Rolling Meetup, Milwaukee to Albany, NY to Seven Springs, PA and back, Sept 14-24
 

Hi Everyone,

I'm going to be a speaker at the Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania on September 21-23, 2012.

My wife has relatives in NY State, so we are going to attempt a ROAD-TRIP with a Two-Year-Old! We'll be traveling from Milwaukee to Schenectady, NY, spend a few days there, showing the Little Girl to her Great-Grandmother, and then use Thursday Sept. 20th to travel from NY State to Seven Springs, PA.

We'll be driving the red gen 2 Hymotion Prius on the trip, and will try to have it shown off at the Clean Car Show at the Mother Earth Fair at least one day.

If you are somewhere on my route, and want to meet up, let me know! Best way I guess is to send me a private message through Ecomodder.

I'd be happy to talk electric vehicles, DIY culture, and anything else, in exchange for home cooking, and a 15-amp electric outlet.

We'll just be taking the most direct freeway route, but I'll have a GPS Smart phone with, so I can check in on the road, and have enough time to get just a little sidetracked.

Thanks,

-Ben Nelson

PS: Maybe I can tweet my location as I go! https://twitter.com/300MPGBen

Love to be there, but notice is too short and it's quite a ways from me - 5 hours +. It'd have to be an overnight trip, and we're not ready to do that as a family of 5 for something that probably only I would enjoy. Not really in good position to do it alone, either. :(

Right now, I'm in Ohio, staying at a Holiday Inn just off I-80/90, with the Prius parked around back. That way, I can plug in to an outlet on the building without the cord crossing the sidewalk or otherwise being in the way.

Ms. Sunshine said I could. Besides being the night clerk, she is also the manager on duty, and said it was OK. Yes, Sunshine is her real name... I asked.

More details at http://300mpg.org/2012/09/14/eco-road-trip-begins/

http://300mpg.org/wp-content/uploads...99-300x225.jpg

have a safe trip, did you stop by and see Terri in Indiana? if you took I80 you were less then 10 miles from his place.

To bad I am not on your route :( it would have been fun to spend a few hours chatting about cars.

Where/who is Terri? Might be able to on the way back home.

Terri= tango Charlie he hosted this great meet up:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...-up-22429.html

goshen IN, zip: 46528

Sounds like a fun trip Ben! Keep us updated. :)

Ha ha, that's TERRY with a Y, mister! :mad: :p

Yes, I would love to catch you on your way home, Ben. Sorry I didn't see this in time for your outbound trip.
Ken (Jethro Bodine) can testify to the comfort of the futon in the back room if you need an overnight pitstop, or I could meet you on the toll plaza if you want to keep rolling. But it would be an honor to meet THE bennelson (and fam) in the flesh.

sorry Terry :( my spelling sucks some days (most).

Futon is very comfortable:thumbup:. ...And greatly appreciated on a long, HOT trip.

P.S. Thankyouthankyouthankyou.........:D

Well, I'm back now.

I had really limited internet access on the trip, and never really knew for sure where I was going.

I DID get to visit the Lehman's store on the way home, and managed to drive through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin to get home late last night. Yep, we did all that in one day, including Lehman's, and got all the way home WITH the 2-year-old! (She FINALLY NAPPED!)

I enjoyed the irony of plugging in a car at the "non-electric store", while watching Amish driving by in horse-and-buggies. (Those Amish are AGRESSIVE drivers! I think they are just keeping up their momentum once they are too speed. I bet they are great hypermilers - more miles per oats.)

I also charged up at a Holiday Inn one night, all the nights we stayed at a relative's house, and at the last night of the Mother Earth Fair.

I also found out that the "B" mode works great in the Prius to charge the battery while going down big hills on Pennsylvania back roads. At one point, I actually COMPLETELY filled the battery. The ScanGuage showed that I no longer had negative battery amps (charging amps) and right after that, the engine starting spinning up into around 3500 rpm to do ACTUAL engine breaking. At that point, I shifted back to Drive, to just gain momentum for the next big hill. At least it was a clear and sunny day, a straight shot, and no other traffic. A prius going down-hill with 51 psi tires goes from 45mph to 72 mph REAL fast!

Overall fuel economy for the trip was about what I expected - 50 MPG. We put on over 2000 total miles. A 30-mile range Hymotion pack doesn't give much of a fuel economy improvement on this type of travel. When we were stopped in New York state for a few days to visit relatives, I got close to 100MPG every day.