TRAVEL Frida deals with Katrina BY SARA DONNELLY

The Frida Bus is gearing up for its longest road trip yet. The progressive community on wheels, powered, appropriately, by vegetable oil, will load up with about a dozen volunteers on November 13, give up its Portland parking space, and head down to Mobile, Alabama, to join the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. According to Meg Perry, Frida Bus Coordinator, this will be the first time the bus has hit the highway since it rolled down to the south Bronx two years ago to help build community gardens. This time, volunteers plan to stay two to four months to rebuild whole communities.

"The Frida Bus doesn’t do a lot in the winter in Maine," says Perry. "It just sort of hibernates in a parking spot. So, we thought, why don’t we bring it down South where it can do some good?"

The Frida Bus is part of the nonprofit People’s Free Space, recently relocated to Cumberland Avenue, founded in 2002 to create opportunities to share progressive ideals and activities. Frida — which is stocked with a library, a box of free stuff, a kitchen, and a couch — will join the S.O.S. (Saving Our Selves after Katrina) volunteer network, which is based in Mobile.

Katie Shaw, a volunteer with S.O.S., met Perry and other Frida people a few weeks ago when they went down without the bus for a shorter stint. She expects most people in Mobile won’t know what to make of the Frida Bus.

"Just the idea of a bus running on vegetable oil, people down here have never heard of that, they don’t even know it exists," she says. "They’re going to bring the attention of people around the South to different ways of living and thinking."

At the very least, the green Frida Bus, navigating the streets of Mobile and belching gas that smells like French fries, will be something to talk about other than Katrina, and that’s something.

The road trip isn’t sold out. To join the Frida Katrina effort and receive free room and board (remember — they’re expecting to be there at least two months), call Meg Perry at 822.9869. For details on the going away party/fundraiser, see "8 Days a Week."