Field Trip

My wife and I are leaving home (Virginia) early tomorrow morning for a road trip to New England - Newport, RI, Brockton, MA, Camden & Bar Harbor, ME, Portsmouth, NH, Cromwell, CT, and back home, over the next 9 days. If the weather cooperates (right now, it looks like New England is going into monsoon season ), I'm going to try and take a picture or two of our Prius out and about in N.E. And I'm interested in how we do on the mileage - the Prius has just over 1K miles now, so this trip should really break it in.

If you see an '06 Barcelona Red with VA tags, give us a wave.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Brian K @ May 11 2006, 07:53 PM) [snapback]253795[/snapback]</div>

Thanks, Brian - I'll keep that in mind. I had heard (old wive's tale?) that Black Fly season runs generally from Mother's Day to Father's Day, so I knew we were taking our chances traveling up there at this time of year. Is it any better along the coast (he asked hopefully)?

 

Day 1 went well - about 460 miles from Woodbridge, VA to Middletown, RI. First tank of gas - 52.2mpg on the computer. Not bad at all. We could have made it here on one tank with ease, but long ago I got into the habit of not letting the tank get down past one-quarter full.

We hit very heavy traffic in Delaware, so heavy that we did the electric boogie-woogie long enough to get two 100mpg bars next to each other. Very cool. My wife took a picture - I hope it comes out.

We were in the Prius, off and on, for 10 hours (made several stops along the way), and although our Sienna is more comfortable on trips like this, I am very glad we decided to take the Prius. It really is a lot of fun to drive, or to ride in (the co-pilot gets to load/unload CDs, adjust the climate control, record gas mileage, and navigate (we have package #6, so we depend on one another for navigation).

Along the way we had some heavy traffic at times, lots of 18-wheelers, wind, and - I swear, within minutes of entering CT - lots of rain, and the Prius did great.

Next real driving day will be Monday, heading up to Camden, ME.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ May 12 2006, 08:36 PM) [snapback]254450[/snapback]</div>

We were over in Jamestown earlier this afternoon - drove around for a bit, and then headed down to Beavertail State Park and the lighthouse there ... but that was just about the time that it really started to rain.

We were looking around for but didn't spot your Prius - I've very aware of any hybrid these days but especially the Prius, and most especially a Barcelona Red.

Jamestown, even in the rain, is really nice - great houses and lots of ocean.

We walked the Cliff Walk this morning - took advantage of it not raining.

We agreed that we have to come back here when the weather is better.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Brian K @ May 13 2006, 08:05 PM) [snapback]254936[/snapback]</div>

Well, the black flies will have to wait for another time. We're bugging out / bailing out (puns intended) and heading home. The weather has been awful, but we were still having a good time. But now there's MAJOR flooding between where we are (southeastern Mass) and where we're supposed to be this evening (mid-coast Maine). We can take a hint, especially from Mother Nature!

The Prius has performed well. We hit some stronger wind yesterday, and it took a little more effort to keep it in the lane. Reminded me of our '91 Previa.

First tank of the trip - 51mpg. Second tank was less - lots of short trips with a cold engine/battery. On the third tank now.