The Big Green Apple
We parked the bus next to Grand Central Terminal for the Earth Day Green Apple Music Festival. Brian, Liz and weaved through the crowd of people, walked past the tables of environmental literature and energy saving devices to the stage just in time to see State Radio finish their sound check. 
The crowd grew larger and began to move with the beat, but we had to get back to the bus after only a few songs to rendezvous with Cat’s father near Central Park. Jim Hainfeld is a research scientist who has been working on cures for cancer with nanotechnology.
As we crawled through the city in mid-day traffic, Cat told us to keep our eyes peeled for her father.
“He has a white beard and looks like a scientist,” said Cat.
“There he is!”
Cat jumped out of the bus. Stopping traffic, we rushed the two on board, exchanged greetings with her cheerful father and found a parking spot on Central Park next to the fleet of horse drawn carriages.
Cat’s father asked about our vegetable oil system.
“Well the main challenges are dealing with sediment and water in the oil,” I told him.
He thought for just a moment,
“Maybe if the water and sediment were mixed evenly in the oil rather than collecting together it may run smoother. A sonicator would do that. It scrambles all the particles together so you won’t have any large clusters of water or sediment. I may have a spare one somewhere”
“Huh, a sonicator…that was our next idea,” Alan chuckled.
Cat, her father and I strolled the streets looking for a good sandwich. Jim treated us to comically enormous sandwiches at Carnegie Deli. Our bellies full, we met the crew back at the bus and picked up Arrow for celebratory cruise around the city. With Arrow behind the wheel of his former bus, we picked up friends and drove to the temporary site for Tri-State Biodiesel in Williamsburg to pick up some fuel.
We drove between warehouses and factories and we found a familiar chain link gate, the exact spot where Alan and I first met the bus. Arrow fiddled with the lock to the gate then realized he didn’t have the correct keys. He shrugged and handed us a beer. We played around the streets between warehouses.
I stood up from a handstand and saw Cat teaching her father to ride a skateboard. He looked like a scientist trying to ride a skateboard. Cat hopped on the board to show him how it is done. Jim, undaunted by this new contraption, tried, fell, and tried again until he had wrangled a good ride.
Arrow drove the streets of Williamsburg, the hipster haven for poets, artists, punk rockers that he knew so well. We parked in front a pizza shop and bar and were soon joined by a steady stream of curious New Yorkers.
We eventually headed back to East Village and parked the bus on Tompkins Square for the night. It was 4 a.m. Just when we thought the party was winding down, Brian found a group of twenty 
that wasn’t yet ready to turn in and the bus is once again loaded with people. Instruments and drinks filled every hand. Brian reached for his guitar as another case of Stella Artois appeared on board. We sang and drummed into the early morning.
The next day we ran some errands and relaxed in the park with other East Villagers enjoying a long awaited, beautiful spring day. At sunset, we met Arrow on his rooftop for some music and margaritas. A couple of Arrow’s girlfriends spun their hoola hoops as the sun set on the New York City skyline. 
The next morning we explored some docks by the New York harbor and snuck aboard a sunken ship that had been pulled up from ocean floor, then drove home.
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