From Left to Right Coast and Back Again in a Prius 4

[Melvin Furd]

I'm keeping a blog of my trip day by day. I'm on day 5 of x country down I-80 in my Prius 4 (cylinder)

I'm traveling from Berkeley to New York City right now and then back again after my nieces wedding in Rhode Island. My son and I will be taking our time, careening to Washington DC to go to our nations capital and to a few museums and government buildings and then south through Virginia and to Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans and Austin, then up into Utah and back through Reno. I have a post of my travel plans through blues country in the summertime travel plans thread, Crossing America with the Blues.
For now I'm in Chicago on this 5th day heading toward Pennsylvania today. Having a wonderful trip driving solo across this amazing country.

[wanderlust524]

My question for you is...how do you like the Prius? I just bought one and I am waiting for it to arrive.

[PNW Judy]

It would make a great resource for travelers going through those areas! Thanks for sharing it.

I'm also curious how you like your Prius. And I would love to hear what your average fuel consumption is for this trip.

[Melvin Furd]

judy and wanderluster-
the Prius is a perfect car for long trips! Ours is new too, only put on 2k miles before the beginning of the "left coast to right coast and back again road trip". There's something about having this modern car that lends itself to the long haul. I think its very modernity and simplicity are the reasons. It feels solid, rides solid and has the zip you want in a car. The gas savings are considerable, yet as you know you paid for it with the sticker price. The satisfaction of knowing that your emissions are zero makes one feel that you're doing a small bit for the global warming situation, although a train or a bike would be even better. Alas, hard to do in our country with the rail systems stuck back in the neanderthal era. Rapid 21 st century bullet trains would be my ideal for America.

The Prius literally gets twice as much mileage as most other cars! We did not get the built in GPS which was a wise move as you can get them much cheaper and more advanced than the one they install. We got fabric seats, another wise move as we can get leather much cheaper installed independently if we wish.
It has an aux input for the mp3 player which is great. I have assorted power cords (cell phone, mp3 player,gps and laptop)that conveniently fit the cig lighter spigot.

We're continuing our journey today, leaving Martha's Vineyard (sadly)and heading to the Berkshire Mountains of Massachussets to my wifes' cousins Roadhouse-The Dreamaway Lodge- a great restaurant and bar! with lots of live music! A treasure!

[PNW Judy]

It sounds like a fun trip in a fun car!