Boston Meet Up

[Ct. Ken V]

Hi, guys,

I know this is the "Boston" Meet Up thread, but if some of you don't mind moving a little further west like Framingham, for instance, you might also attract some Prius owners from Connecticut. Back when MRV (Michelle) & her female friend put together some early meet-ups, they had them once at a dealer in that area (maybe I'm wrong) & a couple of times at restaurants near Shopper's World [if it's even called that still (I used to be familiar with that stretch of Rt 9 between the Mass Pike & the Needham/Wellsley area)]. When I lived in Needham (my birthplace) on our way out to Ken's Steak House or Shopper's World, I remember seeing lots of anglers fishing in the shadows of the Carling Brewing Company build'g "on the shores of Lake Cochituate, duh, duh, duh, duuhhh, New England" (as the ads used to say).

I never was able to attend any of those early Prius meet-ups because I didn't own a Prius at the time & even though I knew about these sites/forums, I hadn't read the posts about the meets until after they (the girls) had the last of them.

Of course, if anybody decides to have one in Framingham (or thereabouts), then it should get posted in the "New England" section. Maybe you guys (or somebody else) could even work up a meet-up a little more west like Sturbridge or Springfield even [both of which are closer to Connecticut (& me---I live in the Hartford area)]. Just some food for thought.

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

[hobbit]

Well, a good but chilly time was had by all! It was cold and raw
with a fairly brisk wind, that kind of "wet" cold that gets right
in under your clothes and gradually chills you to the bone. But
we had a pretty good showing.
.
The four following pix should link to slightly larger versions.
.

Almost an identical pic to Martin's, except that by the time I
thought to haul out the camera, two of our party had gone! You can
see how dreary and Gorey-esque the weather was. The bleak look
of the hilltop and pavilion was sort of appropriate to the day,
actually.
.
It's entertaining to note that on all the cars here with visible
wheels, the trim rings/plastic have all been pulled off!
.

At least the rain held off, and we could hang out and chat a bit.
Didn't really need the pop-up, but we set it up anyways just in
case it got wet. But folks were having more fun running around
between cars and looking at mods including Martin's INSANE
stereo and playstation setup and the LEDs he's peppered all
over the passenger compartment. [Which I didn't get any pix
of but he's posted a few already].
.
So why is there a wire hanging out the front of Neicy's car?
.

She'd been having block heater trouble, and we dug in to debug what
was wrong. Turned out to be the same problem someone else reported
recently -- an open somewhere near the plug, possibly due to it
being pulled out and pushed back into the grille many times. The
heater element itself was fine, as was the orange connector going
into it [which was interesting to get a hand on using only the stock
Prius jack to unweight the front end and lying on cold asphalt].
Toyota seems to have selected a fairly inferior quality cordset to
build the wiring for these things from, but fortunately it's a
fairly easy fix.
.

We pulled it back and re-ran it over toward the relay block,
chopped off the stock plug and put on a nice robust one from
the hardware store.
.
A combination of the weather and other commitments chased some folks
away early, and finally three of us decided to head for food. You
were saying about Framingham and "shoppers world"? That's precisely
where we wound up -- we tried for the Minado lunch buffet, but they
had just *closed*! So we went to Olive Garden instead. To get
all turned around to the correct sides of Route 9 and then back
out of there when we were done, we had to navigate around that
same area quite a bit and wound up taking a somewhat cockamamie
detour on Rt. 30. In fact, the 2005 Prius gathering pretty
much adjourned to a restaurant in the same area after it was
over. So barring the fact that it's a relatively pedestrian-
hostile environment out there, it may be convenient for some
of the farther-flung northern/western burbs folks. Then again,
the Larz isn't very far off Rt. 9 closer in through Brookline.
.
_H*

[hobbit]

With regard to the fine idea of a recurring monthly schedule
for this, here's what I know about semi-near-term coming up:
.
_ May 3 -- Green Grand Prix, Watkins Glen NY
_ Jun 7-8 -- 21st Century automotive challenge, NJ
_ Jul 19-20 -- Hybridfest, Madison WI
.
I expect to be headed off to all of these, but the Boston gatherings
can still happen with those who aren't wandering off for various
road trips! I'm posting these in case there's additional
interest. I don't know of an official website for the 21st-century
thing yet, but that's the event that is sort of keeping the
spirit of Tour de Sol alive.
.
_H*

[Neicy]

The Green Grand Prix sounds like a good first road trip of the year to break in with.

How about May 10th or 11th? Then maybe June 14th or 15th?

Anybody interested in getting T-shirts made? I have a place near me that does a good job at reasonable prices with a one-time charge with the first order for graphics set-up. Just need a design and a name. Bring your thoughts and ideas to the next meet. (They also make other customized stuff too.)

PS. Thank You Hobbit for fixing the heater for me.

[martinisaacanywhere]

Originally Posted by Neicy

Anybody interested in getting T-shirts made? I have a place near me that does a good job at reasonable prices with a one-time charge with the first order for graphics set-up.

Shirts are a great Idea, and I just happen to have met a Graphic Designer today... EH Hem

Originally Posted by Ichabod

Ichabod

[Ichabod]

It was great to see some familiar faces, and a few new ones.

In spite of how silly it is to have a playstation in a car, I still covet Martin's setup.

West is fine with me for the next meet. If we set up a regular thing, maybe we can rotate locations around the area to accommodate the outliers.

And if we meet often enough, then yeah we should have a cool gang T-shirt or jacket that says something sweet like "Hell's Satans" on the back! Then we can cruise down Main Street and rev our MG's. People on the street will hear Martin's stereo long before they hear our tires rolling down the street.

[pjbt]

Hi, all-
Sorry we missed the get-together yesterday. It certainly would have been fun to meet everyone! Turns out my girlfriend had to fly out on business trip at that time.
We're down near Gillette Stadium, but coincidentally, I work in that exact "Carling Brewing Company build'g "on the shores of Lake Cochituate", as it's been owned by Boston Scientific for a number of years now.
A mtg "out West" is fine for us as well, although 5/3 & 5/10 are bad, but 5/11 is a good date.

Regards,
+Peter+

P.S. I'm adding a new mod to our Prius later this week. I'll post a pic of it by the weekend!

[CB793]

Thanks to all. Very sorry we had to leave so soon but it was a bit too cold! Next time I (we) will have saved up some questions. It was nice to meet all of you and I hope we can keep this up. Please let me know what I can do to help out next time (food, chairs, other?). Good luck to everybody.

P.S. for us, location doesn't matter. Whatever is decided on, we can live with.

[Doc Willie]

Hobbit --
Regarding the Green Grand Prix, is there a campground we could all use the Friday night before?

Feel free to start another thread somewhere if we need to discuss more details on the GGP.

[martinisaacanywhere]

After being inspired this weekend by some of the numbers I heard I decided it was about time to start driving the prius like a a prius...

so i pumped up the tires to 50, hit the reset button and this is what I got on my commute today



not to bad from my winter average of 40.3!