Why do I need a pre-paid gas card to buy biodiesel?
What a day – running on bio fumes, Ohio State Troopers, U turns through the median – and it wasn’t even noon yet. The search for biodiesel can sometimes take you farther than your gas tank will let you go; and I’ll thank my lucky stars I made it just in time to the Jefferson, OH biodiesel filling station! Oh but no – they only take truckers’ fuel cards – a prepaid gas card that I neglected to acquire prior to my departure. I’m not quite sure why there needs to be such an exclusive form of currency but I’m going to find out… Luckily for me and my timeline, there was a diesel station another mile away.
As guilty as I felt for filling up with the pure petrol-type stuff, I was relieved to not be stuck in NW Ohio at the Dairy Dream for an unknown period of time. But now I’ve got a baseball game to get to! I tuned into a Cleveland radio station to get a preview of what I was about to get into – with my delays in refueling, I’d be lucky to make the 7th inning. The Ohio State Troopers and Cliff Lee (the Indians ace pitcher throwing a 1 hitter through 5 innings) decided to stack the odds against me. One thing I discovered though is that biodiesel journeys make for good excuses to get out of speeding tickets. That, and appealing to the inner baseball fan that lives inside nearly every police officer. I was only going 7 mph over anyway…
So after finding parking behind the Hilton outside Progressive Field, I paid my 8 bucks and got my ticket into the park. I walked in through the outfield entrance and beheld the glory of afternoon baseball. As much as I hate to say it, I think the Yankees really screwed up the design of their new stadium. One visit to the Indians park in comparison will tell you why… the Yanks lost the spaciousness, the monumentality and the electric feel of their old stadium in the process. After watching the Tribe seal the White Sox fate with a 4-0 victory, it was on to Detroit to pick up some additional gear for the festival.
Without significant incident I made my pickup from the great folks at Nationwide and dialed in my next biodiesel station on the GPS. Another hour away I found my destination: an unmanned (after 6pm) Mobile station that offered five different flavors of biodiesel! I could choose from B5, B20, B50 and B99 – they also carried “off road” diesel (and I’m not sure what that is yet). I eagerly placed the nozzle in my truck’s thirsty tank and swiped my credit card to begin the delivery of liquid gold. Alas, as luck would have it, the pump was not to up to the task. Beginning to feel weary, I decided to retire at a nearby Best Western and return at dawn to hopefully, with the assistance of a friendly station manager, fill my tank for another day’s adventure!
Karl MehrerK2imaging, Inc.voice: 917-952-9589www.k2imaging.com