diesel (made from used restaurant vegetable oil). Everything worked normally, but with a slight scent of tempura. The thing that was interesting about it wasn’t the way the car worked, it was in how it made me feel. I felt like I could relax to the road trip because I didn’t feel guilty about burning ancient oil, and we were basically not polluting the atmosphere with new carbon or other nasty chemicals. (The carbon that we were spewing out had been removed from the atmosphere by the plants, we were replacing it – not adding to it. I suppose we added to the short term pollution by adding NOx compounds created by the high heat of the engine, but these eventually break down and don’t add anything in the long run – my personal rationalization.) I felt guilt free, and could just relax and enjoy the trip – which I did for the entire day. I can only image what it will feel like when I am using hydrogen created by the sun.
The trip started with a few hours of a relaxing drive up the Sacramento Valley in the early fall sunshine watching the colors and chatting with my friends. By the time we got the bottom of the mountain, we were under clouds. As we drove up the mountain to the end of the road (about 8,000 feet elevation), we were engulfed in magical clouds/fog that turned our walking through the meadows and forest into a magical trip, in absolute silence. Besides our footsteps, all that you could hear was the burbling of a number of brooks running through the meadows and an occasional call of a bird. The experience was a walking meditation. Very lovely and full of power. What a wonderful day it was – I give my thanks to my friends and the mountain.
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