Taste-full Tours in Metromix!

Check out the Night Move and Taste-full Tours in Metromix!

Culinary road trips for your eating, drinking and learning delight.

Free treats. Cooking tips. Culinary road trips.

Listen up folks. We have a very awesome announcement to make. The Night Move is pairing up with a company called Taste-full Tours to lead what they term, “Culinary Road Trips.” If you haven’t heard about these, prepare yourself to get excited. They’re bus tours (on the world’s greatest biodiesel-run shuttle bus, of course) run by culinary professionals. Sign up on the Upcoming Tours page of their website to check out some chefs’ little secrets -- off-the-beaten-path bakeries, homemade chocolate shops, local brewpubs and authentic international markets. You’ll get to rub elbows with shop owners, taste their specialties, and best of all, learn something. (And since the more you know, the more you grow, this is pretty much the greatest opportunity ever.)

Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart! Biodiesel!

It's been a while, faithful readers, and for that we apologize. Anyway, today we'll be talking about biodiesel. Enjoy...

The Night Move runs on B20 blended biodiesel. That means 80% of it is diesel and 20% of it is biofuel. Detroit's own Clean Emission Fluids has an on-demand blender, called a F.A.ST. unit (fluids affordably stored), which is where we get our blended biodiesel. The biofuel we're currently using is made of corn. Since I don't really speak biofuel, I found this explanation of biodiesel for your enlightenment, from biodiesel.org:

Biodiesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

Biodiesel is made through a chemical process called transesterification whereby the glycerin is separated from the fat or vegetable oil. The process leaves behind two products -- methyl esters (the chemical name for biodiesel) and glycerin (a valuable byproduct usually sold to be used in soaps and other products).

Anyway, we may move to pond algae soon instead of corn. It seems logical to me to make the switch, since using algae wouldn't threaten our food supply. Read about "Why Algae Will Save Us From the Energy Crisis" this Esquire magazine article.

Stay tuned for Night Move biodiesel developments, we'll keep you posted as they occur.

Learn more about biodiesel on Wikipedia.

Detroit is awesome.

Read this, from Model D, by U of M kid Kimberly Chou: "Maize, Blue and Detroit, Too: U-M Grads Find Promise in City's Future."

The Night Move introduces mobile booking!

Did you know you can now book a ride on The Night Move using your iPhone or Blackberry? Just go to www.thenightmove.com/booking, like you would on your computer, and go through the booking process. Then, to get on the bus, you can show the confirmation screen on your phone to Dupree* instead of a paper ticket.

So if you're out Friday night and decide to hop on The Night Move to get you around between Royal Oak, Ferndale and Detroit, pull out that iPhone! Note: if no one in your group has an iPhone, I suggest you be the first. That way you not only have access to The Night Move mobile booking, but you also have a super sweet phone and all your loser friends will be jealous because they're still living in the past.

See you on the bus!


*For those of you who don't know, Dupree is our all-star, totally awesome and huge superhero driver. If you haven't met him yet, do yourself a favor. The guy is quite a character.

Launch party recap

LAUNCH PARTY PICTURES

Look for yourself in these photo albums:

• on Metromix, courtesy of Jamie Karosa: "Party pics: The Night Move Launch Party";
  
• on DetroitCity.com: "The Night Move Launch Party";
  
• on MotorCityBlog photographer Riaz's Flickr page: "The Night Move: Launch Party (For MOTORCITYBLOG.NET)";
• and on After5Detroit, by Lindsay Bryant: "Night Move launch."
  

And finally, here are photos Paul Hitz at MotorCityBlog took for us last week: "The Night Move."

Thanks Motor City Blog!

Check out this awesome video our friends at Motor City Blog put together for us. We gave them the exclusive first ride on the bus, and they gave us this video and some super sweet photos. Check out their post here: Motor City Blog rides the Night Move.

Thanks a trillion, guys!

After 5 Detroit

One more and then I'll stop: "Let the Night Move Move You!" on After 5 Detroit. Thanks, Lindsay Bryant!

Crain's!

If you subscribe to Crain's Detroit Business you can access our story here: "Nighttime shuttle to connect Detroit, Ferndale, Royal Oak." If not, pick up a copy at the bookstore and read about The Night Move on page 24.

Wow, when Crain's thinks you're noteworthy, you're in, right? The Night Move is huge. And I'm conceited.

Blogging on Metro Mode

Chris and I have such valued and important opinions that we were asked to guest blog on Metro Mode. Check out Marvin Shaouni's sweet photo of us with moving traffic in the background -- very cool.

The Night Move is famous.

Sorry folks, the bus does not sign autographs.

Read about The Night Move in Real Detroit Weekly! Thanks to Travis R. Wright for being awesome.

Check out The Night Move on Model D!

Look! Coverage on Model D! Read it here, by Kelli B. Kavanaugh: Cue the Seger: Night Move launches shuttle service between Downtown, Ferndale and Royal Oak bars.