The three Callahan's workers stuffed three bales (of hay) in the back end of the Prius, then slid another one in through the back seat and stacked it on top of the first three....five bales total.
John Kelso -
Austin-American Statesman - July 27, 2008
How many Texas farmers/ranchers as oppoesed to urban cowboys? - Just Houston/Galveston, D/FW, Austin, San Antonio account for 75% of the 24 million Texans. - Ed
While speaking to the Chamber of Commerce in San Antonio, Gov. Rick Perry made the point that Texans will continue to drive their pickups no matter what gas costs by saying: "You can't put a bale of hay in the back of a Prius. It don't work."
That sounded like a dare to me. A double-dog dare, as a matter of fact. Why couldn't you pack hay into a Prius? Heck, I'll bet you could get a small pig on the back seat of a Prius with a ramp and an electric prod.
So on Friday, I borrowed a Prius hatchback and took it out to Callahan's General Store in Southeast Austin to see just how much hay you can jam into one of these weenie hybrids.
The big problem with this experiment was finding the darned Prius. I called the Texas Department of Transportation, since I heard they had some Priuses there. But they didn't seem to want to play along and loan me one for the day. Maybe they were afraid Perry would cut off their funding if they took part in this caper.
I also called Champion Toyota on the Motor Mile in South Austin. Rick Walter, a sales guy there, said they couldn't lend me a Prius. "No, because they're back-ordered for six months," he said. Then he speculated on how much hay could be loaded into a Prius.
"I would say half a bale," he said. "I would say maybe a whole bale, if you put the seat down."
So, it was off to Callahan's General Store in a Prius I borrowed from a colleague at work. When I got to the counter, I explained to the clerk what Perry had said and that I wanted to load as many bales of hay into a Prius as would fit in there.
"That's cool," said Ivey Kapp. It was as if she deals every day with nutjobs who come into Callahan's and ask to load hay into hybrid cars. She called the store's warehouse on the phone to explain what was going on. "Go back there and ask for Geraldo, and he'll load it in there," she told me.
I drove the Prius into the warehouse out back, past the live chickens, and parked near the hay bales. Three guys working in the back started to stuff bales of hay inside the Prius.
I stopped them when they started to remove the baby carrier so they could squeeze in even more hay. I thought that might be a bit much. Although, when you stop and think about it, Cheerios ground into the car mats are even worse than hay, right?
It turns out the car salesman's estimate was way short. The three Callahan's workers stuffed three bales in the back end of the Prius, then slid another one in through the back seat and stacked it on top of the first three.
"And we can put one in the front seat," said Maurice Chavez. Soon, the three guys had the Prius absolutely jammed full with five bales of hay. Only the driver's seat remained hay-free.
Five bales of hay — that's probably a world record for a Prius, but who's counting?
"I'm glad (Perry) didn't say how many chickens can you fit in a hybrid," said Wayne Slayton, one of the three guys who loaded the Prius. "That would be a lot of mess right there."
Not that the hay wasn't messy enough. After the guys loaded and unloaded the hay out of the Prius, it looked like a farm had exploded inside the car.
I took the Prius over to the Genie Car Wash on South Lamar and had it cleaned up. I didn't want the co-worker who owned the car to kill me.
There was so much hay in the Prius that it clogged up the vacuum cleaner. Of course, I had to explain to the Genie Car Wash guy writing up the ticket what Perry had said, and why the inside of the car had all that hay debris in it.
"I just thought you were crazy," said Bryant Logan, manager of the car wash. "We get a lot of those, too."
[Read More]
Linear Mode
