On the road again...

Well, I'm finally on the road again!

It's taken a few months to perfect the veggie conversions, but I have to admit, Shane at Rover Hybrids did a fantastic job. Everyone I've shown the vehicles to thus far has been impressed with the quality of work and the attention to detail.

I drove the motor home from Redding to San Diego, via Interstate 5, towing the Land Rover. I periodically switched back and forth between diesel and used veggie oil and was pleasantly surprised by the power, acceleration, and fuel economy. Comparable to diesel without the greenhouse gases. It's an amazing transformation... and a work of art. Free fuel! Life is grand!

I'll post up some photos of the completed project shortly. Imagine... fueling up on used oil that restaurants are throwing away. Who'da thunk it?

Land Rover

Finally!

I have wheels!

(Well, I always had wheels in the form of BABs, my motor home, but now I can actually get around town without having to worry about where to park.)

The Land Rover is finished. It has taken almost four months, but it's done. And, it looks and runs great!

Shane Ballensky, owner and operator of Rover Hybrids in Redding, California, converted a 1994 Land Rover Defender 90 series from a gasoline V8 to a diesel 4 cylinder. Why? So I could run vegetable oil as fuel. Gasoline engines can't run vegetable oil, so we replaced the gas engine with a diesel and created a one-of-a-kind eco-friendly, good-lookin' expedition machine.

Now, some of you familiar with Land Rovers may say, "Hey, wait a minute...".

Yes, it's true... Land Rover did build a lot of diesel Defenders for other countries, but they're hard to find in the States. Also, the Land Rover diesel engines can't compare to the torque, horsepower, and reliability of the Cummins 4bt diesel engine that we put in. It was a lot of work, but well worth the effort.

And, if you're interested in the details, I'll be publishing an article about the conversion sometime in the next couple of months.

In the meantime, Shane will be finishing up the veggie conversion on the motor home, and if all goes well, I'll be back on the road by the first of the year!

Today's Top Headlines...

Today's top headlines!

(these are real headlines, folks, pulled from today's news stories.)

German ministers say Scientology unconstitutional

Cremator dumps half-burned bodies to save fuel

And, the best headline of the day...

Eco-friendly kangaroo farts could help global warming

Latest publication -- RV Life Magazine

RV LIFE Magazine

I haven't been doing much photography while I'm here in Redding, but I have been working on my articles. I'm not sure when it will come out, but RV Life Magazine will be publishing my first article soon. In the meantime, the editor, Mike Ward, has written an article about my Vanishing America project:

http://www.rvlife-digital.com/rvlife/200712/?u1=texterity

By clicking on the image above, or on this link, you can see the online version of their magazine, which can be viewed like a PDF file, complete with page navigation. The article begins on page 6, and continues at the bottom of page 7. There is also a collection of my images on page 14.

Yeah, I know... Me, Me, Me. But, I'm excited, dammit!

KOLD, Tucson...

Here is the latest TV interview. This one was done by KOLD, channel 13, in Tucson Arizona.

5 for 5 Friends

Can you name 5 friends? 5 best friends? Do these 5 friends fit the following criteria?

1. Friends for at least 5 years;
2. Friends you haven't seen for at least 5 months but
   
3. have seen several times within the last 5 years;
4. Friends you have spoken to in the last 5 weeks;
5. Friends who would list you as one of their 5 best friends.

It doesn't matter if you email this to everyone. There is no curse that will befall you, nor will spamming your friends with it make you rich. But it is important.

And tell your friends they made the list. They'll appreciate it. That's what friends are for.

-2007 Holt Webb

Broke Down Engine...

(with apologies to Bob Dylan)

Back to "normal"...

I've gotten so accustomed to being in Redding, that it's almost like a second home to me.

After a week of dealing with engine problems on BABs (my motorhome), I'm finally back in Redding, at Rover Hybrids, awaiting completion of the veggie conversion on the Land Rover so we can begin converting the motorhome.

