NJ Greenfest Meetup Sat May 3rd

[Boo]

Thanks Rand for organizing this. Great to meet you, biggdogg, tbirdhs, kar idea and everyone else. Very nice and scenic GreenPrix through West Milford, Warwick and environs. The music I heard was good too. And I liked seeing the Smart car and that diesel pick-up truck that was converted to run on vegetable oil.

Funny how we had 6 Prii on the GreenPrix, and 3 were Classic Silver and 3 were Magnetic Gray. Told you I would come in last in MPG.

Couple of pics attached below of the gathering before the GreenPrix.

[KAR IDEA]

Originally Posted by tbirdhs

Great meeting Y'all. Rand that was a wonderful route for the rally. Maybe we can do it again when the weather is better, in conjunction with a similar event in the metro area.

Originally Posted by Boo

Thanks Rand for organizing this. Great to meet you, biggdogg, tbirdhs, kar idea and everyone else. Very nice and scenic GreenPrix through West Milford, Warwick and environs. The music I heard was good too. And I liked seeing the Smart car and that diesel pick-up truck that was converted to run on vegetable oil.

Funny how we had 6 Prii on the GreenPrix, and 3 were Classic Silver and 3 were Magnetic Gray. Told you I would come in last in MPG.

Couple of pics attached below of the gathering before the GreenPrix.

I concur. Yep. Agreed...I second those. Kelly and I had a great time. The Green Prix was a lot of fun and very scenic (we loved the area and felt very at home there), and the Green Fest was great too! We purchased 4 bags of organic potting soil! Woo Hoo! And now that I know there's a beach at Bubbling Springs, next time I'm bringin' my bathing suit...

The best part was learning about the different techniques used to drive the Green Prix...I practiced/tried Biggdoggs technique on the way home, and on the way to work this morning, and guess what...I'm getting 10mpg more than I was getting yesterday and ever since I've owned the car!

So thankyou Rand, and thankyou everyone, it was awesome meeting all of you and I really hope we can do it again!

Dave aka Kar Idea

[BIGGDOGG]

It was great meeting you all as well. I had a blast! If it was warmer I am sure we all would have had even more MPG's. Did anyone end up winning a door prize? I have some pics to post up as well but I couldnt get onto the site last night to do it and now I am at work. I will post the pictures tonight.
Thanks again Rand for setting up the Green Prix. We should all meet again soon.
And Dave, it takes a while to get used to driving the car for the best MPG's. When I first got it I only averaged around 38-40 mpgs per tank. Now I am slowly creeping to the mid to high 50's per tank.
Hope to see you all soon again,
-Brett

[tbirdhs]

BTW, THE RECORD had an article about the Green fiest in Sundays Local section and mentioned our Rally and Mileage!!!

[Boo]

Here's the article. Good thing they didn't name names of the GreenPrix winner and, ahem, last place finisher.

GreenFest mixes facts, fun
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Last updated: Sunday May 4, 2008, EDT 11:41 AM
BY PATRICIA ALEX
STAFF WRITER


WEST MILFORD — You'll pardon Tom McGurr if the smell of his truck reminds you of a greasy spoon. McGurr, an electrician, has outfitted his beat-up old pickup to run on vegetable oil, sharply cutting the cost of his 64-mile round-trip daily commute from West Milford to Teaneck.


"It's a working truck, it's not pretty," McGurr said of his Dodge Ram. "But it only costs 3.4 cents [per mile] to run on vegetable oil."


He gets used oil from local restaurants. The only problem: Sometimes bears gnaw on his fuel cap.


McGurr was one of dozens who braved the dicey forecast — and considerable fog — on Saturday to attend the first Highlands GreenFest in West Milford.


The festival at Bubbling Springs Park on Macopin Road was sponsored by Sustainable West Milford and meant to educate people about how to enjoy and protect the environment. It featured environmental games and pony rides for the kids, music, food and information on a variety of green topics.


The U.S. Green Building Council was there to talk about sustainable design and show off pictures of a 2,500-square-foot "green" house built by BASF in Paterson that is 80 percent more efficient than a conventional home. It costs $300 annually to cool and $600 to heat.


Planet Aid — which bills itself as the world's largest recycler of textiles, was on hand, trying to drum up even more business for its roadside yellow boxes. The company recycles and resells clothing, stuffed toys and other household goods, and uses the proceeds to support development projects in the Third World. "The EPA says 80 percent of used textiles are still going into our waste stream," said Philip Perry, who works at Planet Aid's Clifton office.


Jim Conroy was there to promote his work as a "tree whisperer." Conroy, of Morris Plains, claims to use alternative techniques similar to Reiki, acupuncture and chiropractic to heal stressed or declining trees from the inside out. Conroy said he "comes from the tree's point of view," in doing his work. "The energy shifts and the tree heals itself," he said.


