The mountains were snow-topped and the air was crisp. My boots crunched in the dirt and my eyes alighted on a car that looked out of time. It was the Lotus Prisoner, a two-seater open air roadster that looked like it was from the last century with the exception of running off of cooking oil.
I walked over to oogle and learn more about the car. The owner, Jack, was from Oregon and we chatted at length about his car. Jack had a great sense of humor, but it was unfortunately lost upon me. The race was the prisoner's first trip, as his previous Lotus was totaled a few months earlier. Later in Vegas, he took me on a spin in it and told me the time he drove under a semi-tractor trailer. (Yes, the car is small enough to do that.)
Back at the Lone Pine, the green team, rolled up and I finally laid eyes on the wood burning truck I've been reading about. Wayne and his team came from Alabama stopping and showing off the truck along the way to Berkeley. I was most impressed that there was a _second_ word burning truck on a trailer. This team was dedicated and friendly.
There were rumors as to where a third contender was. The Homeschool Heros were in either Lee Vining or north of Bishop. It was unclear. Apparently some really dirty fryer oil had clogged the fuel intake in the diesel Mercedes. It was unknown whether they would make it to Vegas. We watched the two contenders take off, one headed south straight for Vegas, while the other headed north back into Lone Pine to scavenge some oil.
When I originally heard about this race, the scavenging for fuel requirement really caught my eye. It was what I thought might make the challenge impossible. It was also what I found most fascinating and at the same time realistic. I had the opportunity to follow the Prisoners on the third day and watch them scavenge for cooking oil on numerous occasions.
I won't give away their secrets, but I was fascinated by how simple it was. A bargaining. A way to interact with people from each town they went through. People loved learning about the car, and the race and when they learned they needed fuel, everyone jumped at the chance to be part of it.
Fuel procured, we were on the road and traveled through some of the most beautiful land in the world (by my opinion) - Death Valley.
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