So, here's the brief story of what happened after I left Tucson:

After a long drive from Tucson, I spent last Thursday night at Mono Lake Park. (I prefer to drive during the day, so as to avoid any chances of hitting deer, rabbits, coyote, etc. while driving at night.) Friday morning, I had engine problems. The symptoms pointed to the fuel system, but I didn't have the tools, nor the knowledge, to attempt the repair myself, so I called a tow truck. The first truck that AAA sent me was too small, so I had to call another truck. The bigger truck wouldn't be available until the next morning, so I spent another night at the park.

Fortunately, during this time, I had plenty of heat, water and food, so I was comfortable, if not happy, during my breakdown.

On Saturday, I arranged a tow with a bigger truck, who wasn't able to reach me until midday. They towed me to the nearest authorized service center, which happened to be two hours away in Sparks, Nevada. We arrived well after dark.

It being a weekend, the service center was closed, so I stayed in my motorhome in their parking lot until they opened on Monday. I still had some food and water on board, but was running low. Thank goodness for the Mexican restaurant across the street!

Monday, the service center replaced a filthy fuel filter and sent me on my way with a working engine! Two hours later, on two-lane Highway 44, in the middle of Lassen National Forest, I broke down again... with the same symptoms as before. It was already dark, so I spent the night on the dirt shoulder of the highway. The temperature got down below 30F at night, but I had propane for heat and food to last a couple of days, so I was comfortable.

The next day, a Tuesday, after removing and cleaning the fuel filter myself (yes, my fingers were numb in the cold), I called for a tow truck and they hauled me the two hours to a service center in Redding. I spent the night in their parking lot, and they got to work on the problem the next morning. Their solution was a bad fuel pump, which they replaced, and the motor has been running fine since. I got back to Rover Hybrids Wednesday night, tired and almost out of supplies, but back "home" nonetheless.

Today, I'm going to drain some fuel from my tank to see if there is any debris in there that could be causing the clogged filter and failure of the fuel pump, then take BABs in for her regular scheduled service on Monday.

This whole time, I didn't get any work done due to being on the phone arranging tows, making appointments at service centers, and being out of cel service or in a garage bay where I can't get a satellite signal. I was, essentially, in a sort of minor "survival" mode. You know... first things first... Get the problem solved, then move on. Well, the problem is solved, and now I can move on. The website will be ready soon, the Land Rover will be ready soon, and I'll be a happy camper once again.

Breakdown... part deux

So, Cummins in Sparks, Nevada replaced my fuel filter. Good thing, too. It was nasty. You should be able to look into one end of the filter and see out the other side. Not this filter. No light could pass through it at all.

So, they fixed the problem and I was able to hit the road last night.

I made it about 2/3 of the way back to Redding when the problem started up again. I had to pull over to the shoulder on Hwy 44, in the middle of Lassen National Forest and spend the night.

This morning, I called a mechanic in Susanville, about an hour southeast of me. They're going to bring me some tools so we can remove the filter and clean it. That should be able to get me to Redding where I can have the tank drained and cleaned.

Right now, I just have to sit tight and wait. It's cold up here. There's frost on the ground.

Get your kicks...

What a week!

(click on any image to view it full size)

As many of you know, I spent a little over a week in Tucson attending a seminar and shooting near Davis-Monthan Air Force base, home of the famous Airplane Graveyard.

Leaving Tucson, heading back to Redding, I tried to stay on Route 66 to infuse my soul with a little highway history. Never having traveled that historic highway, I was quite impressed with what I saw. Granted, I only drove a small section of 66 from Flagstaff to Barstow, but it gave me a taste of what it must have been like to travel the country during the courtship days of its love affair with the automobile.

Little towns were scattered along the route, some dead and empty, and some turned into tourist traps complete with gunslingers and donkeys, trying to make something out of what remained of their glory days before Interstate 40 took it all away.

Route 66 is a Nationally designated Historic Highway, and I suppose the DOT intends to keep it that way. With I-40 getting the bulk of the DOT's maintenance attention, Route 66 becomes sort of an afterthought. It's asphalt pavement ran the gamut from patched and tolerable to crumbling away, and many sections of it nearly shook the fillings out of my teeth.

It's one redeeming factor is its beauty as a road. This two-lane artery into the heart of America's past ranged from winding serpentine paths barely large enough for the RV, to long, beautiful straightaways that disappeared into the horizon.

