Progress

Garden
Originally uploaded by average lavender

It's a little late to be starting a full garden, but somehow I maintained some misplaced confidence that we'd be able to find a few cherry tomato starts around here. We managed to round up four pepper plants (two banana, one green, one yellow), brussel sprouts, broccoli, squash and seeds for kale, carrots, beets, basil, and chives. We also found some thyme and parsley. I mean, it's not my dream garden (no little tomatoes, and no, sniff, cucumbers), but at least we'll have some edible things.

It sounds like George will be headed north in the beginning of August, to see Jesse who's visiting home from China, to see his family, to go to some dude's wedding in Maine, and (hopefully) wrangle up some furniture and plants that'll fit in the car. Meanwhile... I'll be staying in Asheville to play with my consolation prize: the new scooter we haven't got yet! Which will take me to be trained at: my new job I haven't started yet! I've managed to land a part time gig with City Bakery & Cafe making bread; I start Tuesday.

The cats are way happier here than they were in California. They have a yard to play in, so Boy isn't getting chased by dogs and stuck in trees, and Girl is comfortable and not always slinking around afraid. They spend their afternoons sleeping and the late evenings being pissy because they're not outside.

George is washing the car.

Scoot, boogie

If there's one thing we've learned about Asheville it's that it's *the* place for scooters. They're everywhere, being ridden by everyone! It's partly because the city it's eco-conscious and people are attracted to the 100 mpg they get and it's partly because if a scooter's engine is 50cc or smaller the rider doesn't need a motorcycle license - therefore scooting is popular with the DUI crowd. While West Asheville is near downtown it's still kind of a haul, biking is possible but in the summer heat and humidity it's about the last way I want to get around. George and I have beeing eyeing the Honda Metropolitan. We figure it's the perfect second motorized form of transportation for us (me), ridiculously great gas mileage and I don't really need to go that far or get there fast anyway. Also, they seem pretty reasonably priced: if we opt for the '07 lying around the local dealer it's about $1600, and a new '08 is about $2000. There are a few differences we've noticed: the '08 has a more comfortable seat, better color, and chrome mirrors, is it worth it though?

We're heeeere.

We finally made it to Asheville, after a disappointing attempt at seeing Graceland and going through towns like Texarkana and Bucksnort we rolled through the Smokies and coolly glided into our driveway. After some much needed quality food at the Westville Pub with Hope and Mal, Hope drove me out to the gigantic, crazy, ridiculous, pretty terrifying Wal-Mart where I bought an inflatable bed, sheets, and cotton swabs.

The house is really incredible, it's the nicest place I've ever rented or could dream of renting. The backyard is the perfect size for a small garden and clothesline with extra space for our hammock and some lawn. Next to the house was an awful cement pad which at one point had apparently been home to a hot tub, and boy was it hideous. I called the landlord to let her know we got here and double check about the garden and see just what things we could get rid of: her first suggestion without being prompted - that terrible cement thing. Needless to say, it's already gone.

Our pod of belongings has yet to show it's rectangluar face, we hear rumors it should arrive today.

She'll fly 'erself apart captain!

After a couple tanks of veggie oil we noticed that the Mercedes was losing power, especially driving uphill. Initially we thought the oil we got was too thick for the engine, so we thinned it down with some diesel and that seemed to solve the problem. The third batch of oil we got from Lubbock, TX was excellent, so when we hit the highway and still had problems we decided to do some problem solving. The engine was acting like it wasn't getting enough fuel, and it seemed to run fine on a thinner diesel/oil mix, so we suspected that either the fuel pump wasn't maintaining pressure in the line or a fuel filter was clogged. We unplugged the auxiliary pump to isolate the main fuel pump and the car still ran. We decided the problem was probably that the primary fuel filter was clogged, so we decided to rig a bypass.



The veggie oil conversion kit George installed has 4 inline fuel filters, including a large primary filter with a water separator. We unplugged the fuel lines from the primary filter and hooked them up to the factory filter. The cartridge on the stock filter is smaller, but we figured that the first batch of oil we got might have been dirty, so we were hoping that the new filter would be clean. The work went smoothly with a little help from the local sheriff, after about 40 minutes we were ready to roll.



Luckily our guess was right! The engine started up, purring smoothly on the clean veggie oil and we drove on into the hot Texas night. Generally the engine runs more smoothly on the veggie oil because it burns cleaner than diesel, so with a new filter we cruised on into Dallas.



Today we took off the oil kit filter to rinse it out with gasoline. We figured we might be able to clean out the filter, just in case. We found a nice surprise waiting for us.



Turns out the hot oil was cleaning out 25 years worth of gunk built up in the combustion chambers. Our second sweet surprise was garlic mashed potatoes and steak. Now the car is fueled up and so are we. Tomorrow: on to Memphis.

You can't tame the J-Dogg.

Happy B-day J-Dogg!

brownies and coffee and A/C heaven.

time to go rehabilitate some bridges.

See, it really works!

See, it really works!
Originally uploaded by average lavender

Highlights:

- Running on vegetable oil 2/3 of the time so far.
- Being accused of siphoning fuel elsewhere and refused biodiesel purchase in Bakersfield.
- Cats not totally freaking out the whole time.
- Pretty uneventful trip.

Hopefully my traveling companions will be kind enough to weigh in on some of this stuff.

Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin

We've decided to leave California on a day when it's just about 100 degrees, good choice? Of course. The heat makes me feel mostly brain dead, so I'll just say that we're leaving in roughly two hours, we have 10 gallons of water and our first stop is in San Mateo to pick up some veggie oil.

Adios!

I'M IN THE SIIIIINK!

I'M IN THE SIIIIINK!
Originally uploaded by average lavender

Boy is adapting well to being on "vacation". After moving out we heard from our ex-landlord that we hadn't cleaned well enough to which I had a long rant of seriously pissed off responses, like, "It's not my fault that you didn't allow a day in between us moving out and the new tenant moving in to really clean and paint the place - which is your responsibility as a landlord." In the end and after a conversation that repeated itself at least five times, she said she'd have someone else go back and clean it - and take $30 out of our deposit. It's not that much, I know, but it's really the principle. When we tried to tell her we were moving out she didn't get the message because she was on vacation in Mexico.

We've decided to leave Tuesday afternoon, which means we'll be passing through southern California/Arizona/New Mexico hopefully at night. Our car is reliable, comfortable, beautiful, but lacks that new-fangled air conditioning. I think each of us has our own plan regarding how far we'll actually drive the first day, and I'm really hoping to make it to Albuquerque, NM - an easy 16 hour drive. After a night of rest in hopefully some great, cheap, pet-friendly place we'll truck along another 11 hours to Garland, TX where we get to stop and see my aunt, uncle, and cousins! The next leg will be a cool 15 hours to Asheville and our adorable little house. I mean, ideally.