Live Lightly Tour

We have a new addition to the Live Lightly family…a 1997 VW Passat that runs on veggie oil of course! It’s only natural that we would want to get rid of our gas car and go 100% veggie. After we converted the RV, it was physically painful to put gas in the car! Ouch! We heard about the VW and knew it was the one for us. It gets 44 mpg on either veggie or diesel….a beautiful thing.

We bought the car in Springfield, MO, from the sister of Charlie (of Golden Fuel Systems). We needed to go to Golden Fuel anyway to show them the remodeled RV and buy some oil filters, so it worked perfectly! We had a few things tweaked on our RV veggie system while we were there and we had a wonderful time seeing old friends and meeting new ones! They are a fun bunch of people.

When we arrived at GFS, there was a cargo van on the lift being converted. When we went inside, we met the van’s owner…the beautiful and adventurous Carolyn. Carolyn just graduated from college in Florida and purchased the van to travel in. The van is a former S.W.A.T. team vehicle…with a bullet hole in the side to prove it! It’s totally reinforced on the inside…and is quite a cozy home. She is on her way to Burning Man, and then has plans to travel the West coast until October. We had a great time getting to know her…we went out for coffee and lunch…and had breakfast in our RV together. We traded stories from the road, and made sure to get each other’s contact info so we could stay in touch. It looks like our paths may cross again in Arizona…it would be fun to see her again!

We were also able to catch up with my friend, Anna, and her family. We hit our favorite spots together:

The Mudhouse
…a wonderful coffee shop downtown where you can see dreadlocked college kids, pink-haired beauties, and stoic businessmen all in one place. Great people watching…but the coffee is even better! Don’t miss the Frozen MudTurtle. Yum. They also have a huge selection of teas and yummy sandwiches. Vegetarian friendly too!

The Tea Bar and Bites
This little restaurant just glows with charm. Delicious food and great service. Each room is unique, with touches of whimsy. It also has a delightful covered outdoor patio with fountains and flowers. I could stay all day.

The Jordan Valley Park Fountain
…perfect on a hot Missouri afternoon! This amazing fountain was designed by the same people that created the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas. When the water “pops” up…it makes rhythms similar to a drum line..it’s like music! I actually thought that there was a drum line practicing at a nearby baseball park.

To see photos of Carolyn, flash floods, Amish buggies and more, click HERE.

We will be in Springfield, MO on Monday and part of Tuesday…if you are in that area and would like to come tour the RV and see the veggie system, let us know! If there is enough response, we’ll meet on Monday evening at a park in town.  Email us directly by clicking here.

Thanks to the Golden Fuel Systems team…we are officially driving on veggie oil! We had a wonderful time with our new friends in Springfield. We were only there for a week, but we were able to do so much! We went to a renewable energy fair, explored the heart of Ozark Country, ate Thai, drank tea, and checked out the local coffeeshops. All in all we had a glorious time. Thanks again to Chuck and Anna for opening their home and hearts to us while we were in Springfield. See photo set here. After all that fun, it was time to move on. Our system was completed on Sunday and we took off and headed back toward Des Moines. We stopped at the Kansas City/Oak Grove KOA for the night, where we enjoyed free wi-fi and a wonderfully cool pool. See photo set here. It is SO HOT in Missouri! Whew!

In the above photo, you can see Matt explaining how a veggie oil system runs. I had been chatting with one of their wives in the office as I checked in, and as soon as we parked, they drove up in their golf cart. These two men (Ron and Ron) were really excited…and with good reason: they were former Ford Motor employees! It was fun to listen to their questions and enlighten them about the joys of veggie. They seemed genuinely interested about converting their diesel RV’s to veggie oil.

We slept great in our air conditioned bedroom. It’s so quiet and dark in there; I love it! We hit the road in the morning and headed north…but first, we needed to go grease hunting!

We arrive in Springfield around 11:00 a.m. and we locate Golden Fuel Systems. After parking the RV in the street, we excitedly walk into their offices. Within moments, we are greeted by the president of the company, Charlie Anderson. Charlie is immediately likeable and puts us at ease. We go straight out to the RV and they crawl underneath to get an idea of what they are dealing with.

