Welcome to TorMor!
This is the homepage of Toren Elsen and Morgan Jenatton and their upcoming cross-continental adventure.
It is because Humanity has never known where it was going that it has been able to find its way.
- Oscar Wilde
We are two true-blood native Coloradoans and seniors at liberal arts schools on the east coast—Toren at Vassar College and Morgan at Boston University.
We have spent four years or more pursuing higher education, in homes far from home, and feel it is time to reconnect. Reconnect with each other, reconnect with the world, with the land, with people, and with the country. We need to plant our feet back on the ground. So, we’re going TorMor.
In our best attempt to do so, we are undertaking an extensive trip around the U.S. and Canada for the summer after our 2008 graduation. We will be buying a diesel VW Westfalia Vanagon and converting it to run on used vegetable oil.
We are using a waste vegetable oil (WVO) system, for several reasons. First, why the hell pay money for gas when fast food restaurants around the world are throwing it away for free? Second, the tail pipe exhaust smells like popcorn. And primarily, for our purposes we don’t really get the point of using a fossil fuel resource which is 1) nonrenewable and eventually going to run out 2) contributing significantly to global climate change 3) expensive (for broke ex-college students) and 4) smelly. Therefore, we are attempting what we view as the best current option available (again, for our purposes). However, we are nonetheless aware of the various shortcomings of this system, which we expand upon in the Thoughts section.
Thus, from this site you can learn about us, our motivations for the trip, our van, sign our guestbook, and contribute to our trip, if you so wish.
Most importantly, we want to hear from you! If you have something really awesome worth visiting somewhere, or if you want to invite us over for dinner and some beers, or you have a job for us, let us know! If you live in North America, we'd love to come visit.
