Welcome and Hello

Welcome to Interstellar Overdrive. I am using this blog to

• capture my trip across the country


• celebrate my new 1976 MBZ 300D


• tell all of you about alternative fuels
  
  

This last goal is by far the most important. I bought my 1976 Mercedes Diesel to use as my gateway to the burgeoning alternative fuel market. There is a real trend developing in the use of biodiesel and different forms of vegetable oil for powering diesel automobiles. The goal is straightforward: produce a fuel domestically that burns cleaner than imported petroleum for a similar price. The science is simple: almost any vegetable oil can be converted to biodiesel using a method called transesterification. Or, with a simple modification, diesel engines can run on pure vegetable oil instead. Finally, the energy and enthusiam is there: I know I have caught the bug and I can tell from the websites, blogs, news articles etc., that others like me want to make these alternative fuels happen.

In the coming weeks I will be mixing a travel log with whatever I can find on this alternative fuel market across the country. I will put links to some of the blogs and sites on my sidebar. I hope it is as informative to you the reader as it will be for me the writer-traveller. I leave from Bradenton, FL tomorrow morning. The name is Interstellar Overdrive: Your Ride to the Future.