raw food. Dale of solar cookery makes us rice and beans. But the real party starts when our Jonathan sets up the PA and busts his hilarious Jewish rap. Then suddenly we're attracting the fuel folks who before were just hovering. It's yumcrazy and we pack up fast to make a mad drive to Pacific Botanicals.

The Caravan has begun!

Thanks Moe! That's a little taste of life aboard the veggie bus. So where to begin...

It started as a feeling that the mission of Unifried was not complete after the 2003 tour. John and Steve had both made plans for after the tour and moved on to new adventures. I had agreed to caretake the bus and decided to live on it as a way to save money. It felt strange to be on the bus without the crew. I also had an idea that the bus would need to tour again in the spring. I had shared the idea with friends and Jason was ready to join me in the new adventure. He had been with Unifried during the beginning of the We The Planet Tour and had been dedicating himself to the biofuel cause ever since. Through this connection many other connections have flowed. Devin has been brewing biodiesel in Chico for the last 2 years and was very excited about a biofuel tour for the summer of 2004. Devin invited me to attend a biodiesel conference in February in southern California where the Biodiesel Council of California was formed. We met many amazing folks at this event and several of them joined the caravan effort. Moe and Emily both have theater backgrounds and have brought a fun and powerful new dimension to the Unifried scene. My good friend Kerry has wanted to tour since the bus was first dreamed of and has been a huge help in getting the caravan organized. As more people became interested in the idea it began to appear that the bus might not be able to handle all of the folk who might want to travel with her. The idea of a caravan started to make the most sense. The idea has developed over the past 5 months to include 3 vehicles and a crew of ten. With a caravan there is not really a limit on how many can travel with us and there is much more flexibility for folks to join up for events as they are available.

Our first event was around Rudolph Diesel's birthday (March 18) at the New College campus in Santa Rosa. A few weeks later we participated in a biofuel car show put on by the Berkeley Biodiesel Collective. We had a week of events in Chico around Earth Day where we were quite successful in spreading the biofuel idea as well as getting lots of support from the community at our first fundraiser. The Whole Earth Festival in Davis over Mother's Day weekend was a great success where we were able to bring together most of the crew and try out some of our ideas about combining art with information and making biofuels fun and entertaining. We held a fantastic silent auction fundraiser later in May and again received amazing support from our community of friends. Thank you all so much for caring and helping make this effort possible. We have really felt the benefits from the fundraising effort over the past few days. The main goal of the fundraising was to add another renewable fuel to the repertoire of Unifried. The kind folks at Sunlight Solar in Bend Oregon helped us install solar power to the bus this past Wednesday. A big thank you to Mike for hosting us at his beautiful home near the Deschutes river and installing our new solar system. We are now able to generate enough electricity from the sun to provide refrigeration and music as well as lights. It really feels good to take another step away from the use of petroleum that fuels our power grid.

We have been keeping the scheduling flexible but it has started to fill in and firm up quite a bit.

