hi guys! well i was going to post this later on since we're not hitting the road until tuesday, but with my newfound temporary unemployment (i'm currently labless, long story) i got bored (yes, after 6 hours i'm bored) and decided to post it now. so we're heading back up to the great white north to visit our families and friends back in wisconsin next week- so if you happen to live in the state of virginia, west virginia, kentucky, indiana, illinois or wisconsin, keep an eye out for a masked, black prius cruising down the road, it's probably going to be us on the 3rd and 4th and 13th and 14th. be sure to wave at us in true friendly priuschat style, this is our first northern road trip and we're looking forward to it don't know if we'll have time to really stop and chat with anyone that we don't already have plans with... but will be happy to see any other friendly prius owners on the road to makes us smile along the way. this is our second big road trip. will report back with numbers and general experience (along with the family's impressions, so far only my mom's seen the car) on the 15th or soon after, when we get back. great. now that's done i have to find something else to do... sigh. can't wait to get out of this town for a while.
whoo I'm taking one of my friends back up to the Mad city (Madison) next week. I can't wait. Chicago to madison. ... I'm also Currently jobless with a single interview for a new lab to work in Jan 5th. Tis the season after all. <_<
funding sucks. i walked out on my PI before he sucked the life out of me, the end was in sight and i couldn't take it. good luck on the interview.
Who knew the PI was a Deatheater... It's for the best. After the family visit (and all those madly waiving PriusChatters you pass) things will look up!
Hey, cut through Ohio if you can. If you take 64 W out of Charleston WV and cut N/W on US 35, you'll come right thru my town then hit 75N to 70 W and you are back in business. Except for the first 30 miles, US 35 is the same as any interstate.
You will be flying past me on I-94. If you want I could wait for ya at the hamburger joint off the exit of Hwy 20 in Racine. hehe There are at least a half dozen eateries off of Hwy 20 if you dont want a hamburger. lol My guess is you guys still need to eat so give it some consideration. I am getting my Red Barcelona beauty on Monday. Whooo hooo. My Prius wants to meet yours. lol Sorry to hear about the funding. You still want to live down South? Another research opportunity might be the Medical College of Wisconsin. They have a lot of research going on there which has been growing like weeds. lol. Good luck on your job hunting.
I've notified Mayor Daley. He'll see to it that all cars pull over for any black Prius along the Tri-State Tollway on those days. Happy driving.
oh boy. lots more to reply to... awesome! we were all worried about the Chicago traffic on the way in, we were even thinking of hitting that area at 4am to avoid it. feel much better about that now, thanks Tony
Xenia...just east of Dayton (where I-70 and I-75 cross) Sounds like you will be cutting around Cincinnati. That is about an hour from me.
we figured out our trip last night... on the way up we can't make any trip deviations but we'll see how it is on the way back down.
Have a good trip and enjoy the senery. I would say the temps might be a little bit lower tho, :lol: . It will probably be good to get away for a while and chill. Give the old brain cells a break, but at finance expense. Hope it isn't to long before things are back to normal for you guys, .
just wanted to let you all know we're here, safe, alive and well and all that good stuff. 19 hours total to get up here, caught the very beginning of the Chicago rush hour on 294 and lost a lot of time there, then proceeded to get slowed down in Milwaukee too. we PAID ENOUGH TOLLS, though! the prius did great. 42 mpg overall with the cruise set to 70-75 most of the way and the hatch absolutely packed full with stuff. got 53 mpg through west virginia, it did great in the mountains. just about 1100 miles cost us 4.5 cents per mile. no complaints so far. spending lots of time in appleton for now, will be passing through GB this afternoon on the way up to the family farm. this weekend we'll be crossing the state to head over to la crosse. saw another black prius, we got all excited because we rarely see black ones and it was the first one we'd seen on the trip. he didn't notice. then we passed a hihy and it was the same story however to their credit it was like 6:30am and noone's that awake at 6:30am. have seen one other prius in town here. seems they're still really rare up here. glad we got ours down south or we might still be waiting! that's all the update i have for now. time to grab something to eat and hit the road again!
finally made it back... 3100 miles at a final average of 42 mpg. (he was driving... ) had some interesting experiences. -chicago: didn't know the cash toll booths were on the right... didn't expect to have 30 people changing lanes all at once right there, learned our lesson the first time. whew! on the way up we caught the first of the morning rush, just before 5am, flying around at 85mph did not do good things for the mpg's! -charleston, wv: thought this guy would end up killing us! had a road rage incident with a drunken pickup driver, didn't give us a great impression of the state. we were cut off, then the guy got behind us and followed for 5 miles at 75 mph with the guy 2 feet off our bumper with his brights flickering, then he nearly forced us into the big concrete divider, then he threw a beer can (full) at the car and hit the windshield (no damage, whew) and tried to cut us off again and slammed on his brakes before taking off at nearly 100 mph. we caught up just long enough to be sure of his license number. because there was no damage to the car the state police couldn't do anything. mountain driving was great. not much excitement on the road short of what i mentioned above there. gas prices went up on the way back down, but we only paid 150 total anyway. not too bad. have a nice picture of the car on the snowy western wisconsin roads, very pretty scenery. I MISS SNOW!!! also have a very cute pic of me and my 5-year old goddaughter. i'll post those soon.
Well 360 guy... I finally saw one in person at the prius meet..... it was cloudy...its amazing how the color captures you in about 10 minutes... I guess in the sun it really comes alive!
pictures: the car on snow- handled just fine btw [attachmentid=1806] me and my favorite girl [attachmentid=1807]
