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Monday, err, Tuesday Morning Prius Diary - 9/8

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by Danny, Sep 8, 2009.

  1. Danny

    Danny Admin/Founder
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    Welcome to a new feature on PriusChat - the Monday Morning Prius Diary. Each Monday morning I'll start out the day by telling you a little bit about where I went in my Prius over the weekend and how my car played a role in my trip. Our first Monday Morning Diary is actually going to be a Tuesday Morning Diary due to the Labor Day holiday weekend, but you get the idea. Please post a comment in the discussion thread sharing your Monday Morning Prius Diary with the PriusChat community. Here we go... Labor Day weekend has become the most anticipated holiday of the year for me as it welcomes back the wonderful world of college football. I'm a South Carolina grad and a proud Gamecock, so you can be sure that I was in Raleigh Thursday for the official kickoff of college football with the NC State/USC game. Unfortunately, the Prius didn't make the trip as I was riding with a friend of mine to the game. Don't fear, we still drove a hybrid up to Raleigh - a Honda Civic Hybrid. The HCH is a great car for 2 guys on a quick 3 hour road trip. Had the trip been longer or included more people, though, I would have really been missing my Prius. Just can't beat the people/cargo space. The game was great (though a little boring) with a Carolina win, the local BBQ joint we found on Yelp was excellent, and the Civic Hybrid averaged right around 50 MPG on the trip. On Monday we decided to venture out of Charlotte for the day and head up to High Point, North Carolina to do some furniture shopping. We hopped in the Prius and hit up the much-hailed Furnitureland South store in a quest to fill out our new dining room and living room. This place is huge - you can see a huge dresser covering the front of one of the buildings in the photo above. Over 1 MILLION square feet of furniture across a campus consisting of 3 buildings, a "Skylink". It even has it's own Starbucks and full-service restaurant. We must have walked through about 1.5 million sq ft of the place, but, unfortunately didn't find anything that we just had to have. The Prius made the fairly quick drive up I-85 painless and I finished a 505 mile tank at 53 MPG as we started home. On the way home I averaged an awesome 60 MPG going 75 MPH. Too bad we didn't bring any furniture home with us. So, how was your weekend with your Prius? Go anywhere? Detail it? Check on it in the garage while taking breaks from college football?
     
  2. smartalec89

    smartalec89 The Official Alaskan

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    Sounds like quite the adventure you had there. This weekend I took my prius from Anchorage to Palmer to go to our Alaska State Fair on Friday. It was about a 36mile trip at 52mpg. Thats better than normal for me. We had a nice streak of warm weather which inticed my need to camp. So I drove out to a local campground and parked for the night. I then drove north of Palmer to an area called Hatchers Pass. It is a dirt road that connects Palmer to Willow. The road is a total of 50 miles and 30 of which it is unpaved and unmaintained. I decided to go for it and I drove my prius thru some sketchy off road trails. Lucky for me I didn't get stuck. I conitued along the road passing all the 4wd pickups and suvs that couldn't go faster than 5mph. I had an avg speed thru the pass of about 30mph. I was making time and really irratating some fellow drivers. I average around 54mpg on Saturday with all the off roading. After exiting the pass I went into Wasilla (or Allisaw backwards). I camped out that night and made the final run home Sunday morning. Total miles: 115miles Avg. mpg 52
     
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  3. smartalec89

    smartalec89 The Official Alaskan

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    All you guys must live a pretty boring life if you don't even have some sort of adventure to share. Let's hear some stories!!!! :):):)
     
  4. Salsawonder

    Salsawonder New Member

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    My Prius had a boring weekend and back to back trips to Trader Joes. First was just regular shopping then I decided to have a party for my GF so I needed MORE food!! My Prius could just about bring home an entire store, I am always surprised at how much stuff goes in there.
    This coming weekend will most likely see Misty and I in LA!
     
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  5. smartalec89

    smartalec89 The Official Alaskan

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    I always wonder exactly how much I can squeeze in mine as well. I think a whole store sounds about right. I haven't put in enough yet to need to put stuff under the back seat (in the secret hiding places).
     
  6. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    That's something not possible with the Gen II Prius.
     
  7. smartalec89

    smartalec89 The Official Alaskan

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    I beg to differ.... I have occasionally done 75mph (all though very illegal) and if you can hold the speed long enough you could avg 60mpg. Your can't let the battery be depleted from acceleration so you have to gain speed over a long distance. Also if you have very little weight in the car its a plus. I would call it high speed hypermiling!