So, I dont' know whose gonna read this, since everyone that was following along is well aware that the initial incarnation of the trip is over. But, it doesn't feel complete. We're lacking closure. I feel like we haven't been communicating in a healthy manner as of late. I'll start... and you can respond by posting a comment. Its kind of hard to think of what to write while my parents and my brother are chatting amongst themselves in this landlover's paradise. A motionless house devoid of wheels, or even anything round enough to resemble a wheel if you can believe that. My head's kind of round. But I digress, depress, and regress. I'm distracting myself. I'll talk of my non-rasta colored acommodations soon enough.
When we last spoke, the rasta-veg-bald-mohawked-insurgent-hippie-mobile was parked outside of Jason's house in a wonderfully gnome-like oak forest (where the weeds of civilization (Casa plenticus and streetis asphaltium) grew in large numbers somewhat disturbing the setting). I'm beginning to lose track of the details in the recesses of my cerebellum, but somehow we ended up in Truth or Consequences New Mexico and found a little place of residence at some fantabulous hot springs on the banks of the Rio Grande. We were just hoping to clean some gunk and funk from the veg tank that cruised past our watchful eyes. We were usurped by veg with bad juju. This was no bivouac amidst a rain-storm, and rain it did, rather it was a comfortably created and creative creation fit for a wandering soul in need of rejuvination. Melissa could tell you the name of the place. I forgot, but it was awesome. Due to weather issues, we were unable to meet with Andy's friend Aaron, AKA the messiah, in Northern New Mexico at his place of occupation and education. This fellow teaches elementary school on a Navajo reservation and had four schools lined up to meet with us. We were really looking forward to meeting him, and getting a chance to speak with his students. A side note amongst many others, I'm not a huge proponent of political correctness as I feel it borders on fanaticism at times, but these indigenous peoples true name is the Dine', meaning the people. Navajo is a spanish derived word with a meaning closer to thief.
Our next stop was to Douglass, Arizona. A border town in the SE portion of AZ. We were fortunate enough to visit with one of the most wonderful people in the whole entire world, one Marybeth Webster, who has inspired me just by being herself for a few years now, and blessed my life by befriending my friends and family. We walked the desert near her home and studied the leaf cutter ants and Mexican General Grasshoppers in full regalia....dead and dying, but dressed to kill just the same in their red, yellow and black exoskeletons. We crossed the border, ate six pounds of cheese a piece, and looked at adobe homes. I joined Marybeth as an honorary woman in the women in black ceremony in Bisbee, while the crew roamed the streets of this neat little town. Marybeth is getting involved with a border group that gets together for a party once a year and plays volleyball with Mexicans over the border. Switching sides sounds pretty amusing.
It sounds like Andy and Trevitt are going back in a month or two to help build Marybeth's ecodwelling in the desert.
From there, we went to Joshua Tree and listened to U2 for awhile and read U.S. Marine bumper stickers to discover that we were unable to truly experience the "taste of freedom", having never shot at anybody. Does shooting your brother with a bee bee gun count, cause I'm tasting something pretty gamey at the moment? Joshua tree is pretty fantastic if you're into pretty stuff and things.
We hung out with mine and Andy's great friend Carlos in the greater L.A. area. I'm pretty sure we won't have to visit L.A. much longer, it seems to be coming this way on its own. Carlos, thanks for the stories and the hospitality. Stick of gum?
Next was San Louis Obispo to visit Eme and Telulah, where we had a wonderful dinner of "boogers and toenails", while playing barbie tea-time, planting rainforests, building castles, and scouting for monsters. We drank some wine too, which made us better at all of these things. Telulah and Eme gifted me with the most beautiful little red headed cactus I've ever seen. Beautiful women. We thank you for sharing time with us. Melissa's friend Amy is a SLO resident as well, and we were treated to a relaxing stay in her schnazzy digs. The old friends got a chance to catch up, as the three of us fellas sort of dozed in and out of consciousness in the comfy furniture and in the bubbly hot tub. Many thanks to Amy for opening up your home to us.
The next night, we got a chance to visit John in his new apartment with Jessie. It was great to catch up, hang out, and have the whole crew in one room again. John organized a collaberation of veg-heads in S.C. and got things a brewin' and it looks like the event may be leading to a co-op for biofuelsians in the area. There's alcohol fuel activities happening there as well. Alcohol can power any gas car with some adjustments and is a renewable fuel. One for me, one for you, one for me, one for you.
There was a bit of magic in the air that night. All of the people who spent a week or more on the bus and the two friends from WTP tour that we spent most time with were together again on the second to last night of our 5 month tour. We didn't really know that it would happen, but it did, and to top it off, our buddy Jess (Julia's mechanic on the tour) rented a sweet-assed sauna type placed called Kiva for us during the after hours, we all sipped tequila, then dipped into the tubs. Jason, Catalyst, Jess, Julia, Trevitt, Andy, Melissa, and myself. Unfortunately John was a bit ill that night, so the love birds didn't join the after party.....I'm rambling, but it meant alot to me to have all of us together like that. It was an incredible way to end the trip. Andy stayed up all night to drive us home. He was eager to see our parents. I was too. They are amazing people who supported this crazy idea from day one. Thanks Mom and Dad, we love you very much.
the next night was the welcome back party in S.R., graciously hosted by the most magnificant manly Matts I know. Friends and family packed into the house and the bus to welcome us back...i don't need to tell you, you were probably all there. It was great. Thank you all for coming.
The next day was a bit teary-eyed for some of us, but we're all adjusting fairly well.
Johnny's a blooming carpenter in S.C. He's living la vida loca with Jessica Ward, sparking up a veggie revolution in his area.

Melissa is sharing nature with children at walker creek, still educating about biofuels, and working towards getting locally grown organics into elementary schools.

Andy, self proclaimed bus backgammon champion, is exploring his future travel options, and honing in on some building work in which to gain Jesus-like carpentry skills. We are awaiting his veggie adventures manuscript.

Steve is out at Laguna Farm building straw bales structures, hammering the shit out of his fingers, and trying to earn some cash to go to Chile' for the new year. He'll be an apprentice farmer at Laguna Farm when he returns.

Trevitt, the intrepid traveler and last remaining member of the once almighty Triumvirate, holds the reigns to this magic sleigh and steers her towards a new rainbow with the potential help of our homeslice Jason Novak. This powerful diumvirate (?) will hopefully gain some cash and continue the educational journey during the spring.

I, or one of my compadres, might add some thoughts and reflections down the line. at the moment, I'm pretty sure I've written way too much. Its time to let go.
If anything in here doesn't make sense, or was long and boring...its not my fault. I hammered my fingers and now they don't write well.
for now i'll leave off by saying simply, wow.

