Month of February 2023 (Nat’l Avg $3.501)

Edit by Gord **Forgot to start Feb thread **

Today +3 in Naperville , 7 in Elk Grove.
Wind SW 5
333.4 miles , fcd = 52.3 x .943 = 49.3 MPG.

This is what I expect on my trip to Michigan tomorrow morning.
Perhaps a bit less because my target speed will be 60 MPH.

 

Bet you can’t shoot your target at 60MPH……… ……even if you use your BIG eye.

 

Went to the mountains for a drive. Today, the clarity was…….unclear. Snoqualmie Pass temperature was about 4degF lower than I expected at 27. Despite snow near the road & on mtns., the road was completely clear…..not even any water. I did occasionally drive in the passing lane because the outside “slow” lane got pretty rough in places. Despite the traffic seemingly a bit slower(?) than normal, I still moved out of the passing lane when traffic came up to me from behind. After reaching Ellensburg, WA, I moved southeast toward Yakima staying on a Freeway, going up the mountains into the Federal Military Range. After coming out of the Cascade Mountains, it was strange to be back in mountains, but with dry brown grasses over the broad high uplifts. With my gas cans, I got 25 gallons of gas. Tho I saved $1.08 per gallon over our local brew, the fuel set me back $80. Going back home, instead of the Freeway, I traveled along the Yakima River through the Canyon.It was nice that the sun now was 6+ arcdegrees higher in the sky than its lowest at winter’s beginning. The sun was able to illuminate most all the Canyon highway on the north side of the Yakima River, despite the steepness of the canyon slopes. Despite the earlier Cascade Mountain 27degF temperature, the Yakima Canyon at its exit was 41degF. At the top of the Canyon, temperatures were down to 38-9degF. Almost no snow was on the north side of the highway. But at times, there were 3 feet of snow pack on the south river bank, which earlier in the year, would have been shadowed from the sun & more so, from the river bank itself. Tho the canyon south slopes were steep, much snow had been melted off those slopes. It took the steeper southern river bank AND the coldness of the Yakima River, coming directly from the Cascade Mountains, to protect the surviving 3 feet of snow on the river bank. Once back into the Cascade Mountains & up to & down Snoqualmie Pass, I noted spectacular 20 to 30 foot long icicles hanging from the tall vertically cut walls of rock that had been machined off to make room for 3 lanes of westward traveling Freeway. At times, cold precipitation, didn’t just make icicles, but solid walls of ice for hundreds of yards at a time, lining the westbound lanes. Yes, although it was early February, the weather was good & made for an excellent trip across the mountains.
At one point near Yakima, I just glimpsed a coyote on the north side of the Freeway, as I passed by. It tried to scoot across the 55MPH Freeway. But it came to an abrupt halt half way across, because of the 3 or 4 foot tall Freeway divider. It rapidly learned its mistake & fast as could be, retraced its route to the safe north side of the Freeway, barely out of the way of cars following me! Man if the Freeway speed limit had been 60MPH, that would have been a dead coyote!

 

Yes, the 38MPG EPA Elantra got 44MPG, while going over two 3000 foot, one 2600 foot & one 2400 foot passes, plus other ups & downs. The Freeway speed limit is 70MPH speed limit. I do drive slower, but would drive even slower if I could. But, I won’t make the many semi-trucks have to use the passing lane & have a parade of big trucks going around me & clogging the traffic. So I travel 64-66MPH to keep the semi-truck passages to a minimum. That speed also allows me NOT to have a lot of traffic around me quite often. & again, the over-sized tires really make travel smooth & tame the worst bumps & portions of the Freeway.

I hope & must learn to time my FREE charging during periods when others aren’t charging. But, that will be difficult if I travel as much as I hope to, with the EV. Also making it difficult, I hope to have longer scenic walks away from FREE chargers. I might have to get the EV on the road by 3 to 5AM in the morning & be done with my charging before other EVs need charging. That would only be on the longest days of the year, tho. I need trips to the Columbia River & hope to sit for long times by this awesome passing river & let the Grandness of its swift 117 foot deep waters fill my soul. On at least one dock area, you can feel & hear the really deep thrumming of the water, as it surges past the deeply driven pilings……just a wondrous experience. Near by are some 70-80AMP FREE chargers, I hope to use. But while charging, if I see(with binoculars) someone wants to charge when no chargers are available, I hope to allow them to charge for 45minutes or so, while I continue to enjoy the Great River. Or if I’m near completing my charge that I can travel with, I might disconnect early to allow others to charge. We’ll see.

