Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Hanging Out in Tahoe




Biggreentruck has had a few new experiences this week: it got its first taste of biodiesel, it hosted its first party and it had a successful, if somewhat odd, oil gathering adventure.

On the way up to Northstar to ski with a couple of natties last week, we passed the Northstar fueling station where B10 can be had at the pump. I know B10 is barely biodiesel but it's better than the B5 available down in Reno (that fuel required a 7 day waiting period--no idea why). And, it was the same price B0 in town.

The CHOSS Reunion provided biggreentruck with a chance to have some visitors over for lunch. It was reminiscent of the Westy days and while we welcomed biggreentruck into the CHOSS family we mourned the Westfalia a bit too. Being able to see the truck over the huge snowbanks on Mt. Rose Highway was a definite bonus that made it easier for all of us to make our way back to basecamp after our backcountry skiing adventures. Now for the oil story: everything I read tells me biggreentruck should get Chinese Restaurant oil as a first choice. Well, Incline Village, NV, has a one of those so biggreentruck pulled in there this afternoon.
-'Hi, I have a rather odd request....'
-'?Como?'
-'Do you have any used vegetable oil?'
-'?Mande?....oh, si!'

-'What kind of oil is it?'
-'C***eed oil'
-'huh? Canola? Soy?'
-'No, no C***eed. It's from a seed.'
-'Uh, ok great! Thanks!'
Of course China Village is run and staffed entirely by Spanish speakers. It seemed all the customers were also speaking Spanish. They were very nice and filled my cubie from waste oil they had in the kitchen. I didn't even have to dumster dive for it. Still don't have any idea what kind of oil it is but it is a lot nicer looking than the last batch: clear, reddish, not chunky.