It was all worth it.

Between Ethan and me, we’d slept like 20 hours in 4 days to prepare… not enough by a long shot, but the adrenaline was pumping because we were about to launch the Connect the DOTs Biobus Tour – a 3-week road trip on a former school bus converted to run on recycled veggie oil to inspire people to choose their DOT.

Our first event was a soft launch – supporting two local organizations doing their thing in Venice, California – and it was a beautiful way to kick off the tour. After a full 1 and a half hour “sleep,” we headed to Venice Beach to support Heal the Bay‘s beach clean up.

While we were getting our hands dirty, a camera crew from NBC Los Angeles filmed us and did a spotlight on the bus in action.

When we were ready to roll on, we realized we must have rocked out a little too hard listening to AshEl Seasunz’s new album, Earth Amplified, because the bus wouldn’t start! Stone cold dead battery. Perfect. Just what we needed – we were supposed to be at Venice High School for an event, we definitely hadn’t slept enough, and here we are showing off a bus that runs on vegetable oil and we can’t even get it to turn on!

Don’t worry, this won’t happen again – we have batteries powered by solar power now hooked into the main system so we won’t drain the bus battery with killer grooves. Get it? A pun…

We tried to start the bus off our reserve batteries, but we got nada. After 10 minutes of trying and some neighborly help from a fellow camper and a good samaritan, we prevailed and rolled over to the Learning Garden at Venice High School.

Here are some pictures from the event – you can see more online at Venice Paparazzi. The best way to catch us on tour is to follow our route online! And to give you a sneak peak of what’s next, we’re heading down to San Diego Wednesday – Saturday, where we’ll be at summer camps, a skate park, and hosting solar-powered concerts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWLaI4o5nkc