Day 2 - Meeting Elsa

Today was spent getting ready for granddaughter Avery's birthday this afternoon, where Elsa would come to her party.

Life on the road is so much better when you get to mix in family visits.  Although not checking out things like the largest cucumber, I rather be visiting with my family.

Avery is 3 years old tomorrow but today was her party and son Brent managed to get Elsa to make a visit.

You can see she had a following with Avery sand friends.  Most wore princes outfits.  Avery got an Elsa dress that sings "Let it Go" and flashes blue lights.  It was accented with a hand made Elsa cape, shoes, sneakers, and tee shirt.

Elsa read her book, sang songs from her movie, did Princess trivia, and posed for photos.  She was the hit of the party.

There were close to 40 people at the party. 

Another day of visiting before heading south to Florida with Mom.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Day 1

Day 1 was a 443 mile drive to MD to son Brent's house to visit his family.  This is a special weekend as it is Grandaughter Avery's birthday & sister Norah is 4+ months old and is changing so fast.

The first leg of the trip my Mom is with me as she shares her birthday with Avery, so we will have a combined birthday celebration.  Next week I will deliver Mom to visit her sister in FL.

The Prius that hasn't been out for a good drive for a couple of months.  It got 46.6 mpg for the trip today, which is lower than the trips last summer.  The reason for the lower mpg is that I ran the heater.  The engine doesn't run unless it is needed for power or generate electricity, but there is also one other condition the engine will run and it is when you need to heat the car.  This was a first cold weather trip so it got 10 mpg less running the heat on the way down than the same trips to MD last summer.

Yesterday's blog I gave reasons for using the Prius for this year's trip.  Another related reason is that I have become more "green" and wanted more fuel efficiency.  I drive to MD 3 to 4 times a year and VT about 14 times a year and spend way too much money on gasoline.  The Prius has saved a lot of gasoline ands money.  Buying the Prius helped in the commuting costs and provided a great platform for my conversion van.  

As far as the lower gas prices go, I still would have wanted to reduce fuel usage this year on my trip, so I don't have any regrets of selling the campervan.  The less fuel usage and lower fuel costs.

We only ran into a couple minor traffic delays and this made the trip a breeze with less than 6.5 hours travel time.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

So why a Prius?

My number 1 reason for considering the Prius was the over $4K in gas costs for the Campervan last year at 10 mpg.  The Campervan is not a vehicle that is good on gas for cross country travel.  It is a great regional vehicle, where you don't drive 6K miles just to get to your destination and back. So the Prius 50 mpg is a great alternative.

Number 2 is that the Prius is unique in its engineering in that the engine serves two purposes.  It is used to power the generator to charge the high voltage batteries and when needed the engine powers the drivetrain.  It's smart and the engine only turns on when needed.  In this way the Prius can be sitting there on (ready mode) and the engine is not running. In this way the Prius high voltage battery charges the 12 volt battery when it needs it and the engine charges the high voltage battery when it drains down.  The 12 volt battery is small as it doesn't start the engine the high voltage battery does.  The 12 volt battery does not get charged in accessory mode.  What this means for me is that the Prius will be my generator when I need it without carrying one.  Yes all the 12 volt power I need.  I have installed an inverter for 120 volts that I will review later.

Number 3 has the Prius able to give me 6'2" of sleeping space from the rear hatch to the back of the front passenger seat, with the seat upright and forward to my knees on the dash.  I had to sleep diagonal last year in the Campervan last year to get the same space.

Number 4 is the Prius can go anywhere.  The Campervan at 9'6" high and 20' long was a bit challenging to park and in some cases I couldn't find a spot to park when I went to hike or to a baseball game.  Obviously parking garages were out for the Campervan.

Number 5 if two other Vandwellers can do it for extended periods of time I can as well.  A woman Suanne from Seattle is well known in blog forums for kind of pioneering doing this.  Her philosophy is if a backpacker can live out of a backpack she can live out of a Prius.  I plan on meeting up with her in AZ on my trip.