So, that charcoal workshop in Georgia, put on by Don and Frank, was pretty awesome. They make shelters for homeless people and build coal burning stoves out of old metal five gallon buckets to put in the shelters. These stoves burn efficiently and cleanly off of charcoal that they created using old scrap wood. The process is done so that the volatiles are burned off and the only emissions are CO2. Hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and harmful particulates are almost completely burned off. The CO2 (like that of our bus) is all from plant matter, so it does not provide a net increase of atmospheric carbon, unlike fossil fuels. so charcoal burning (if you make it yourself) is actually a good way to provide heat for yourself. Its a pretty clean process to make the charcoal, and fun too. The Unifried crew (now predominantly vegetarian) partook in several servings of savory roadkill, grilled upon a 55 gallon drum. A poor little bambi had its spine severed by a, i don't know, probably a hummer, and so we gave thanks and made use of its tasty body for a little fuel. It was actually pretty good. I don't recall liking liver, but I guess if you eat liver thats not filled with toxins, its bound to taste better. Roadkill Bambi was delicious. So much so that even Melissa (vegetarian for about ten years) had a nibbler. Another amazing Georgia night.
We rolled into Tennessee and checked out graceland, Trevitt did a series of photographs of such quality that he could put out a brochure on the Kings palace. Memphis was interesting, we sauntered down Beale street and had a beer or two, but the place seemed a bit done up with neon and what not. I think a little of its flavor may have been sucked dry over the last few years by all the tourists (like us!).
We cruised into Mississippi looking for grease, and stopped to get some Nori for dinner at a shopping center. Andy and I (him with a mohawk and handle bar mustache, and me in my grease clothes and long ratted hair) were standing in front of the bus chatting, when a cop rolls up. "You all being suspicious?" "I don't know, do we look suspicious?" He smiled and said that the upper crust that have been moving into the area are a bit eager to find those that look different from themselves a bit suspicious and get a little phone happy. Officer Howard Young of Ridgeland Mississippi was a helluva nice guy, who upon finding out our fuel source, called a buddy who owned a classy seafood restaurant to check for grease. He said the guy had some and offered to give me a ride on over. It seemed out of the ordinary, so I had to go. He drove me across town to an incredible restaurant where Gooch and Red pointed me to the fried fish oil which turned out to be hot and clean. Perfect! We got about fifty gallons of grade A fish grease. So, a big fat thank you to Howard. Another awesome example of human kindness.
We then moved on West to lousiana, and spent a night in New Orleans. We had a blast. Met some fun folks, saw a lot of great great great music, had a few pops, met a male bartender with eight inch heals, a mini-skirt, and disco balls for earrings. This guy was so classy that he served me my guinness, in the bottle, with a lime wedgie. I ordered my next one with two wedgies. (guinness drinkers will understand, if you're confused and missing the significance, ask an irishman about lime wedgies in a guiness). As he was walking by us towards the ladies room, Trev complimented his disco balls, and he said "I have a third disco ball" and pulled up his skirt to reveal that, yep, he sure does have a third disco ball swinging to the beat of the prince albert band. So, we got a picture. Might be in the slide show. not sure. Preservation Hall continues to be the home of some incredible dixie land jazz and bourbon street continuous to be a lame assed neon disneyland for drunkards.
We're staying in Austin Texas with our friend Jason (another compadre from walker Creek Ranch) and his friends. A great community of people here who welcomed us in, cooked up a nice meal, and then took us downtown. Sunday night and these cats can party. Lots of live blues music throughout town ,and tons of people pretending its still saturday. WE had a good time, are a little worse for wear, and are getting ready to hunt down some grease in order to get to the southwest.
much love to all of you. looking forward to the bay area,
unifried

just a quick hello from Georgia. WE did an event in Miss Nikki Jone's hometown of Milledgeville Georgia, hosted by Mick and Toodle at the Soulshine coffee shop. Mick and Toodle are sweathearts and were very gracious hosts of the event, doing whatever they could to make it a smooth evening. We've been spending alot of time with Matt and Mandy here in Athens Georgia, where we've been spoiled by Matt's amazing cooking, served on Mandy's incredible pottery. The weather is wonderful and the town is great. We did an event here too, that Mandy and Matt went out of their way to promote. We fried up some sweet potatos that Mandy got us from a farm that she works at, and used the grease for the tank. The demonstrations really seem to get people motivated to start co-ops and/or do conversions on their own vehicles...which is really really fantastic. People get so excited and thankful that we've come to their towns and helped educate them a little and possibly nudged them along to finally do it themselves.
The farm that Mandy took us to was alive with the fluttering wings of some brilliant butterflies...sulfers, whites, huge swallowtailed skippers, and a brilliant gulf frittilary. The gulf frittilary, much like the mexican silverspot, has shiny silver spots that look like little mirrors on the under side of their hind wings, and when they fly up towards the sun, you can see the twinkling of light as they go.
We went to a party on thursday where a really good band played by a huge bon-fire, and then some of the guests put on a circus act....the performers were really good, very cirque du soleil. pretty crazy to find at a random party. Not what I expected from Georgia. Last night we were led through a forest, blindfoled and silent, to three large rings of fire in a clearing. People began to dance, wrestle, and perform in the rings....Matt, Mandy and Trevitt all shadow danced in front of lit screens, while a really unique and interesting band played spacey ambient music. All of this was situated next to a grove of beautiful bamboo trees. We left and partied in Athens, where we sampled the local brew and Mandy won a costume contest for her Cindy Lauper costume. She played the part well. Actually, her porn star boyfriend (Max Package) is a born star. that boy can play a part. so, we're off to a charcoal workshop. I guess its a very efficient way to make use of scrap wood as fuel. We'll learn more about it today.
Georgia is great though. Thanks Georgia! we'll be seeing many of you very soon!