Gus Fraga of West Milford showed off his Smart Car, and about a half-dozen Toyota Prius owners participated in a Green Prix — a contest designed to see who could get the best mileage in driving to the festival. The winner averaged 63.3 miles to the gallon, and even the last-place finisher got 53.8 miles per gallon.


E-mail: alex@northjersey.com

[randreed]

Thanks everyone for your enthusiastic participation! I'm attaching the official results. Attachment 9031

It was a VERY foggy drive but it seems that everyone had fun. The drum Circle did not start until 6:30 PM and we were FREEZING by then!

BiggDogg - you have to post your driving technique!

We will have this event again next year. We are looking for sponsors, prize donations, and of course, more participants!

I hope to see you all at another NJ meetup soon.

Rand

[NYPrius1]

I got their late about 3/:30pm. I did see 2 or 3 Prius parked. We walked around a bit than left. OH well maybe next time.

[hobbit]

I get Daniel's fish, not MPG results.
.
Here's the msg I was trying to post yesterday except that trying
to submit the reply kept returning 404:
...
=====
.
So, let's see some NUMBERS! How'd y'all do? What was the
course like?
.
I managed to pull 59.7 on the rally course at GGP [as opposed
to GP], despite a lot of serious battery-bustin' hills. 300
feet of screaming-inverter descent down to a ... STOP SIGN.
55 MPH posted speed limits and a bunch of SCCA officials all
locked into the time/speed/distance mindset isn't exactly a
hypermiler-friendly environment, so there's always a tradeoff.
.
So -- y'all are aware of the other NJ event fairly soon, right?
June 7 and 8, see this site and read the "21st
Century Automotive Challenge" PDF for details. Mid/south NJ, and I'm
coming down for that one. It's sort of a continuation of the spirit
of Tour de Sol, but a little different and downsized. Saturday is
driving events, Sunday is a big energy-fest that I think everyone
gets to show at. Some of the nearby EV efforts will probably come
out to play too, and it would be nice to maybe even see some of the
LIPOG folks wander in.
.
It was small but fun last year, and hopefully more people will
show up this year. With your help, it will evolve into its own
style of event.
.
_H*

[KAR IDEA]

Originally Posted by randreed

Thanks everyone for your enthusiastic participation! I'm attaching the official results. Attachment 9031

It was a VERY foggy drive but it seems that everyone had fun. The drum Circle did not start until 6:30 PM and we were FREEZING by then!

BiggDogg - you have to post your driving technique!

We will have this event again next year. We are looking for sponsors, prize donations, and of course, more participants!

I hope to see you all at another NJ meetup soon.

Rand

Hey Rand! I click on the link and I get a nice picture of a tropical fish...just sayin', you know. Hah hah! I like fish...this ones quite nice.

Love, Dave aka Kar Idea

[BIGGDOGG]

Hey guys,
Sorry about still not posting pictures up. Since they got a new server I have been having problems logging on. But it works now so I hope to post the pictures when I am home.
As for my driving technique:
I started out trying to drive real slow to try to stay in the electric mode (it's the same thing I did when I first got the car) In real life you get worse gas mileage doing that because your going so slow that when the gas cuts on you have to use more gas to get back up to speed. So for the first 5 miles I was only averaging 35 mpgs on the screen. Then I remembered how to really drive my "Gray Ghost" aka "Electric Dream Machine" lol. So how I then drove it is how I drive it everyday. I try to get up to speed as fast as possible then I take my foot off the gas and wait for the engine to cut off, then I lightly press the pedal so that the regen brakes aren't creating friction. then I just coast. It's pretty much the "pulse and glide" technique. I just try to get up to speed as fast as possible (or as traffic allows). While stressing myself out while doing the course I ended up turning off the 5 min mpg screen, and switched it to the engine info screen, then I calmed down allot and turned on my music and relaxed as I followed the caravan of Prii. I also did not have my defrost on or heat on either. When my windows got foggy I just opened up the windows a bit to let in some circulation and that fixed the fog right away. I noticed that many of you said that you had the heat on while driving. I am an AC/Heat Nazi (in a way) haha, so I hardly ever have those on (except when there is thick frost).
So I think I covered everything, oh yeah one more thing. As going downhills I just allow my car to gain as much speed as possible without using the gas, then I allow that momentum to get me up the next hill. I noticed many of you braking at the bottom of hills. (don't do that unless traffic makes you, or if it's a sharpo turn of course as well) I do have the BT stiffening plate installed and I notice I can take turns allot harder now so I tend to.
Ok now I think I covered everything.
Feel free to ask me anymore questions but I really don't see how any of you guys won't be able to get that mpg or even higher at some point or another.
Oh and Rand I really like the fish pic, lol
I hope to add you all under my friend list for the profilenow that we have this new server here on prius chat.
I have to get back to work....
I hope my typing made sense