1st big trip in the Prime

Yeah, they had really bad storms yesterday where we'd been staying with my sister-in-law north of Houston.

 

The air is stable but still in a hurry.

Well, I looked again and, son of a gun, it really is cracked.

 

Naw. It came with a few very small dents. But it is MY first damage.

Well that sucks! Mine is slightly offset at the crack. But I think if I clean it & find the right glue, I can make it nearly disappear.

 

Well, maybe it was only 1". I didn't get out & measure it. At any rate, that was the flow of traffic and the tires felt really planted.

Got a good dose of history yesterday and some exercise. If you're in the Willcox, AZ area check out old Fort Bowie. It's up a dirt road that's well maintained and then a 1-1/2 mile hike, but worth every step.


It doesn't show in this angle, this this car has gotten thoroughly filthy on these dirt roads.



Nice day with my favorite person. The fort is all ruins, but each building has a well made sign with a picture from the fort's heyday and an explanation. That's the ranger station and little museum in the distance, so you can see it's a big place. We had a great talk with the ranger who's from St. Augustine. She said that the Apaches who were captured were imprisoned in St. Augustine at the old fort there where she used to work. We thought that was a cool connection.

 

I know! I keep wanting to wash it, Today we head to Farmington, NM. Looks like maybe a 50% chance of rain, so maybe it'll get "washed" today.


Yesterday's trip to Tombstone came to a total of 125.7 miles. Starting with a full battery, we got 66.6 mpg. Today we won't have a full battery. I forgot that I had a different charge schedule for Sundays. I started to charge at about 4:30 and we plan to leave at 6:00. (L1 charging) Oh well, over 477 miles, a few miles of EV won't be that big of a deal. But it sure helped that I could charge here for our day trips.

 

No, we didn’t drive off a cliff or have a head-on. Just not much time or access for the internet.

The trip to Farmington, NM was great except that we started to get a little nervous about gas. We had a third of a tank at one point but went on. The next gas station was well over 50 miles beyond zero range. And they were all up hill. We filled up about 4,000’ higher than our starting point and got 57 mpg per the car’s computer.

Next day took us to Delta, CO with a morning spent at Mesa Verde NP. That day netted over 62 mpg per the computer.

Then we went up over Grand Mesa and on to the Denver area. I had 10% soc at the top of the mesa. It went to engine braking about two minutes before we reached the bottom. We then drove in EV another 20 miles or more on I-70. 58 mpg indicated. Our friends here were highly impressed and they also think it’s a cool looking car.

Best part of the AZ-CO trip? Getting to play in the show. It was about 10’ deep!

Worst part? A tire on a camper trailer threw its tread at us on I-70. I hit the brakes, but there was no dodging it. Thankfully, nothing broken, but the poor car now has some minor paint scrapes on the left front fender and one on the hood.

I'll have pictures when I have more time.

 

Another day of accumulating pictures that I don't have time to sort or process, but it was an awesome day after I got the dry-air/high-altitude/blood-thinner induced nose bleed under control. Bad way to wake up at 4 AM. No more blood thinners till my Kleenex comes away not red. LOL!!

Anyway, we took a brief jaunt this afternoon from Broomfield up to Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain NP. It was closed at Rainbow Overlook, but that was really all we had time for and my wife was getting altitude sickness anyway. It was a gorgeous day. The Prime got an indicated 72.9 mpg over the 129.7 miles of the round trip up to 11,900 feet or so and back down. I either saw three Primes or saw one twice (same color on the same stretch of road in opposite directions a couple hours apart) plus one other that was a different color.

Our hosts' son stopped by today on a trip to Denver from Winter Park. The first thing he told me was, "That's a cool lookin' little car!"

 

I've limited my speeds to about 70 mph. It's been partly Interstate but I'd guess that about 40% is country highways with 55-65 mph speeds. Some city driving in there from time to time.

Good mileage is going out the window today since we'll be driving across northern NE into 20-30 mph crossing headwinds with a 90% chance of rain. Far from ideal traveling weather, but it looks like we'll be north of the really bad stuff. Tomorrow looks about as bad as we cross Iowa on I-29 and I-80. Then we'll head south.

By the way, we're visiting friends now that we've known for over 50 years, which is pretty darn cool. Yesterday, I let Rick drive our car as we went to do some sight seeing. They used to have a 2007 Prius. He was totally impressed! And I keep getting compliments on how great the car looks. People tent to be shocked that this is a Prius and have lots of questions.

Time for breakfast now and then load up the car.