So, we marched on D.C. the other day. The protestors there were more diversified in the color of their skin, but less so in the colors of their clothes. Trevitt was the only marcher in rainbow colored underpanties at the whole affair. The police presence was much more uptight as well, seemingly more jaded and or suspicious of the people's motives. I tried to talk to a few, not cop to hippy, but peeps to peeps and it went alright, but we didn't end up going out for a cup of chai after the march. The night before, at about two a.m., Unifried was pulled over in front of the old Executive Offices (now the Eisenhower building), by none other than the U.S. Secret Service....but they told us not to talk about it. Shh. I think they bugged our grease tank. I guess old beautiful Uni is too big to be that close to the ol casa blanca...they eventually let us go and asked us to leave the premises and not return to 17th street. Uni would now be a notorious criminal if it weren't such a secret. Shh.
Ramsey Clark spoke. I love that man. He's hip to some bad mojo in the government. He's the former attorney general. check him out at www.impeachbush.com. Or type his name into the search engine of your internet and read (ramsey clark interview)...if its the same one as I'm referring to, its an interview by D. Jensen and its pretty powerful. I accidentally wrote powerfuel (I'm obsessed!)
So, we cruised into the Blue Ridge mountains along Skyline blvd in Shenandoah nat park for a stop at good ol Cooter's Place in Sperryville VA (how many nouns are in that sentence?). I payed a visit with Trek America two years ago and Cooter himself happened to be there with the most genuine countenance one could desire from an old star as grand as himself. So, we parked the bus and strolled towards the sounds of bluegrass, harley's, and the aromas of barbequed beef all nestled beside a picturesque stream that meandered along the edge of the highway. Cooter sang the first song with the Dark Hollow Blue Grass band and did so quite well. We parked our cheeks along side the stream, the only waldo's among an otherwise homogenous crowd of old white locals, and listened to the band and smiled all the while. It was so legit, you could sell it on ebay. These were old people from the Appalachians who liked all kinds of music, "so long as its a good song." Therefore they listened to and played, both country and bluegrass. The talk was of a charming nature. The banjo player is just now being quoted as having said "Up front here in the straw hat is J.T. Jenkins, probably the finest banjo picker t'ever set foot here in Madison and Culpepper counties." We had a good time. When we left, Cooter was sitting on the back of the general lee, still talking to people who were lined up waiting to meet him (I interrupt this journal account to record something that just happened in the small town of , I don't know what the hell its name is, Va, where a guy about my age just walked up and said, scuse me, but were you just drivin that bus up the 87 towards albany in New york state about two weeks ago? Yep. Small world, I saw you there...and then he walked away.) anyways, so cooter was sitting on the back of the Duke Boys car, mobbed by people, and we pulled out of the side lot and began driving past his place back up the mountain. I hear someone shout "by y'all" and I stick my head out the driver's side window to see Cooter, turned around to face us, all smiles, arm up in the air waving. "Take it easy Cooter." For some reason, I felt really flattered. He just strikes me as a nice man. So Cooter's place was a great stop for us after a busy couple of work weeks, both on the computers and on the bus. We finally got the neoteric in-line heaters hooked in and wired up and are now able to switch to veggie very quickly. We effectively reduced the amount of time that we have to start up on diesel or biodiesel, which is better for emissions and pocketbooks. I'm running low on cash, so if you know any rich people who are interested in sending us some money for food and tires in the name of supporting a do-gooder project, let me know at www.Unifried2003@yahoo.com, which is our new and official email address. We are trying to get a website up too in our spare time. WE have the address, but haven't been able to contact the nice man who said he'd put it up for us....it will be www.veggiebus.com. Oh yeah, and last but not least. Unifried is looking for a place to host a function in the north bay on the day of our return. It looks like Johnny is going to try and set up a gathering of the greasemonkeys (SVO heads) in S.C. on Friday before thanksgiving. We are looking to gather some of the forefathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters....the bioneers of the grease fronteir if you will (probably just 5 to 10 folks), to swap ideas and info with on saturday in possibly the eastbay, but preferably the northbay, when we finally return home. This roundtable would be followed by a little return celebration with some of our friends and family that we have been missing for quite some time now. So, if you have any suggestions of a place that we could utilize for a formal meeting (as formal as we get)and then an informal homecoming gathering, we'd love to hear it. Also, if you know of someone that has been involved for a time in the veggie conversion community that would like to partake in the roundtable for a discussion, have them contact us. ONce again, we're at www.unfried2003@yahoo.com.
we'll continue to try and grease the wheels of the peaceful revolution, a greaseful evolution, the diesel grease solution, to ease and cease pollution.
much love...Unifried

Its gotta be quick, but just wanted to let you know that we were hosted on three New England campuses (UVM, Wesleyan, and Brown) and they were all incredible for a variety of different reasons. UVM already has a big biofuels community and was very warm and welcome. When I say warm, I mean the people. It was actually below freezing the night before our visit and I think we had a little water that froze in our air brakes causing them not to work so much in the morning. Our polyethylene fuel lines cracked two or three times in the cold and veggie was pouring into the street. But, a few fittings, an extended stretch of frustrated stevieness and a few profound profanities later, we did away with the poly all together and discovered how to reroute our sysem with a sturdier fuel line. Its a thing of blue bueaty. UVM is also the home of the Gund Institute, where Economics is actually subject to the laws of the biosphere. For me this was very exciting. Look into Constanza and/or Herman Daly if you are at all interested in ecological economics which is one of the most brilliant and pertinent fields of our time in my opinion. At Wesleyan, we were hosted by Laura and friends at the earth house for a formal/informal gathering of sorts and about twenty or so very interested individuals stopped by, and before we left, a large faction of that group exchanged contact information and verbal agreements to start a biodiesel processing facility on campus. Laura had been given a grant for biofuels applications, but was looking for collaberation and was hoping that a Unifried presentation would be the seed crystal to that formation of a unified greasy station in her basement. It looks like it was. Yay!
Brown was a slow start. OUr first two greetings were by cold and uptight people who wanted our contraption removed from campus. Brown is Ivy League, and the feel was different, but as the day progressed and the weather got colder, the people actually got warmer. We met some really wonderful people there as well who were quite surprised, impressed, and excited by the technology. We are at Melissa's parents again in Philly. They are really kind, but must be sick of us by now. Philly is our Reno of the East, but much nicer. Tonight we ride into the land of the tainted. We'll be looking to hopefully poach a free parking spot in the outskirts of D.C. to prepare for the huge rally tomorrow. Go to S.F. and call for the troops to come home. The U.S. is spending well over a billion dollars a day. Soldiers are getting killed. 6 out of 10 of Iraq's citizens who we are supposed to be helping are unemployed, and U.S. subcontractors are hiring migrant asian workers. The only people benefitting are the corporations that we have installed in Iraq. Iraq's officials are upset and feel as though they are being taken advantage of, since they could do the work for one tenth of what the U.S. is paying...and paying with our money that no longer goes to education or social reform. I have friends who are teachers that have lost their jobs due to lack of funding. Anyways, if you can, look into it, send a letter, take a hike, strike up a conversation.

