Runnin’ on Veggie
“Nearly every American hungers to move,” writes John Steinbeck in Travels With Charley, an account of the author’s travels across America in an RV. After a three-week, business-related stay in a hotel room, the Janssen family realized they wanted to downsize their life. Eventually, this lead to their own cross-country adventure, complete with a modern twist. Thus, the Live Lightly Tour was born.
After finding a used RV on Craigslist from an 84-year old man in Illinois, Matt and Sara Janssen took it to Golden Fuel Systems (www.goldenfuelsystems.com) where a custom conversion kit was installed, allowing the camper to run on veggie oil. According to Sara, the RV’s tank holds 100 gallons of eco-friendly fuel, which allows for about 800 miles of travel.
Why abandon your home, as well as the majority of your possessions, for something so tiny? “For some, going smaller is a challenge, but we enjoy it,” Sara explains. “We have gained such a connection as a family and also with the outdoors.”
For Matt and Sara, along with their young daughter, Bella, having the freedom to travel anywhere they want is an exciting opportunity. And while they sometimes miss having a consistent group of family or friends around, this is offset by the privilege of meeting all kinds of new people and creating many new relationships. Plus, the option to visit home is always available. “We don’t have our own yard to play in, but we have an entire country […] with parks on every corner! For each challenge, there is an equal benefit,” Sara tells me.
The response to veggie oil, as well as the tour’s larger message of living simply and following one’s dreams, has been overwhelmingly positive. Says Sara, “[T]hey are sick of punching a time clock and living in a cubicle. They want to follow their dreams and take the same leap of faith that we took.”
While its easy to be overwhelmed by the numerous aspects of green living, the Janssens encourage people to start small. The family believes incorporating lots of small changes over time will add up to larger ones, and strives to spread this message with the people they meet across America.
Want to learn more about the Live Lightly Tour and the Janssen’s take on green living? Visit www.livelightlytour.com.
-Marygrace Stergakos, Editorial Intern with KIWI Magazine
Tags: camper, conversion kit, cross country adventure, fuel systems, rv, travels with charley
1 comment
Many people here are concern about preserving the inviroment for the future generations. “You’re putting cleaner air out there and you’re recycling, this is used vegetable oil, it’s had its use in the restaurant industry it’s been collected and it’s being reused as a fuel.”
Leave a Comment