After that, we all head inside to his office and talk numbers. Originally, we thought that we would need a custom fabricated tank and that was going to be a lot of extra money. Fortunately, it worked out for us to do a “main tank conversion”…which means that they will drop out the existing diesel tank, modify it, and put it back. That tank will now serve as our veggie oil tank (a whopping 90 gallon tank!)…and they will install a smaller, 20 gallon diesel tank to use on start-up and shut-down. We were so excited to hear this…because it also meant that the conversion would take less time than we had originally planned.

We stayed at GFS for most of the afternoon…talking, learning, and getting excited about not buying gas anymore. Charlie and his team are AMAZING. They are super friendly, passionate about what they are doing, and very knowledgeable.

We left around 4:00 p.m. and headed over to Chuck and Anna’s house. Anna is a friend that I met through MySpace and she had come to visit me in Des Moines last summer. They graciously offered to let us stay with them for the entire week we were in Springfield. They have three young boys and Bella loved playing with them and all of their toys. Anna homeschools, is a La Leche League leader, and shares many of the same natural mama tendancies that I do. We had a fabulous time talking and eating and sharing stories.

The next day, Charlie invited us to come out to his farm and hang out with his family. We followed him on winding roads to his home in the middle of Ozark country. On the way there, he makes a stop at Rainbow Trout Ranch. It’s one of Charlie’s “accounts” and he wanted to show us what “oil in the wild” looks like. He did a little educational session with Matt, explaining what good oil and bad oil looked like. We also were able to dip our toes in the spring-fed stream. It was beautiful.

Charlie and his wife have a beautiful acerage with animals and plenty of space to run. Golden Fuel Systems, formerly named Greasel … used to be located at his home. They have since moved into Springfield. He works mostly from home…because it’s a good hour and half drive into town. He showed us his sweet solar power system that runs his entire home. That’s a lot of batteries! He is also refurbishing an old bus and we got a tour of the progress. It’s amazing. I can’t wait to see the finished product. He is currently working on converting a Previa van to run on veggie oil. He drops the gas engine out, imports a diesel engine, replaces it…and off he goes. It burns 40 mpg on diesel and also runs on veggie oil. It seats 7 people and runs like a charm. Why isn’t everyone doing this?!

After that, we all piled into his 2000 Ford Excursion (powered by veggie oil, of course) and headed down to a nice lazy river so the kids (and the adults) could play in the water. It was a hot, hot day and we had fun getting wet. Bella liked jumping off the bridge. She’s quite the adventurer. It was a wonderful day with new friends. We headed back into Springfield and slept REALLY well that night.

We had been visiting with my family in Iowa for 6 weeks, so it was hard to say goodbye. As we were leaving, my dad hugged me close and said “I love you. Now go have some GREAT adventures!”. My mom got teary-eyed, but knew that we will be returning soon.

We say our final goodbyes and shut the door. As we are pulling away, I continued to snap photos of my family waving and being silly. A few blocks away, I remembered that I had left my brand new Klean Kanteen water bottle (I lost my old one! Grrrrr…) on the counter in the kitchen. I call my mom and she meets us in the Wal-Mart parking lot so we don’t have to maneuver the city streets again. Moms are the best.

About ½ hour out, we stop at the rest stop to dump our tanks for the first time. It went well. If you’ve seen the movie, RV, you know that much can go wrong. Matt was a pro.

However, after an outside inspection, we realized that the brake lights that attach to our car (that we were towing) had stopped working again. Matt was having trouble with them back in Des Moines, but we thought they were fixed.

I took advantage of the free wi-fi at the rest stop while he worked diligently on them in the dark. We thought about just staying until morning, but unfortunately, we were in a position where we couldn’t back up and park. We could only pull forward onto the interstate or stay right there at the dumping station.

Matt finally figured out the problem with the brake lights. He came in, started the engine, and discovered that the dash lights were now off. It turns out that we could have either/or, but not both. Hmmmmm. He went back out and then saw that nothing was working again. He finally got everything working and we set off. About ½ hour down the road…we were too tired to continue. So we ended up staying overnight at the next rest area and waking up early the next morning to continue.