Post spinning doughnuts on the white house lawn in our big beautiful bus, we'll be visiting with Cooter in Sperryville Virginia and tooling around in the General Lee if the garage is still open. Then off to Georgia where Nicki's good friends Mick Toodle, and Mandy are helping us set up events. For now, its off to Trader's Joe, then to D.C.
Much love to you all,
Unifried

gotta say. I hear roomers of folks reading these things, but you couldn't tell it on this end. Post a comment if you are out there. Let us know if you have suggestions or questions. Thanks to the few of you who have written in the past. We do appreciate it.
We are working on P.R. now and part of that is hopefully going to be devoted to getting a website up soon. WE are getting a little more news time (just 30 and 90 second clips) and worked with four env stdies classes today in PA. That was pretty fun. We'll be picking up Trevitt tomorrow and heading up to New England to bask in the fall colors and hopefully visit some colleges. Hope all of you are doing well. Much love, Unifried

We decided to turn our angst into positive energy and have spent the last two days two and a half days (part of it on the beautiful appalachian trail) brain storming about public outreach. We are working on a website, have established an official unifried email address, wrote up a press release, sent out emails and phone calls to radio and t.v. stations and actually were filmed today by a local N.B.C. affiliate in front of Melissa's house as a result of our efforts. O'Reilly has a connection who will hopefully get our site up and running once we are finished writing it and can get the photos from Trev. What else? Not much, just working. The trip is definitely on its tail end, so we figured we should really kick it into gear and do what we can to share the good word. We'll see many of you soon (thanksgivingish).
peace

So the feel of the trip has just changed as we have lost one of our founding fathers. John has just departed the trip to begin a new phase of his life in Santa Cruz CA. with Jesse. He may be catalyzing a huge veggie fuels movement in the area, so keep your ears and noses open in the not too distant future.
What's happened? We were on the news in Fort Wayne Indiana. They gave us a ninety second spot and Uni looked sexy. They actually did a decent job on the coverage, missed a few of our main points, but didn't really molest our words as much as I suspected they might.
We hung out with Linda (STacy's mom) in Cleveland, and much like Stacy, she is awesome. While we were sleeping in the driveway, the top banana of a super-large multi-national corporation (Linda's neighbor) came by and expressed interest in our bus. He invited us for a meeting at his headquarters. Some of us were a bit wary as to his intentions. What does a large corporation with military ties and millions of dollars in traditional mechanics want with us? They greeted us heartily and schmoozed us for awhile, letting us play with their new technology. Eventually we went to the head cheese's office itself and him and his associate offered us an upgrade of our veggie system and the finances to keep our trip running for another year or so. It seems that all they want in return is a monthly update of our experiences and travels, and a heads up if we will be at any interesting events, so they can come with cameras and check it out. The expressed motivation behind this was that they wanted to be involved in the cleaning up of our world and they thought that our mission and our bus could inspire the armies of engineers they have to think outside the bun. I don't know what will come of this. I don't know John's thoughts, but I think he is staying in Santa Cruz. Melissa has other plans. I am going to be a farmer next year. Andy sounds like he has plans. And Trevitt is seriously thinking about it, but needs a co-pilot. so to all you aspiring veg mechanics, teachers, and world travelers......respond to this if you'd like to put in an informal application to be Trev's partner on a trip to Central America, or back through the U.S. There should be virtually no cost on your part. A Free trip, but not a free ride if you know what I mean. You carry your weight by working and teaching.
So, that aside, Dan and Mel's wedding in Philly was wonderful. The ceremony was beautiful, the bride was gorgeous, the groom...a virtual stallion, and Trev and Andy were the official photographers. We had a helluva time and freaked out some folks in downtown philly..not to mention the nice host of the bed n breakfast. We stayed with Melissa's family in Lower Merion. They were very gracious and kind. Melissa's younger brothers are really bright guys. Its always nice to meet smart people younger than you. Even if you are a bit jealous that a highschool kid uses words that you don't understand, its nice to know that the future has a chance to brighten further. Lord knows, it could use a bit of brightening (is that a word?)
we are all mourning the birth of the govinator in CAli.. I have comprised a hypothesis, neigh, a theory that any cowboyesque actor from the U.S. who plays at least one roll in which he is a "good guy" with license to exterminate bad guys (often another color), can and potentially will be elected as a public official. Upon verbalizing this theory, it initially was recieved with mild skepticism, but has won some general acceptance among those with whom I have conversed. Quiz yourself.. Without looking at the next few lines, think of how many bad ass actors have run for office in the u.S. and won.
I'll name a few: Jesse the Body Ventura (special ops in Predator with Arnie!), Ronald Reagan (cowboy extraordinare), Clint Eastwood (Dirty Hairy), and now...Arnie. I'm thinking that Mel Gibson is a shoe in for president and Kurt Russel, Steven Segal, and even Patrick Swayze are all capable of a spot in the Senate. Think about it.
Right now we are in a state of limbo. Awaiting the return of Trevitt next week, we are in somewhat of a holding pattern until his arrival. Feeling a loss of momentum we are attaining a mild state of the duldrums. The weather is blah, and I think it is getting to us a bit. The leaves are starting to change color here in New Jersey which is beautiful though. We stayed with Melissa's friends in the Alleghany hills and it was beautiful. Deb and Mike were sweet as could be and their house and property are refreshingly beautiful. We met briefly with Eva and Aaron in Philly and enjoyed a chat in their home...they was cool beans too. I might get to see them again in Chile'! Actually Eva may ride with us for a weekend while we are in the EAst. Looks like its time to go.
blessings,
steve

