The Maiden Voyage

On Saturday, October 1^st, we officially moved out of Richmond and Big Easy took her first trip on the highway since we began working on her back in February. We drove about 84 miles north from Richmond to Fauquier County, with Daniel driving Big Easy and me following behind in his truck. We were pleasantly surprised with how well she handled while pulling a trailer and even more surprised with the miles per gallon calculations we completed once we reached our destination. We were expecting, at worse, about 4 mpg since we had added so much weight between the deck, trailer, battery banks, and other miscellaneous additions. At best we were expecting about 8 to 10 mpg according to what we had read about the year and make of Big Easy. The result of our calculations, though, was almost 12 mpg! We were very excited to see this considering there seems to be more and more competition with bio-diesel companies in collecting waste veggie oil from restaurants.

Despite the great mpg discovery at the end of the test drive, we did hit a few bumps in the road (pun intended) but most of the difficulties were with the trailer and not Big Easy. Before we even got on the road a taillight on the trailer was accidentally broken upon knocking into a trashcan but, duct tape to the rescue, onward we marched. Daniel and I had established a code before we left in case of an emergency so that I could notify him if I saw something go wrong with the trailer or the bus. It was quite simple and consisted of me slamming on the horn if he needed to pull over immediately or calling him if it was something that could wait until the next exit ramp. I was able to test the code almost instantly given that we had not even technically left Richmond before the first problem arose. We were speeding up on the on ramp for 95 North when the trailer doors that Daniel had spent hours trying to secure suddenly flew wide open. This was extremely problematic considering we had just piled the trailer completely full of items that could potentially hurt very badly if they slammed into your windshield. I immediately began slamming on the horn but, unbeknownst to us, a diesel engine running right beside you apparently drowns out all other sounds. After I realized he couldn’t hear me honking, I called him and told him to pull over as soon as possible. We then used ratchet straps to hold down the doors for the rest of the drive but we still haven’t decided on the best way to keep the doors secure. Unfortunately I did not have my video camera with me, but I think I learned my lesson and will keep it rolling from now on!

The next stop we had to make came around the Ashland exit when we had to pull over because a loose wire had fallen off the trailer and was dragging on the ground. The wire wasn’t being used so it was an easy fix to just take it off. While it might be frustrating that objects randomly fall off, we do recognize that it was a pretty cheap, old trailer and we do our best to just take all of the problems in stride. The final problem we ran into, and the only bus problem, was that the driver side taillights decided to stop working around Fredericksburg. Luckily that was an easy fix as well and Daniel just had to tighten a few screws to get them working again. In the end, it was a pretty solid drive to Fauquier County and it definitely gave us a confidence boost in how well the bus is running.

We still have a lot left to do but we hope to begin our journey by this weekend (10/8-9). The rainy weather has provided a few setbacks but we plan to finish the loose ends this week while visiting with our families and friends. We are very happy that everything with the bus has been running smoothly, especially the solar power, and we are crossing our fingers that it stays that way! 

Big Easy and her soon to be painted trailer sitting in my mom's driveway after the trek from RVA!