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the hated drive......i-94 into minneapolis from where i live, which i do now and then on friday nights to visit mom. at least i am going against the outbound weekend traffic, but i still hate the drive. my mileage went down due to several factors, such as need to maintain more speed because everyone drives SO fast, high headwinds again...it's like the old saying about being uphill to school each way, no matter which way you go, there's a headwind....raining, lots of hills, and i was just plain tired, which made it hard to concentrate on my FE. when i finally got here it was just under 60 for the first time in weeks.

on a brighter note, i saw quite a few other hybrids today, mostly prius (how come they get all the neat colors), and a couple of FEH. which was offset by the hummer i saw towing a huge pontoon boat......gag. friday nights are "going to the lake" nights up here in minnesota, and it's a real boat parade heading north. last night i was passed by a dodge hauling a trailer with SIX 4 wheelers.

sometimes i get really discouraged, when we try so hard, and so many of the sheeple just don't get it and/or just don't care.......

Up here in RAINY :mad: new england, I just had a "good" tank (51) when the sun came out but with temps in low 50's and heavy rain almost every day, its been very frustrating with mostly mid to high 40's tanks...but, I am seeing more and more hybrids, mostly Prius'. Pretty soon I'll need a jet ski to get around..;) The HCH's are harder to spot because they look similar to regular civic's. We need some kind of banner for the windshield or something....

Hi Laurieaw:

___An interesting story that will hopefully help when you are ready to throw in the towel at a point in time when you are completely disheartened. I hope you find the following as uplifting as I did when facing my own personal demon’s …

___While on our way out to the Tour Del Sol battling some of the worst rain storms to hit the Ohio Valley in years, Tom told me something that will stick with me forever.

“The weather and road conditions you are currently experiencing will make you that much better of a driver when it really counts”.

___Tom must be prescient or something? ****ed if we did not run through those exact conditions through parts of the 200 mile challenge and the experience from the previous 2 days helped us a tremendous amount.

___The moral of the story is that there will be setbacks including strong headwinds, heavy rains, higher speeds, and H2’s, Suburban’s, Excursions, and Sequoia’s towing boats and travel trailers blowing by making it all seem like a waste of your effort(s). Just keep pushing your HCH to the best of your abilities and in the end, you will be giving all of us a gift knowing you have lowered your GHG and SMOG related emissions as well as used less natural resources then anyone traveling though the Northern sections of I-90 last night. I want to personally commend you for not giving up when all seemed lost and for continuing to push in the face of adversity where many a hypermiler would have given up many hours before.

___Good Luck and thank you for the post. It really means that much to me …

___Wayne

I saw this on one of those de-motivational postsers. "A single drop doesn't think it's responsible for the flood."

Just know that being a single drop does make a difference.

Hi Laurieaw:


“The weather and road conditions you are currently experiencing will make you that much better of a driver when it really counts”.

___The moral of the story is that there will be setbacks including strong headwinds, heavy rains, higher speeds, and H2’s, Suburban’s, Excursions, and Sequoia’s towing boats and travel trailers blowing by making it all seem like a waste of your effort(s). Just keep pushing your HCH to the best of your abilities and in the end, you will be giving all of us a gift knowing you have lowered your GHG and SMOG related emissions as well as used less natural resources then anyone traveling though the Northern sections of I-90 last night. I want to personally commend you for not giving up when all seemed lost and for continuing to push in the face of adversity where many a hypermiler would have given up many hours before.

___Good Luck and thank you for the post. It really means that much to me …

___Wayne

thanks wayne, coming from you it means a lot.

i didn't give it, but it was a struggle. even though i am 10 weeks out from my knee surgery, the recovery is a long one, and i get really fatigued more so than before, so that tiredness sometimes affects my response.

i did better on the return trip, edging it closer to the 60 mark again, though with 450 miles on this tank, i am not sure i can match the glory of the last one. however, i do not plan to give up.

what i did discover with the adverse conditions, is how easy it is to lower the mileage in ANY vehicle. i would find myself pushing up a hill or to increase speed enough not to get run over by the parade of trucks rapidly approaching in my rear view mirror. then i looked down and my display was sitting someplace way below 40MPG. and ya know, before this car, i think we would all have driven that way and thought nothing of it. part of the beauty of having that display there is to make us aware of how we affect how we drive. i wonder if some hotshot in his big hemi would be less apt to roar by making that acceleration sound that i am sure you all would recognize, if he looked down and saw how much of that $3 per gallon liquid gold he was blowing out his tail pipe.

filled up today, since i don't think i can salvage this tank. i ended up at 58.76, which isn't shabby, but not as good as i expect of myself.