Hobbit's whirlwind east coast tour

Y'know, I didn't even think of the possibility that whoever answered
the door might have been a housekeeper or relative or someone who
genuinely didn't know what the hell I was talking about, but there
are definitely better ways to indicate that. Oh well.. the jury
seems split as to whether I was presumptuous or not [also taking
into account various followups from priusonline], and while I can
see both sides I will point out the original intent of this entire
thread -- to cruise around the eastern seaboard meeting up with
Prius enthusiasts. In that I have had some successes and some
failures; most of it *was* prearranged from responses I received.
Obviously I missed some folks in FL, who probably never saw the
thread because stuff gets buried so fast around here. But it's been
a fun ride all round, and long hours on the highway allow for lots
of experimentation.
.
The Dave trip was a bit of a lark, in keeping with the general idea,
and I still don't feel that I really stepped out of bounds...
.
_H*

 

Well, all that aside, I've returned home. Only one hairy close call
in Connecticut when some testosterone-poisoned yutz came from behind
out of nowhere, shot through a *very* narrow gap between me and a
car that was just passing me in the next lane, missed kissing my
left front by inches, and dove into the *shoulder* to get around
another car in front of me. He must have been doing like 90 around
a curve and didn't see any of this until too late. I *so* wanted
him to hit something farther ahead... scared the crap out of me,
but it was over very fast and life went on.
.
Routing from DC up through PA and NY state was exactly the right
thing to do, on the Friday before new years -- the normal BosWash
corridor was rapidly starting to become a mess that afternoon, and
getting away from it only added maybe a half hour to the whole leg
but was much more relaxing. I-83 to 81 to 84 to the mass pike.
.
The prius was very comfy for all 3600-ish miles of this trip, and
my parents think very highly of the car. They took a couple of
test-drives around the neighborhood. While they don't show any
inclination to get one, they both commented on how smooth and quiet
it is. Who knows, it might get 'em thinking.
.
I had at least three incidents of random evangelization, when either
I approached another owner to hand them a flyer or someone asked
how I liked the car and I got to give them the whole tour. It was
nice to be able to point to the MFD reading well north of 55 mpg
average most of the time. It's easy to wind up with a biased view
by hanging around on the boards here -- in reality, most Prius
owners have never heard of priuschat/priusonline or the yahoo
groups, and are appreciative of learning that they're there.
.
And still, the first question I often get is "have you heard of
these guys adding extra batteries" ... to which my usual answer is
"that's fine if you don't mind doubling the daily electrical intake
of your household, and gallons were still burned *someplace*."
.
_H*