Content Categories ARTICLES Hybrid Articles Traveling Companions 3, 4, and 5 | Traveling Companions 3, 4, and 5 |
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| Written by Kacey Green | |||
| Tuesday, 04 September 2007 | |||
 The trip to Gainesville was a nice one and allowed
for Traveling Companions 3, 4, and 5.
My brother and I trekked to Gainesville so the band could record for their new album and for the concert on Saturday. Before we even started the trip, a dark Honda Accord Hybrid crossed in front of us when we were exiting a shopping complex; regular readers will remember how hard it is for me to spot these bad boys in the wild. Like many of my hybrid encounters, the driver could not see the lettering on my car, the look on her face was as though she was wondering, "Who the heck is this person, why did they wave at me all friendly-like." The other type of encounter is one with others like me they wave back! (This is the preferred reaction.) Once we were underway things were looking like it was going to be a smooth trip, we were rolling along and making great progress, until we go on the freeway. Continue reading "Traveling Companions 3, 4, and 5" after the jump
We launched into a traffic jam that lasted a few miles, but we did see a tan Highlander Hybrid (HH) in the rear-view, they managed to catch up to us later in the jam. Before the HH caught up with us, we came across a green truck that appeared to have a six-inch lift, with the exhaust coming out of the side of the bed. It looked nice the way it was done, the pipes were routed through portholes cut in the bed-sides, and they were cut flush, diesels don't have small pipes either so someone took their time on this one. This truck did not smoke, unlike most of its vintage. As this truck passed us the passenger rolled down his window and asked if we had ever seen a "redneck Cadillac" like theirs. Honestly, after seven years in Gainesville I had not seen a truck modded like that. We rode to I-95 with the HH; the driver was more suspicious than previous traveling companions were. Normally once I've decided to roll with you, if I'm in the rear, I'll make space when I see we need to pass a slower vehicle, this gentleman seemed to think I was ready to pass each time I did this. I flash-to-pass and the truckers catch on fastest when I choose to ride with them; this is probably because flash-to-pass is common in their circles. Passenger cars typically have hurry up and wait approach, racing everywhere but getting nowhere fast. We rode with the HH until some jerk in a white/cream Mitsubishi cut us off. He would not leave the passing lane, we were stuck behind this jerk-off for what felt like 30 minutes, and he was cruise control passing people at a half-mile per hour. Road rage is extremely hard to get when you are driving for efficiency but I wanted to run this jerk, off the friggen road. We ended up catching up with the HH later in the trip shortly before they had to go a different direction. There were also encounters with two Prius and a new Civic Hybrid but I don't remember much about them, this indicates they probably just passed me. Going the opposite direction were a Camry Hybrid, an HH, and a Lexus RX 400h. We rode for a few miles with a blue HH too. The mileage for this trip was an unimpressive 53 mile to the gallon, on the freeway, if you told me when I took my first freeway trip in the Prius I'd be unimpressed with 53 MPG on the freeway, two MPG more than the 2004-2007 EPA estimates, I would have said you were crazy. However, when I'm not travelling at warp-speed with other hybrid drivers I see 55+MPG on the freeway. I would love to hang out with a hyper-miler that gets 60 or more MPG on the interstate and learn their techniques. When riding from grandma's farm to The Ups' show, I came up on a first generation Civic hybrid, with a woman and child. We rode together most of the length of 39th Avenue west of 43rd Street, she knew how to accelerate and decelerate for great mileage, I ended up passing her and riding in front because the optimal speeds for her Civic were a bit slower than where my Prius gets the best mileage on that segment. I used a downhill section to let the Prius get crazy fast and passed her, then hopped back in the slow lane in front of the civic. Kudos to you ma'am.
The return trip was nothing special, three Prius travelling at sane speeds passed by, but we did not fill-up before we left Gainesville and couldn't go any faster to travel with them. We had planned to stop at the last Subway with an ad on the blue billboards before we got on GA-21 and fill up there. We had three gallons when the first Prius passed us, two when the second rolled by, and when the last passed us we were down to just one gallon of go-juice. On my car, each pip is about one gallon. Gas in the town with the subway was almost $2.80 so we went up one or two exits and filled up there for $2.60. We wanted to go further but, getting stranded without fuel wasn't the least bit appealing and the gauge had dropped down to one pip when we weren't paying it any attention. (Probably when the third Prius was passing) At fill up, the car took just over eleven gallons of gas (American Prius can only hold 11.9 gallons of gas). Mileage for the return trip was a respectable 56 MPG.
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Alexander
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I would have gone to see the show but I had to work, sorry guys. |
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