 

Thanks for kicking off the February thread and cleanups, Gord.

edit: I'm looking to go back to an EV. I have a handle on sale of my Crosstrek Hybrid at near current crazy prices, and I have an EV on order. I won't say which one yet, but it isn't a GM product and it isn't a Japanese one. Korean make was on the short list, but it isn't that either. Almost, but the wife prefers something else. Also not European. It shall be blue, hence the order.

another edit: we're getting what Edwin had with cold weather... barely reached 15 degF today and going down to minus 12 Fahrenheit tonight; should recover to around freezing point of water in a couple of days; also some insane winds blowing through.

third edit: no, my EV intensions are made in America. There are a lot of Chinese EVs that interest me, but it is early days for Chinese EVs here. Same for Vietnamese ones.

 

Hope your EV isn’t communist chinese(always small letters). Ya don’t wanna help them build military hardware that is more scary than a communist chinese’ (always small letters) spy ballon.
-12degF…..don’t think I’ve ever encountered THAT temperature! When I was a kid, I remember -6degF. But minus temperatures were rare. I don’t remember any minus temps for many decades. Maybe 10 years ago, the car showed 6degF, but that was away from cities, towns or any development. Yes, winds get windier at times. But, I’ve also noticed quite a few periods of lack of winds, too.

Went to the river with temperatures 40-45 degF today. Mornings have been chilly at times with the Arctic air seeping through our mountain ranges, but our present winter has been fairly comfortable, except for our snow in November. Thinking I wanted some more snow, so I could have some fun with the snow tires on the Hyundai Accent. I may only have one more winter to use my free snow tires. But, no. I really don’t like snow driving. ALSO, its sweet to be retired. If its really cold, I can turn the heat up OR stay home in bed……yeah!!
Anyhow, there were Mergansers & Goldeneye & 3 immature Bald Eagles. One flew & its feathers showed it was turning to maturity. Lucky binocular at 14 power showed the flying Bald Eagle & interesting color shifts in good detail. Showing that the winter is progressing, one of the male Goldeneye was half-heartedly making the moves on one of the females.

 

Warm in comparison to...
Not too far from here... Mt Washington currently -41 deg F (close to the same deg C) and 90 mph winds. You could lose a nose just thinking about it.

 

Rain coming down now. Weather reports say our Washington coast may get winds as high as 40-60 MPH. Some interior regions might get some puffs.

 

Traveled to the river on the snow-tired Hyundai Accent. Took the 12x50mm binoculars on this dark, low cloudy day & the light grasp was good. A few Goldeneye were on the river & Robins & smaller birds in the trees, but seemed to be a lack of birds, generally. From the car seat, I saw a perched mature Bald Eagle half a mile downriver. In the course of my comfortable viewing in the car seat, 2 immature Bald Eagles flew upriver in front of the perched bird. Walking on the road downriver, it was a bit gloomy. But, as always, binoculars always brighten my day. At my valley overview (if a 10 foot high curve in the road can be called an overview), I saw another Kestrel hawk….maybe the same one I saw from the same spot 2 days before. This slight overview, is where I can see tall Poplar trees near a township about 7 miles away. Also, it is a good spot to watch parachutists bail out of airplanes & land at the airport three miles distant.Its also where I can see a large Eagle nest about 1 mile away. I can also see Mt. Baker that is east of Bellingham, Washington. When the air is clear, I also enjoy looking at Mt. Garibaldi, up north of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Returning towards the car, I noticed two wings spread in a tree, the body of the bird blocked by another tree trunk in front. Walking a bit closer & to the side, yes, it was an immature Bald Eagle about 100 yards in front of me. I walked closer & it stayed. The 12x50mm gave a very close view. A very small interrupted ring of white feathering around the base of the neck, gave a hint that the immature might be turning to mature colors. Anyhow, that was good viewing. Back to the car, instead of going directly home, I did a looping drive that eventually got me home. But before reaching home, intermittent showers came down. The rain was light & didn’t dampen my mood at all. But, I probably should have driven home directly, like I have been doing because the gas prices keep rising.

PS…..From my computer window now, looking up valley, the low clouds have descended even lower, completely covering all the hills, mountains & even low valley trees. Yes, it would have been a dreary day, but the binoculars made for good sightings.