Hey wonderful friends of ours, I know it has been a long time since an update so I am going to give you a quick teaser that Steve will hopefully update late Monday or Tuesday. This is for all you Monday morning internet junkies.

We made it across the country on Vegetable Oil! Its actually beautiful and fall-like here in Philadelphia: crisp clear days and the trees are starting to show color. Unifried was even christened with her first flakes of snow up in the Allegany mountains of Pennsylvania.

The We the Planet tour was fantastic. Everyone asks, so I am just going to come right out and say it: Tracy never actually rode on our bus- she is incredibly shy and normally requires only her, the tour manager and the driver on one bus and the rest of the staff on another bus. This tour was different, her rules were not that strict, but we still didn't really chill with her. We did,however get to see two wonderful sets.

We spent some nice, extended time at the O'Reilly's in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I love families and it is so fun to see where our amazing friend John comes from.. His mom is above average as far as intelligence and his dad is all Heart-he is also a robust foul mouthed new york comedian. John actually looks nothing like either of his parents which adds to the mystique of his fabulousness. Erin is a sweetie and she was bus crew for one fun overnight.

The We the Planet tour definatly has some good take home messages. The subtitle of the tour is "consciouness is cool" (we joke "sustainablity is sexy" cause Julia is a hot mama who does not hide it i.e. midriff shirts,etc) my gleanings: Julia says during her schidt-she has a schidt too but it is still meaningful the first and sometimes the fifth time you hear it- We live in a world full of problems but also a world full of solutions. Why is the altenative what is good for us-alternative fuel, alterntative food i.e. soymilk or vegetarian..my most recent synthesis of thought is about creativity and ingenuity. It seems overwhelming when we look at the Powers that Be..they often seem like an indomible force whether its corportate money or government with corporate money behind it or rigged elections because of nepotism. How can the people go up against that-we will never have enough money to compete..so our resources, I believe are our creativty and ingenuity. Music, poetry and hip hop can touch the heart and inspire.. And how well can the president or ceos Rap? We flew a giant peace dove puppet in an urban chicago park and all these childeren flocked (no pun intended) and loved it-helped us fly it..showed us the peace handshake it was so fun. And Ingenuity, well..did I mention We live in a SCHOOL BUS that runs on VEGETABLE OIL that comes out of DUMPSTERS! And it works, we have covered so many miles in this ingeniously creative, vaya con la fry-a technology. Anyway these are a few of my gleanings .. Here is a travel update(from a while ago)


On Tuesday night,September 23rd, we went to a we the planet event in Michigan, outside Ann Arbor at Eastern Michigan University. Tracy, Howard Lyman (Rancher gone vegan who got sued with Oprah b/c Oprah said she would never eat a hamburger again after howard explained the truth of the cattle industry on her show), and two local activists were on the panel. The discussion was pretty good..some of my favorite topics were why aren't there any positive arab images in the media? Meat production industry shocking facts and the force of creativity..Segway to ..Tracy's beautiful, sweet set. She has an amazing voice it is so smooth. She said she wrote "Talkin' about a revolution" at age 16! She ended with Get up Stand Up and the whole auditorium got up and danced, it was empowering and inspiring. Unfortunatly as we started driving Wednesday morning, Unifried was dogging terribly. We had to stop and clean the filter every 20 miles. What this means is we have some really dirty oil (China Buffet's dumpster did not hold the treasure it seemed to). Or some big chunks got into the veggie tank some how. So we decided to go back to John's parents house and re-filter all our oil from our tank and stored oil and work on other bus projects (clothing storage shelf, winterizing the roof and elsewhere, cleaning our veggie tank, etc.) The bummer is we missed 2 nights of the tour that Tracy is playing. We met back up with them in Chicago on Saturday to say farewell.

It has been wonderful to introduce Trevitt to the local cuisine here in Philly, he has discovered Italian Hoagies and the ability to access them at any time of night.

