Tales of Ether and Woods

Finally we are getting on the road today. Sitting at a McAlister's Deli in Mooresville, NC eating the largest baked potato I have ever seen. So good, considering we haven't eaten since 9 PM last night. Car is running, but not without adventure. We excitedly filled it to the brim with oil yesterday after getting the pump working, and expected to drive all the way to Wilmington, NC to stay the night with some of Brian's friends. However, we found that they were not in town, and the long drive just seemed totally ridiculous based on the amount of sleep we got the night before (~none). So we found a beautiful state park, Lake Norman, and set-up camp for the night. We had only run about 2 gallons off the full tank, so we stopped at a gas station to top off the diesel so we could start easily in the morning. Unfortunately, the last gas station we could find didn't have diesel, so we put in a little kerosine and 1 gallon of gasoline. The bigger problem is that there was way too much vegetable oil in the tank. But we weren't thinking all that clearly. Got to the camp site, set up the tent, ate the last of our food (hummos and fresh locally grown tomato sandwich), went swimming, then crashed for the night. I woke up early, went swimming again, relaxing, saw a spider that could have been a black widow it was big enough and looked like one so I watched for a while then went to get the camera and came back and it was gone but it hadn't been heading the direction of the tent so no worries, then Brian got up, we packed up the tent, showered, packed up the car, and tuned on the battery to warm up the injection lines. Half of the lines weren't working. Tested them and there was a short in one. It had been burning itself up for 2 days. We got it straightened out and got it going, and had to let it sit for 30 minutes. As the lines warmed up we conjectured about whether or not the car would start considering the amount of vegetable oil we had in there. Brian, who analyzed the situation with logic, didn't think it had a good chance of starting, and wished he hadn't been so tired the night before and had thought about it. I thought it would start, because I used realism to come up with my reason, which was that it had to start because the vegetable oil car is magical. Brian was right. Damn thing didn't start at all. We spent the next 3 hours insulating the injection lines and trying different things to get it hot enough to get the vegetable oil thin enough to start. No luck. I was walking to go take another swim, and I ran into a maintenance guy. He had some WD-40, so we tried spraying that in the engine as we tried to start it, that didn't work either. He called the main maintenance center, and they sent down a guy with a can of ether. Starting fluid. Made for gasoline engines. Ether is strong stuff. I asked Brian about it, like what would happen if you sprayed ether into a campfire. He said "You know what would happen if you spray gasoline in a campfire? Imagine that x 10". Basically, the stuff is strong - and usually too strong for a diesel engine. But it was our best chance, so we tried it. The maintenance guy sprayed it in while Brian started the car and I watched from the side. You know how it looks on TV when you see someone get defibrillated? THAT is what this was like - like the car coming back from the dead - instantly started coughing and wheezing, but chugging along all the same. It was started. 3PM. 

Whoo - we told the guy we were planning on heading to the coast - called the outer bank - and wondering if we could make it leaving this late. "Yall going there? I don't know you want to do that - it gets pretty hot there in July. And there is no shade anywhere on the whole thing. You get there, and try to camp, and you won't have anywhere to hide from the sun - you'll just be hanging in the car. It's like Iraq out there right now - you could fry an egg on your head!" 

OK, we are heading to D.C.. Pump pictures on the way. No pictures from the campsite - fortunately for us the phone had died and I couldn't take any. :)