I thought I was going to break my miles per tank record.

When I parked the PiP Thursday night, after work, I had 558 miles on the tank and it was still showing half full and 132 mpg. My previous record tank was 866 miles and an HSI mpg of 118. I was all set to blow that away. Then I went inside.

Wife says something like, "You know how they're about to raise the price of the lifetime senior pass for national parks by 800%?" "Yeah," says I. She goes on, "How about, tomorrow we drive up to the ranger station in Umatilla and get ours before they raise the price in a few weeks?" Well, I'd been wanting to see how the PiP would do on the open road away from the interstate. So we shunpiked over there. It was 251 miles round trip and the hsi showed 61 mpg with the only charge being the one we left home with and we ran the A/C all the way with three people in the car. I can't complain about that!! It lowered the tank to 100 mpg indicated and an actual raw mpg of 92.5. My total cost per mile for gas and electricity for that tank was $0.0329. Not a record, but way better than the 7.85 cents per mile a 28 mpg car would have cost.

One little side note. Once the speed limits got over 35, I switched from EV to HV. I was showing 4.0 miles left at that point. Without even trying, I managed to ratchet that up to 7.0 by the time we got to The Villages to see some friends on the way home. I did all my driving in The Villages in EV mode and still had 2 miles of EV left when we got back on the highway. I then drove the last 4 miles home in EV except for the very last mile where it ran out. But most of that was still on the battery.

 

Seniors (62 and over) are $10 till Aug 28. Then they go to $80 to match the regular annual pass for non-seniors. (See? Congress can get things done. They can raise prices.) The passes are free for disabled people.

America the Beautiful - National Parks & Federal Recreational Lands Senior Pass | USGS Store

You can buy on line, be we were up for a drive and it's quicker in person.

 

LOL! I learned the word from Harry Potter. The bus driver's helper is Stanley Shunpike. Looked up the word and loved it!
Stanley Shunpike | Harry Potter Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia

 

The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary says, "a side road used to avoid the toll on or the speed and traffic of a superhighway."
Shunpike | Definition of Shunpike by Merriam-Webster
Note the "or." We avoided the speed and traffic on the so called super highway known as I-75.

 

Because of all the lakes and swamps, it's often that way here.

Here's the route of our shunpike. The extra miles were from Google Maps lying about where the ranger station was along with our detour through The Villages on the way home. And, since Google wanted us to take the Suncoast Parkway (FL 589) part way, we did avoid a few tolls, @Prodigyplace. )

 

Not sure.

 

It's only ten bucks. (If you get it before August 28.) Use it once, and it pays for itself.

 

Ah! That makes way more sense.