Sorry for the disjointed, unfinished update, but I just wanted to put something up because its been so long.
We love you all so much and talk all the time about how blessed we are to have such amazing friends (and families-hi mom!)And we love comments.
grease and love..Melissa

i guess I've been long winded and tangential lately, so i'm gonna try and fine tune things. The bus is still running good, but the cold weather does seem to affect the startup. Veggie oil congeals pretty easily and so does b100 biodiesel. Biodiesel actually starts to harden at about 40 degrees farenheit, so it is something to be wary of for those cold morning starts. Heaters can be added to get things loose before you try and start up. Solutions such as "polar bear" can be added to drop the freezing point of your fuel. A seemingly common approach in Colorado winters is to go with a biodiesel/diesel blend in order to ensure a good start. There are other tricks that we can discuss if you are truly interested about the technology and concerned about the weather. just post a comment and let us know how to get ahold of you if we don't already.
There is a wave of awareness traveling through the country and its quite refreshing. WE were at the grand opening (Along with much media, the mayor, and some celebs) of Colorado's first biodiesel filling station in Boulder. The station itself is called Blue Sun Biodiesel and was founded by some really great people. John Long was our main contact. He spoke on a panel with Julia, Woody, Johnette, and Joe Red Cloud for a few evenings and also really helped us out by donating lots of gallons of grease to keep us trucking. Biodiesel is pretty huge out here to be honest. Another group called the Boulder Biodiesel Co-op is alive and thriving in the area and we couldn't sleep well if we didn't mention Charris and Grassolean. Charris is an organicly farmed white boy (the granola ayatollah of Canola) with a helluva brain in his mellon, and a big fatty heart to boot. He has been getting mad media attention lately for his vivacious approach to the promotion of veggie based fuels, and as a result of his collaberation with Daryl Hannah and the fact that she converted right winged warrior Mr. O'Reilly of the O'Reilly Factor on his own show, is now being approached by the big news stations for further interviews. You can check this freak out at Grassolean.com which is a pretty awesome website.
There is discussion of using a transmission cooler in the veg tank instead of the copper coils. Copper has a tendency to sweat and could lead to unwanted water in the engine, but the tranny cooler would require that the fittings be inside the tank, which also has the potential to leak water into the veg fuel. We are also debating whether or not to get a water separator/ten micron filter and place it between the racor and the solenoid in order to further protect our baby from wear and tear. In line heaters are going to be needed soon as winter gets closer, but we gave the only one we had to the other bus, so we have to figure something out there. We were gifted some cash as a thank you for all of our work on the other bus and will probably put it to use in the form of a solar panel and a voltage modifier of sorts in order to get our house batteries more dialed in. Currently they aren't really charging well (or at all as we drive). I guess deep cycle batteries were not the way to go. 6 volt golf cart batteries run in parrallel would supposedly supply a greater amount of juice and actually charge up easier. I don't know though....electrical is not my field. We need to get some better lights than the stock schooly lights, possibly add another veg tank, extra storage, etc. etc. The building process will likely continue long after this trip ends. OUr white carpet is not holding up too well unfortunately. Considering that we are grease monkeys, its actually not too bad, but I have been deemed a shoe nazi by many. We all gotta have our passions.
we had a blowout a little while back, thankfully it was one of the duellys in the back, so we didn't crash. Of course, this happened in Reno. Reno is our unofficial home, as we have been there....sucked there into the vortex that is the biggest little city in the world, about 8 or 9 times in the last two and a half months. There's a huge event horizon that extends well beyond the boundaries of reno and everytime we approach it, we get dragged in like so many photons of light and remained trapped for about a 24 hour period. Now we are in Cheyenne Wy, waiting for my younger and handsomer brother to arrive in from a 30 hour trip from ITaly where he has been living for a year, studying pasta and olives. We'll hopefully catch back up with Julia and the gang in Rapid City South Dakota tomorrow for a meeting with the Lakota Indians (black elk and red cloud's people), but we aren't sure whether or not we are cleared for that private and seemingly charged event. The gatherings at Universities have been great. Its good to hear local speakers talk of pertinent issues in their areas, which ultimately extend out and effect us all and its great that the communities are included in the discussion. The energy and openness of the college aged students is really refreshing and somewhat inspiring. Johnette rocked with us till the wee hours last night singing songs, playing my great grandfather's mandolin, bangin on a drum, and sharing a bit of tequila. She used to be the bass player for the Talking Heads and has lead up Concrete Blond for years. She's awesome. She did a set at the university last night that actually brought tears to my eyes. i gotta go.\

So hey there all my lovable freaks. OUr journey continues to be an incredibly interesting adventure that I can hardly describe and can definitely not begin to attempt to convey the emotional, mental, and physical sensations to anyone not living them. Hell, I can't even describe them to myself. Have you ever had a trip, vacation, or even an evening that seemed too incredible to believe? One that just felt like everything was clicking and all plugs were firing at the right time, all the people that surrounded you were on the same wavelength, life was grand, and everything was possible? I don't know, but we've been living that vibe for so long now, that moments that would otherwise be grasped and held onto as keepsakes for a lifetime, are so common that I can't remember most of them. We are in the flow and groovin with the universe. Its all a cosmic dance, and it seems that when you relinquish the lead to life, it flows quite well.