 

Yes, I think there are 3 regular & major weather streams that cross over Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. They say its the World’s worst weather. Find it hard to believe that its weather would beat Antarctic weather, but I don’t want to be in either place when the weather is at its worst.
The World Record Wind Speed (up to that date) of 231MPH was recorded by life-threatening actions, so accurate wind speeds could be taken. Fortunately, while scaling a ladder in winds over 100MPH, the wind direction plastered a scientist against the ladder, so he could use a pick axe to remove ice from the anenometer. After clearing the ice(a miracle in itself), & descending, the wind tore the pick axe out of his hands & it flew into the fog, crashing to the ground…..somewhere.
In 2009 in mid-January, an Arctic blast swept onto the state of Maine, setting its all-time coldest temperature of -50degF. That Arctic blast continued to the south-west, setting cold temperature records in many more southern states. Entering Mexico & other Central American countries, the Arctic system still set low temperature records in those “warm” countries.

 

My trip to Michigan :
Thursday temp from 15 to 27 F.
Tailwind ! 55.0 fcd.

Coming home Sunday :
same wind , this time holding me back.
warmer temps from 24 to 48 F.
52.0 fcd.

About 630 miles total.
53.5 fcd x .943 = 50.5 MPG.
That's winter in the Midwest in a Prius
with over 150K miles.
Target speed was 60 MPH.

 

With gas prices high, I’ve been mostly staying home with short trips to the river for look-abouts.

Your Michigan trip takes about the same distance as when I travel to Spokane, Washington near the state’s eastern border with Idaho, from the east side of Puget Sound. I hope all the snow was gone that your lake-effect snow storms dumped.

 

Rain this morning, so I thought there wouldn’t be any driving. Checked the hourly Everett rain forecast & there was half as much chance of rain from 11am to 1pm, PST. Just before 11am, I saw the rain had stopped, so I took 12x50mm binoculars & the manual Elantra with the over-sized Les Schwab tires to the river. Those Reputation tires drive very nicely, altho the initial very deep tread, after 8000 miles, wasn’t as deep any more. We’ll see how long the Reputations last.
Parked at my normal river bank spot…..& no rain! With the extra thick warm vest, hat & binoculars, I started walking. However, the wind came up quite strongly. Now the car was parked at the spot, at which I’d mentioned last year, that a large cottonwood branch had fallen from one of the tall trees, onto the powerlines, shaking & dragging them down to right over the top of my car, which I witnessed from inside the car! I didn’t want that or worse to happen this time, so I moved the car to another position. Of course, as soon as I moved the car, the weather said, “Well, we can’t drop a branch or tree on his car, so we’ll slow the wind down.” So, I had an enjoyable walk with the binoculars.
Saw some Goldeneye ducks & 2 males were courting 4 of the nearby females. Look up their courting rituals. It is very funny!

At the valley overview, I saw the distant pairs of blinking lights beyond the airport, 3 miles distant, that warn pilots from the airport that trees & hills are near the airport. I saw something I’d never noticed before. With the binoculars I could ALWAYS see the pairs of lights flashing simultaneously. Looking at the lights visually, sometimes I could see one of the lights but not the other light. I figured out that the lights were shining through distant swaying, intervening branches. With the binoculars I paid attention to the light that disappeared visually. AND I could tell with the binoculars that that light was quite dim, compared to the other light at times. The swaying branches were interfering with some of the light, such that I couldn’t see it without the binoculars! I find that very interesting.
Again from the overview, the optics showed a Bald Eagle sitting on top of a telephone pole. Looked at other things then. A bit later, in the direction of the pole sitter, the 12x50mm showed another Bald Eagle flying my way. Looking rapidly at the pole that had the pole sitter, I saw that it was gone. I think the “two” Eagles I saw, were the same bird.

Returning to the car, I could tell the rain was moving in. By the time I returned home, the rain had arrived…..pretty much how the weather forecast had indicated.

 

Today , 25 deg F in Naperville and Elk Grove.

Wind WNW 3

33.3 miles, fcd = 57.3 x .943 = 54.0 MPG

Going to Utah Thursday for a family reunion. Back Monday the 13th.

 

Thanks , Gord. Two of my siblings I can tolerate for a day or so.
This will be four days.

 

Maybe your sister & brother-in-law can get an EV & start FREE-charging. Then, they could afford to treat you for your birthday……ON YOUR BIRTHDAY.

Our Washington state was paying over $4 per gallon for gasoline February of 2022!

 

Flying? Make it a road trip and it will just be short enough while you're actually there for the reunion.