Santa Cruz jubilee

Just as we departed from San Francisco, my sister voiced her willingness and flexibility to allow us her 1 gallon pot and stove top to filter the oil in her house. It may splatter a bit, but we would be clean and yes the house might smell like french fries or thai spring rolls. 1 1/2 hours later, with an espresso and a little multi-tasking, nearly 10 gallons of used veg oil was filtered and funneled in the car. It was the first time the system was so easy, it just took one set of hands. Since the oil was heated, the same process that took us 4 hours and 6 filters in the front lawn of a suburban Davis, Ca neighborhood, took us less than an hour..without cleanup. The small price of time you exchange for free fuel.

A few roundabout roads to the highway later, we carpool lane drove passed tons of traffic with the sweet smell of canola oil at it's best, hot and it small puffs into our sunroof.

The best feeling in owning a mercedes german car is that maintenance questions can be answered by the comprehensive maintence manual in the glovebox that we so pleasurably fixed the other day. The small jerks in the car and it's slight loss of power while riding on veg oil was troubling. Between the manual and the Greasecar mercedes 300d WVO manual, we diagnosed the slight clog in the nozzles of the fuel injectors. Now we are not mechanics by any means, but figuring out the problems of a car is similiar to living homeopathically. Don't you think?

We have arrived in the home of some lovely and welcoming friends from college. We already have the invitation to as many as 10 gallons of peanut oil from their neighbor whose installation plans went astray.

As for now, with a few bats of the eyes, a dinner with old friends posing for cheesecake school portraits, the ocean breeze swirling by, and the harbor, welcoming a morning stroll, we just might wake to hit up the local carnival that starts tomorrow, just in time to taste and judge the apple contest. Is it about flavor, organic apples, heirlooms or just good ole fashioned taste?