GO!

First stop....pick up our teammates, Sean and Mollie!

On Your Marks! Get Set!.....

School's out for summer!  We have a couple of faculty meetings Tuesday/Wednesday.  And then..... We're off!!!!
It has been a busy couple of months.  But it has been an especially busy couple of days.  The tentative plan is to leave Thursday and head north to Yellowstone...stop over in Whitefish, MT....then up towards Calgary and Banff...then diagonal up to the Yukon...over to Anchorage and then back.

Please send happy thoughts to all of the restaurants along our journey that they will want to give us their WVO (waste vegetable oil).  The Travel Queen loves her grease like the best of the fuel guzzlers out there.

Some updated photos of the TQ:

The water tank sits under the driver's side couch.  Storage under
the passenger.  Cushions came to us all the way from Jordan
(Thanks so much Kip and Kari!).  I sewed fabric, that Mollie found,
over the top to match the original drapes from 1977.
Free form table that Russ made and that we will add
stickers from our adventure along the way.

New if the kitchen is the metal back splash and thrift store spice rack.

Energy efficiency is important in the refrigerator.
Reusing is important at all other times, as found
in the storage bins below. (They were left in the dorms
after the students left for the summer.) 

We have four bunk beds in the back of the TQ.
Privacy curtains were Sean's great idea from a sailing
expedition he went on.

Sixty gallons of grease will be stored on the back of the home vehicle.
With Russ's welding skills, the hitch was extended a few feet
so we will still be able to attach the bike rack.

Fill 'er up!

Grease/Veg/WVO, whatever you want to call it, is then transfered
to the heated forty gallon tank at the front of the TQ to be used
by the engine.

In the cabin is this super snazzy computerized control panel that
tells you everything you need to know!  This pick was taken part
way thru the fill up.  We will leave town with 100 gallons
of waste vegetable oil!

Fun Physical Preparations for the Alaskan Adventure

In addition to continuing remodeling work on the 1977 Travel Queen Home Vehicle, I have been happily practicing my slacklining skills.  Gibbon Slacklines gave us two lines for us to take on our Grease Home Vehicle (GHV) Alaskan Adventure!  I had never heard of a slackline before the super bowl halftime this winter and now I'm in love!  I practiced yesterday for an hour and a half and woke up this morning very aware of just about every muscle in my body.  I want everyone to know that this is HARD!!! But so much fun!!!!  I am excited for all of the slacklining that is in my very near future all on our drive to Alaska in T minus 3 weeks!  I also want to give a shout out to my incredibly comfortable Twist Tank Top by Lole in these pictures.

Don't look at the bottom of my foot.  Gross!

They say it is easier to balance with your arms up,
rather than out to the side.  Of course the dancer
that I am  has to make those arms elongated. :)

Held this just long enough to get the picture!

See Ava the doggy?  See the stick just below the
slackline that she really wishes I would throw for her?

For more information about our Grease Home Vehicle adventure here is a link to Mollie's blog.  She has also been doing updates about our adventure and will probably be more regular about updating on the trip.  So if you want to stay tuned along the way, I recommend you subscribe to her blog, too: http://themollieshambeaushow.com/2012/04/travel-queen-update/