Woodgas 2020.....AGAIN!

Jakob, hopefully there are no inconveniences that set you back, I wish the best for you on your trip.

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Thanks Tyler I plan to make the plans for it this afternoon.

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How is the virus news effecting your plans if at all?

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We are a little nervous about getting stuck somewhere in some quarantine. We are still going as planned hoping to leave here the 2nd of May.

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That’s for the western portion. The southern/eastern should be here in a couple weeks.

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I think its been a little harder flue this year, mine lasted about 3 weeks instead of a week or two. It seemed too have an extended head acke fever than normal.Good luck on your wook gas adventure, i caint think of a better thing too do for graduation travel in nicer weather.6

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Be carefull on the hikeing trails you go through yellow stone national park, a gal got all but eat alive by a mountain lion, and another few people from an angry hungy black bear in spring time is more hungry time for bear comeing out of hybindation. Me bring at least a 45 out on the back country if legal, i supose if conceled carry permit recipicle.Cause i know them folks would have paid any body too stop there horror.

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What are the gun carry laws from state to state. Does anyone know? I know around here in the south, most states accept carry permits from neighboring states. I’m curious how it out west. I know we here in AL are about the most open when it comes to gun laws. Anyone except felons can open carry about any type of firearm without a permit.

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I think a lot of states alow open carry, but then you got too deal with the fearful folks calling the law. So i dont have conceled carry yet and dont open carry. but conceled carry could be more useful in an emergency.

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Not sure what site but there are list of states on internet that excect mi, or in your case al. when traveling. just have too remember too case the arms when hit a state not covered, or get a permit for the states that dont except your state. some states dont alow carry in state parks, though i would think they alow in some of the more dangerous wild animal parks.

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It actually begins.

Hello friends and family. Just a note to keep you updated as promised. Jakob’s WoodGas 2020 project is officially underway. The timing is unfortunate as the planning and logistics of the project have been greatly complicated by the COVID19 pandemic, but he is doing quite well in spite of those troubles.

For those who are new or have not heard, WoodGas 2020 is quite an ambitious undertaking. It has so far involved Jakob designing and building a wood powered truck capable of crossing North America. The rest of the project involves doing so. His objective is to make a round-trip, wood-powered trip before his 17th birthday that will take him (us) to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as the Gulf of Mexico and the national border with Canada, through no fewer than 24 states. His objective is to prove the technology and bring attention to it for use in development settings as a viable alternative to petroleum for use in transportation, industry and power generation in poverty-stricken areas of the world. So please help get the word out. If Jakob accomplishes this objective, it will be the longest trip of its kind, and only the third wood powered vehicle to cross the country. An interesting fact is that all 3 who will have done it are from central Alabama; each within about 50 miles of ADAPTech.

As I write this, the sun is rising above the endless empty cotton fields as Jakob is driving south through Georgia toward the Atlantic coast at Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The plan was to be on the road at 2 A.M. but we left ADAPTech this morning at 3:00 A.M. Jakob had an unusually difficult time getting the truck to light this morning. Perhaps something was partially clogged.

His original plan called for a much slower pace (2-3 days) for this part of the trip, but given the concerns about the virus, we wanted to travel responsibly, so he is attempting the entire southern/eastern portion, (almost 900 miles) of the nearly-8,000-mile-trip in one continuous effort. It may be necessary to stop for a rest somewhere along the return trip, but we have carried from home all the fuel, food, drink, etc. that we should need for the entire trip. This should allow us to accomplish our task without hotel stays and restaurants. And since we don’t need to pump any gasoline for the truck, we should be able to avoid all human contact except an interview with a reporter at the beach. I suppose you could say that we are “self-isolating-on-the-go”.

So, things are going very well. We just got our breakfast burritos from off the top of the engine where they were warming. We seem to have plenty of kiln dried maple from the cabinet shop. The truck is running better than ever. A small charcoal clog in the crossover tube seems to have cleared on a long hill. This has given the truck more power than ever. We have been travelling between 65 and 76 miles per hour. Wood consumption has not yet been figured, but with 180 miles on the trip meter, Jakob has just refueled for only the fourth time. Everything seems great, even better than expected so far. We’ll keep you updated as we can.

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Good morning Billy and Jakob.

HAVE WOOD WILL TRAVEL

Keep us posted and and be safe .

If yall happen to run low on hand sanitizer you could always us a little of your condensate :grinning:

Good Luck

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No chance of running out of microbe killers. We’re bathing on them.

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About the condensate Wayne, I thought that also, but Jakob keeps dumping it on the side of the road. I guess he’s trying to share with the peanut and pecan Farmers

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YAHOO
I will closely watch for your posts. Actually there should be much less traffic to contend with

A lesson I learned the hard way on my first trip to Florida is to always drive through a large city before stopping for the night.

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Are you guys already on the road? That’s just fine. We had a dump of snow but the chunks are nice and dry under a tarp. Looking forward to it.:grinning:
Rindert

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Always stop on the other side of any City. That’s my role to o.

Ended up at Atlantic Beach instead of Jacksonville beach because that’s where the reporter lives. He was real interested. Said he sometimes gets stuff like this pushed up to the USA today. We’ll see. I doubt we can complete with corona. But he really likes that we were cooking lunch on a flare tube.

Now we are almost to Perry Florida. Then the gulf of Mexico. Then South and West of Tallahassee to get to the Alabama line before the national guard closes the border tomorrow night.

Jakob is singing way too loudly and way off key to keep from getting sleepy. Hilarious.


Had a little hiccup at a rest area. Gas too rich, not enough air. Battery got weak. But we’re rolling again.

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The national guard thing is a rumor we have been hearing all day. We’re not sure if it’s true.

Also had to do a char dump at a little over 400 miles. Still pulling char through the hay filter too. I didn’t get a picture but I went to a canal to get water to quench the char. I was filling the job at the side of the water and a gator popped up in front of me about 4 feet on front of me. Reminded me of my youth. Just a little 5 footer.

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580 miles on 681 pounds of wood

Having a hard time getting to the gulf. State parks closed. Roads closed. Beaches closed. Wife says that rumor about closed borders are false according to her research… all is well. Just south of Tallahassee. It has cooled off and Jakob has gotten a new body of energy.

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