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Road Trip Summary - 2604 miles in a Prius

6139 Views 19 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  DanMan32
Let’s see… We finally got around to leaving the house at about 5:00 PM on Thursday April 28. Since I wanted to start with a full tank, we filled up at the Chevron in Melbourne, FL. I’d been up since 5:00 AM, so I only drove until we stopped for dinner at an Arby’s. around 9:00 PM. After that, my wife started driving, and I made my first attempt to get some sleep.

I removed the headrest, and slid the seat all the way forward—which for someone of my size was a difficult task to do while sitting in it. I discovered that Toyota’s definition of ‘flat’ and mine have significant differences. I ended up restoring the seat to normal upright position, re-installing headrest and then reclining about 60 degrees. Slept uncomfortably until we reached the outskirts of Atlanta, GA (497.1 miles, 51.5 mpg, $2.13/gal). Because of the crappy pump, and our haste to leave what looked like a bad neighborhood, I ended up overfilling the tank clean to the neck. Fortunaly there was no spillage.

I took over driving at the Tennessee border, on through Chattanooga where I saw 8 green bars while descending from Lookout Mountain. I drove on through TN, to Kentucky where we swapped again. This time, I again lowered the seat flat, but climbed into the back seat, and was able to sleep relatively comfortably lying across the back, with my legs/feet on the passenger seat. Sort of a stretched out L shape 

My wife drove through KY, on into Illinois where we fueled up at a Motomart. (550.1 miles, 52.4 mpg, $2.19/gal). Here we switched again and I drove on into St. Charles MO. There we spent a couple of days driving around doing things…

Early on May 1, we left St. Charles, and headed south. I drove until we fueled up in at a Shell station Arkansas (401.0 miles, 48.6 mpg, $2.07/gal). Jocelyn took over and drove us on into New Orleans. There, we spend a couple more days enjoying Hurricanes and Hand Grenades.

On May 4, we filled up at an Exxon on the way out of NOLA (452.3 miles, 52.8 mpg, $2.08/gal) and drove East on I-10 heading for home. I drove all the way to Lake City, FL where we again fueled up (487.0 miles, 49.2 mpg, $2.39/gal).

From Lake City back to Melbourne, I slept off/on in the L position described above. When we got back to Fla, the MFD read 46.3 mpg and about 200 miles… Not sure why the horrible mileage as we were doing CC at the speed limit the entire trip.
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Overall, I’d have the say the Prius was a comforatable ride even on such a long trip, even for one as tall as me…Though if the back seat was unusable, my story may have been different.
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??????? .................... There's never a "Winnebago salesman" around when you need one.
hyperion said:
??????? .................... There's never a "Winnebago salesman" around when you need one.
No thanks Hype, ;-)

Yesterday as I was filling up, the guy in the Excursion in front of me asked about my mileage. I told him about the trip, and my averagge MPG. My total gas for the entire trip was $144.35, (and that includes 1.5 trips to work afterward)

He said he usually puts in around $90.00 and it lasts him 500 miles... That would have made my trip $468 just for the gas.
Thanks for the trip report!
What were your typical / avg highway speeds?
Just curious, since my highway mileage at around 75 mph avg tends to result in mpgs in the mid-40's at best.
MGBGT said:
Thanks for the trip report!
What were your typical / avg highway speeds?
Just curious, since my highway mileage at around 75 mph avg tends to result in mpgs in the mid-40's at best.
CC at posted speed limit, or construction speed limit as applicable.
melgish said:
...(497.1 miles, 51.5 mpg, $21.3/gal)...
And I thought Europe had the highest gas prices!! :shock:
While CC at speed limit is fairly descriptive, forgive us Left-coasters.... What is the highway speed limit in those states? (i.e. Most Western states are 70-75 now, my home Oregon is a holdout still at 65.)