Along those winding turns and long stretches of blacktop are the towns that served as rest stops for the traveler heading to the eden of the West Coast. The towns that drew me away from that mesmerizing highway are not the tourist traps with "antique" signs and t-shirts, but rather the places that are forgotten, the places where a hardy few still eke out a living, and the places where empty buildings stand as a reminder of better days.

One of those places was a town called Amboy. Located in California, southwest of Vegas, in the Mojave Desert, Amboy is one of those little towns that had once had a life, but lost it when the interstate came through. It was an important stopover on the way to the coast, but now sits as nothing more than a quaint photo opportunity for those creative souls with cameras.

From time to time, people will stop in Amboy to take snapshots of Roy's Motel and Cafe, a Route 66 icon, built as a stopover for motorists traveling the highway during the glory days of the motor camp.

Back in the '20s, hotels could be found in most cities and vacation destinations, but when it came to traveling the backroads of America, roadside motels were non-existent. If you had to spend the night somewhere during your trip, you either slept in the car or set up a tent.


Enter the motor camp... For only a few dollars, the four-wheeled traveler and his family could stay the night in a cute little cabin or cottage complete with all the amenities of home. Over time, the motor camps gave way to motels, and another page in history's great book was turned.

Amboy never had a chance to grow much beyond "stopover" town, but it grew big enough to have its own school. Now deserted and abandoned, Amboy School sits right next to Roy's Motel, preserved by the dry desert climate and the absence of time.

(I have to ask the question... is there a difference between deserted and abandoned? The dictionary says they mean the same thing. But do they? Does one imply that people are coming back? Can one empty place be both?)

The desert landscape of the Mojave helps to define the solitude of the Amboy schoolyard, where laughing children have been replaced by tumbleweeds and empty chairs. As you walk through the halls of the buildings, you find textbooks and book reports, some boxed up as if to be moved, and the rest scattered across counters and floors like the last day of school, when, as students, we would empty our lockers and throw our papers in the air in triumph of making it to another summer. But the boisterous laughter bouncing through the halls is gone. The only sounds are the breeze blowing through the open doorways, mice scurrying behind the bookshelves, and the echoes of children playing in the schoolyard, as their voices are carried off by the wind.

---

Breakdown...

The drive back to Redding from Tucson was great, until... Thursday night... I pulled over at a park next to Mono Lake to rest for the night. The next morning... engine trouble. The RV had been running fine this whole time, then, all of a sudden, this problem pops up. No warning signs whatsoever. Friday morning I called AAA, Winnebago, Freightliner, and Cummins to help either solve the problem or find a tow to a service center. As it turns out, the engine needs to be diagnosed by a Cummins-certified technician (who hooks it up to a computer), and the nearest Cummins-certified service center is near Reno, Nevada, about 3 hours away.

It took most of Friday to arrange a pickup with AAA. But, the first tow truck that they sent me was way too small, despite them having the size and weight of my vehicle in their notes. So I sat for another day, trying to arrange a tow. I ended up having to call a tow service in Sparks, near Reno, and make arrangements on my own for them to come out and get me. For whatever reason, AAA couldn't do that for me. Nine hours later I'm in Sparks, Nevada waiting for the Cummins service center to open up on Monday.

Fortunately, I still have power, fuel, heat and food, so at least I'm comfortable while I wait. And, as I've mentioned in previous posts, there is good to be found in every situation. And, as if to prove that point, every delay that I encounter has opened another door for me and my project.

I wonder what door this will open...

5 for 5 Friends

Can you name 5 friends? 5 best friends? Do these 5 friends fit the following criteria?

1. Friends for at least 5 years;
2. Friends you haven't seen for at least 5 months but
   
3. have seen several times within the last 5 years;
4. Friends you have spoken to in the last 5 weeks;
5. Friends who would list you as one of their 5 best friends.

It doesn't matter if you email this to everyone. There is no curse that will befall you, nor will spamming your friends with it make you rich. But it is important.

And tell your friends they made the list. They'll appreciate it. That's what friends are for.

-2007 Holt Webb