[Billy]

Whew....what a trip! I drove from WA through Missoula, Billings, Rapid City, Mitchell, Worthington, Albert Lea, Madison. Hybridfest was great, and I met many great people, including our own Kip Munro and his wife!

After the event I drove to Oshkosh, WI to watch the planes land for a few hours (I'm a pilot and used to attend Oshkosh annually) then continued north to Superior, Int Falls, and into Canada. I went past Kenora, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Meadow Lake, Cold Lake, Ft St John, and Ft Nelson before turning south to Prince George and then Vancouver.

At one point I came across 2 mooses standing in the middle of the highway. I took a photo, then honked my horn at them so I could proceed.

In downtown Vancouver I displayed my car in the big show, where 70,000 people attended. I was bombarded with questions; with such high gas prices in Canada (4.00 gallon) my car had literally hundreds of people around it viewing my display sign, etc. Vancouver has ALOT of Prius taxi cabs, and the folks generally are quite enviro conscious.

Then I drove the last 7 hours home yesterday. Total miles: 4822 //// Gallons of fuel: 49.02 //// MPG: 98.36. Now it's time to change my oil; gee, only 2.6 qts, amazing!

 

[Willie Williford]

trip

Glad you made it back OK Billy. Ain't "tripping" fun.

Sounds a little like my last trip of 6900 miles, except the gas mileage.

People just don't realize what fun it is to just get in the Insight and "GO".

All of my trips are "impromtu".
No reservations, just play it by ear. You can meet some of the neatest people when you "tool" through the smaller towns and take the time to "smell the roses".

I know you represented the Insight professionally and maybe opened some peoples eyes to the "gas crunch".
Gas ain't gonna get cheaper, so enjoy it while we can!
I would like to see a caravan of Insighters heading across country.
(Can't an old man dream.)
Maybe next year we can get a group together for the 2007 Tour Del Sol.
Welcome back to the WEST COAST.............Willie

 

[JoeMultihuller]

Hey Billy, welcome back!
If I understand correctly, you let Wayne Gerdes (Excel) use you car for the mpg competition. Congratulations to you and Wayne on the outstanding mpg's! 8) - did you happen to switch the display over to litres/100km to see what your true mileage was? Beats me why Honda only restricted it to 150mpg. Guess Wayne answered his own question when he asked if anyone had seriously tried the Pulse and Glide technique on an Insight. Do you have FAS rigged on your car or do you simply resort to using the ignition switch?
Cheers, JoeS.

 

[Billy]

Thanks, Willie. Yeah, Joe I was tired of driving so I let Wayne borrow my car for the competition. I checked the metric mpg after his run and it said 1.3 liters per 100 Km. No, I don't have a FAS switch, I just shut it off with the key. It was lots of fun travelling through all the small towns, and so many people stared at the car like it was space - age!

I hope your wife is enjoying her beautiful 2006 car, and getting good mpg too!

 

[JoeMultihuller]

Wow, 1.3litres/100km makes it almost exactly 180mpg! 8) Wish that Wayne's results had been recorded with that number.
Wifey loves her new red Insight and is still at a respectable 72.1lmpg at 1976 miles. JoeS.