Saturday, Day 1, Part II: Checkpoint 1.

The race is on...

The only thought running through my head as we rambled down Ashby Avenue, was if we could make it to our first fuel pickup before running out of gas...er, oil.

The car could easily make 24mpg, but things change in urban driving. It takes allot of gas to get this two-tonned beast to move and to stop. And to top it all off, with only one gallon of oil sloshing around in the tank, there's a greater chance of air getting into the engine, which would stall it.

With all that about to happen, I gingerly navigated the Merc through the streets of Berkeley to our first pickup point, the Berkeley Seventh-Day Adventist Church, located 1.9 from the Labs.

Lucian the church's youth pastor, came out to meet us. They had a few gallons of Veggy Oil stashed away for us.

Many thanks to the church!

We then poured the fuel into the tank and made off to the first checkpoint, in Port Costa.

We started the race at 1055. At 1215 hours, we arrived at the first checkpoint.

When we pulled into the dirt lot in Port Costa, we found that none of the other competitors, and even some of the support crew, hadn't showed up yet.

And again, media and the public swarmed us since we were the only car there...

HsH stands idly and silent, waiting to get back on the road.




More picture taking.




HsH is finally FREE!!!

As we were leaving the first checkpoint, the Prisoners of Petroleum pulled up!

We left the first checkpoint, and headed to San Ramón for our next pickup.

Yes I know, we're not really "scavenging" per sé, we did call ahead to my fellow homeschoolers and family members for oil. Although it sounds easy, just going and picking up the oil, it's NOT.

All our pickup points, with exception of the Berkeley Church, were miles and miles off the race route. This would contribute to our missing the second checkpoint and arriving at the first campsite late.

We showed up at the San Ramón SDA church just in time to catch the end of the service.

The Chan family, my relatives, had organized the local Pathfinders club and home-schoolers to collect used oil. They collected over 20 gallons. Many thanks to them!

Promptly adding more gallons to the tank.


Our trunk is getting stuffed.

After saying our goodbyes, we left to go even farther off the route to hit Sunnyvale, where more of my relatives and school-mates had gathered oil.

We got there as they were preparing to go to a Pathfinder function.

That's allot of oil!!!

After filling up, we were hours behind schedule. We still had several hours to drive, and it was 1700 by then. Our second checkpoint was in Moccasin, Ca.

At 1800, I gave a call to Jess to see if we should go to the checkpoint or go directly to the campsite.

An hour and a half later, we got a call from Jake. He told me that the checkpoint had been closed down for the night and that we should proceed to the campsite.

Because we knew it would be hard to start the car in the morning due to the cold, we ran the car to an almost empty gas tank.

Putting in a splash of fuel to make it to the campsite.

We made it to camp to find the Green Team, Prisoners of Petroleum, and the Kristie Flyer lagered in the parking lot. Out of the thirteen registered competitors, only seven made it out the gate, and only four remained at the first campsite.

Starting up the stove.

We then set up camp, cursed the cold, tried to keep warm, and had a miserable night's sleep.