A Long, Fat-Fueled Adventure

April 8, 2007 — -- After nine months, 21,000 miles and countless vats of lard and oil, Seth Warren and Tyler Bradt have finally finished their excellent fat-fueled adventure.

Their goal was to take "the longest road trip in the world" without using a drop of gas.

Their means was a 1987 Japanese fire truck converted to run on plant and animal fats.

Last week, after covering Alaska, Chile, and everything in between, they arrived at the tip of South America.

"There's a lot of different fuels for different people's lifestyles," Warren said. "This is a way we found to fuel our lifestyle."

Along the way the two 20-somethings stopped to hold seminars on biofuels. Warren said his idea was "to show people that we can run the car on the plant and animal oils that exist in their backyards."

Staying true to his message, the guys filled the car with native fuels -- fish oil in Alaska and pig lard in Mexico.

When the fats started to run low, they relied on the kind that grows everywhere -- leftover fast food grease.

"The craziest stuff that we used was unprocessed palm pulp. We found this stuff in Colombia and it was super thick orange nasty stuff," Warren said.