The tour got off to a perfect start. It didn't feel that way at the time, but I do believe that it couldn't have gone better. To remind you if necessary, chance or fate brought us together with Julia Butterly Hill's "We the Planet" tour which focuses on getting people involved in a living room like discussion about the myriad solutions for the numerous problems that we as an evolving planet face on an ever increasing and alarming level.
The whole tour is being done in a manner that attempts to practice what it preaches and is being brought to a town near you (or not) via school buses that run on vegetable oil based fuels. We were supposed to be the back up vehicle, but the moment that we arrived on Monday morning we became active members of the crew. The bus that they rented was not road ready and John and I spent the better part of the next two days with Jess (their mechanic/jack of all trades) working to get it running on veggie oil, so they could live true to their vision and get to their very distant appointments on time. Trev, Jason, and Melissa all helped as well with whatever needed to be done on both buses and right away we were taken in as family. The amount of thanks and appreciation showered upon us was unexpected and very happily received. Julia's whole gang (Sarah, Kat, Pete, Ches, and Winnie) all immediately treated us as friends and family and we have been a peachy community ever since. Right now, Julia, Winnie, Melissa, and Trevitt are cooking up a tremendous vegan feast (Vegan food is actually really good when done right. For God's sake, Trevitt even likes it!) So, I don't know what else to tell you. IT's been a whirlwind of activity. In spite of our attempts to fix their bus, it still had some electrical problems and just gliches and bugs that couldn't be properly addressed with the limited time, tools, and materials that we had, so for fear of potential complications, Julia and her crew all jumped on our bus and we did a 28 hour drive straight from Reno to Boulder. Everybody was exhausted, but it was like a big party with old friends that we were just catching up with. For a little bit of unasked for tangential information, we were talking new age hippie shit that we sometimes do and the topic was focused heavily on serendipity and stories about how the universe seems to have conspired to send us messages in the past. WE were getting really into it, when a pee break was drastically needed and Trevitt pulled over on the side of I- 80 ...no rest stop, no pull out, just the side of the road... and someone let out a gasp. Written in rocks about 6 feet across, directly next to the bus, was the word: "Julia". Pretty freaky. We got photos for proof. That happens to be the second time this has occured on the trip. Walking through Seattle a month and a half ago with Trevitt, I was getting a bit into the whoa is me mode, thinking that I didn't have much of a personal mission invested in the bus.. Trev pushed for me to expand on the positives of my experience and I spoke to the fact that out of all of the things i was hoping to accomplish on the bus, the one that at that point had really been realized was that I wanted to have a good time, live in the moment, and enjoy my life. The very moment that I finished spouting out something to that effect, Trevitt grabbed my shoulder, stopped me, and pointed down. There on the sidewalk at our feet, written in chalk, were the words "life is precious, don't waste it."
Take that story for what you will. I think I believe in coincidence, but I know i believe in divinity. Anyways, for me, and I speak only for me when I write these opinionated or empassioned statements, this whole trip feels like the most "right" thing that I've ever done with my life. Yes, I have no job, school schedule, money, security, or home of my own to go back to when I'm done. Very possibly I will be in a difficult position in those respects. But I have to say that if I died tomorrow, I'd much rather have followed my heart to this bus and lived this dream, than followed my fear to a cubicle and a sense of "security." Not saying that all cubicles are bad (rubix cubicle for example), but for me at this point they are....besides the point. Point being, that I feel as though I put my fears and "rational thinking" aside to follow my intuition of what felt like the right thing, the most positive thing to do with my life and it pays off everyday. I put alot of energy, time, blood, sweat, tears,money, and love into this bus and our mission and have opened myself up to everyone I meet to the best of my ability and I can't begin to describe the rewards that it continues to bring me. I feel blessed everyday. I guess if I'm making a greater point while I once again adorn this soap box with my presence, its that I feel we all sell ourselves short on a daily basis. We don't really know of the existence, or at least don't seem to tap into the potential that each one of us has to make our world and the lives of everyone around us a little better. We stifle our own creativity for fear of criticisms, condemnation, or even ostracization from our social group. Well if your social group ostracizes you for exercizing the creative gifts and talents that God gave you, than maybe its a blessing. Assimilation into a group can close you off to the world. Your "us" becomes smaller and your "them" becomes tremendous. I want to be on the winning team. The bigger team. The team where we are all "us". Fear is the largest obstacle in life and it has many manifestations. I won't go into, explore your own heart a bit and maybe you'll see what i mean. IF you just give yourself a chance, you may find that you are a much more capable, giving, talented, and loving person than you gave yourself credit for and you may find that your life leads you to much more interesting places than you imagined yourself being. Don't surrender your heart. Don't surrender your life. Don't trade your time on this plane for a paycheck. Even if you don't believe in a higher power or some individual purpose, at least make your life interestig. Anyways, to continue along the somewhat preachy vein, I just want to say that the most amazing thing that I have learned on this trip is that you truly can do whatever you want to do. YOu just have to believe that you can, and try. I know it sounds halmarky, but its the truth. So props especially to Johnny, Ches, and Julia for making this so salient that it virtually smacks me upside the head whenever I'm in their presence. Their lives show me that all you really need to accomplish something is the will to do it. Look at Rudy Ruteger for Christ's sake. Melissa is an inspiration as well. She wanted to get us involved with "We the Planet" and with the help of Jah, she made it happen. The girl is a catalyst and makes good things happen for the bus. Its been great having Jason on the bus. You truly are a kind, helpful, and very balanced soul and we all love you. Thanks for adding another dimension to our crew. So, we hung with Woody, who did an incredible poetry piece set to m