My trans-continental journey (Oregon to Nebraska and back,) was 3100 miles total, over the Rocky Mountains, averaging 80 (I stuck to the limit when I was driving, but my wife and father-in-law didn't,) and got a fairly dismal average of 43 MPG to Nebraksa, and a very dismal 37 MPG back. (Nasty weather coming back.) Total is 41.21 MPG over 3126 miles. That's from leaving my house, to arriving back at my house. $180.25 in gas. (See also my thread, "Nebraska ate my Prius!" from March.)
lemmesee...

Florida 70
Georgia 70 construction 60, Altanta 55
Tennesee 70
Kentucky 65
Illinois 65 lots of construction 55
Missouri 65?
Arkansas 70 (I think)
Louisiana 70
Mississippi 70
Alabama 70
Florida 70
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Melgish, you passed right through my neck of the Missouri woods...I coulda given you a Seaside Pearl escort through the neighborhood and a cup of java!
BTW, those NOLA Hurricanes are how I got my last, suprise, child! :shock: :?
efusco said:
Melgish, you passed right through my neck of the Missouri woods...I coulda given you a Seaside Pearl escort through the neighborhood and a cup of java!
Sure, Now you say... my route has been posted in the general section for over a month :)

Next time?
efusco said:
BTW, those NOLA Hurricanes are how I got my last, suprise, child! :shock: :?
:shock: I think that is more information than I needed :shock:
melgish said:
efusco said:
Melgish, you passed right through my neck of the Missouri woods...I coulda given you a Seaside Pearl escort through the neighborhood and a cup of java!
Sure, Now you say... my route has been posted in the general section for over a month :)

Next time?
Ah darn, I almost never look at that forum.
efusco said:
BTW, those NOLA Hurricanes are how I got my last, suprise, child! :shock: :?
hehe... My now-8-month-old daughter is a result of a week of snow/ice that shut down the roads.... :-D (Combined with someone else forgetting a certain something for only a single day.)

(Hey, got nothin' better to do, right?)
Sounds like flu babies.

Thanks Melgish for the trip summary. My friend has been talking about taking a non-stop trip (other than for food/gas) from Tampabay to New England. I made a very conservative guess that gas would cost $160, but might be much lower. As of late, my MPG drops to 50-52 at speeds 60 MPH, and of course goes down after that.
So, I factored 3000 miles at 45 MPG at $2.50/gallon. Better to be suprised at a lower gas bill than be shocked at a higher one.

Doubt we'll go though. His budget and health hasn't been too good lately.
efusco said:
BTW, those NOLA Hurricanes are how I got my last, suprise, child! :shock: :?
Now, Dr. Fusco, don't you know what really makes babies?? I thought they went over that in med school.... ;-)

Speaking of which... I'm at 34 weeks, but doc says he could come anytime now. Darn gestational diabetes has caused me to have a monstrous-sized kiddo... already 6.5 lbs.... So, my Prius gets outfitted with a baby seat this weekend, just in case...
DanMan32 said:
Better to be suprised at a lower gas bill than be shocked at a higher one.
Yeah, we're supposed to take a trip to Orlando next week (science teacher meeting), but doc says he might not let me go. If we do, I'll post the mileage info when I get back. I'm figuring about $80-100 for gas.. but if it's less, my feelings won't be hurt at all.

----
Oh, yeah, road trip info...

OK, we went to Orlando and back to Richmond, and hubby did some extra driving while there. Total was about 2000 miles. The trip down was done averaging 75mph, with the resulting mpg being a sucky 43 or so. While we were there, he did some more driving at 80+mph, dropping the MPG to less than 40. (Ran out of gas because of this, too... hahahaha - glad I wasn't with him.) On the trip back, we kept the MPH between 65-75, and the MPG went back up to 50-52. My little blue spaceship doesn't like to rush. I did get one tankful well over the 500 mile mark, though!! :)
80+MPH will kill it for sure. It only takes it a short while to bring MPG down, but quite a bit of time and miles to bring it back up.

I drove HWY speeds from 50-70MPH with some local driving for about 200 miles, which brought MPG to 50. After 450 miles now, driving up to but not exceeding 55MPH on a route I usually average upper 50's MPG, I am lucky if I bring it back to 55 MPH this tank.
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