Talking travel with Tom Haines

October 18, 2006|Tom Haines, Globe Staff

Back in May, I wrote a story about the RV culture out in southern Utah, where vacationers get 7 miles to the gallon driving their motor coaches between national parks that are home to hoodoos and slick-rock.

Got this e-mail response from Paul in Hingham:

‘‘How can you be so cavalier in your endorsement of a pastime that is recklessly indifferent to any notion of environmental responsibility or accountability? Maybe next you should do a feel good piece on baby seal hunting or the good old days of untreated sewage.’’

Paul may be encouraged by another e-mail, this received after a Rhode Island family said they successfully drove a 40-foot motor home powered by vegetable oil from Seattle to Providence.

In a press release, Steve and Anke Adler explained that they converted the 1997 Bluebird luxury coach, nicknamed ‘‘Elbee,’’ with an on-board waste vegetable oil filtration system. Then, with three young children on board, they motored west to east, stopping at restaurants to collect waste oil for conversion.

‘‘We would eat in the restaurant and after our meal we would ask for their used oil,’’ Steve is quoted as saying in the press release. ‘‘It didn’t usually smell very good when dumpster diving. One time I vomited, it was so bad. But we figured out how to determine the better waste oil.’’

In Chicago, they met a Chinese restaurant owner who gave them a full dumpster of oil, and invited them back the next day for more: 140 gallons all told, enough to get from Chicago home to Providence.

Talk about being on a roll …