Number 6 is the pure challenge in doing it.  The Prius is small and has limitations that I will cover later, but it is possible and how possible is yet to be seen.  In following this blog you will find out with me what works and what doesn't.

Tomorrow, Friday 1/16/15 starts the adventure, but my living in and out of the Prius doesn't start in full swing until I get to FL next week.

I had a suggestion from one of my followers.  If you don't want to use Google to send me questions or comments please send to macaloney@hotmail.com and you bypass the google account creation activity.

Blog Pageviews by country

Before I start my 2015 travels I figured I would share the Pageviews to my blog and what countries they came from.

Thank you all for checking in and following.

Remember if you have questions please let me know.

Pageviews by Countries 

Entry	Pageviews
United States	3287
France	124
Germany	74
Ukraine	58
Poland	23
Romania	18
China	17
Canada	13
United Kingdom	10
Ireland	6

2014 Travel Map

I figured I would start over on the map that tracks my travels so, here is my 2014 Travels Map so it stays with the blog.  I will start a new map for the 2015 Travels.

2014 Travels Map

2 Days to Brent's 2015 Travels

Here is my final step in preparing for the trip.  At the frown of my wife Denise the family room is a staging area for the final loading of the Prius.  Actually this is a culling out process of take and leave.

I had purchased the plastic bins for the trip, and to show you how things change, I am no longer taking any.  What I learned is that the plastic bins do not conform to the spaces I have available.  Therefore, I have used the bins for what I am not taking and all 4 bins are full. 

My travel plans using the used 2011 Prius I bought this summer has been a lot of work.  My goals were to modify Prius to live in and out of for 3.5 months.  Modifications could not drill holes or permanently alter the Prius from its stock condition. I did not want to expand beyond the skin of the Prius.  I didn't want to regularly move items to sleep or sit.  Items taken out for use may reside temporally reside on the bed for space but do not reside there that when it is time for bed I don't have to move items to the seat.  My bed is on the 60% fold-down side and my seat is on the 40% fold-down side.  You will get a tour of the Prius inside when I get to FL.  I will also take you through all the plans that failed, like the bins and will show you the successes that allowed me to make everything fit.  As the trip progresses I will encounter other challenges and will need to deal with them.

My goals meant that I needed to think Tiny Prius, the Tiny House movement.  I wanted to get the best gas mileage and at the same time make my travels as comfortable as possible.  Yes, I plan to sleep, sit, watch TV, listen to podcasts and radio, do limited cooking and wash up and shave in it.  This is no small task and it meant that I needed my engineering skills to make it all work. Yes I will stay in campgrounds, state parks, national parks, Boondock in casino parking lots, truck stops, and BLM lands (federal government land, some free park).

Last year with the Class B Campervan I had space and I just brought stuff I didn't use knowing I had space, although I did ship a bunch of stuff back from Phoenix that cost me +$70 to make space for my niece Brianna, who visited me on the road.  Space wasn't an issue.

Yes I can lay out straight and have a full size sleeping bag and mattress pad.  I have my Engel Cooler in the back with me, that I love.  Yes it was $860.00 last year including shipping that I bought for my last trip.  It is very high tech and runs on a true compressor that only uses 2 amps when running. Oh, another goal was not to store items in the front passenger seat at night.  On the front passenger floor is ok.  All my living must be in the back of the car. 

There is so much to tell everyone about how I solved so many problems and to make them fit.  I have slept in the Prius to work out the bugs 3 times and each time I learned something new.  I will continue to learn on my trip. The Prius is unique in that it comes standard with a generator that only runs when needed.  I will explain this more in another post.

The hardest thing was not the engineering of outfitting the vehicle, as this was the most fun.  The hardest was making choices of what I wanted to bring vs. what I could bring. 

While I have been getting ready life at home has been work as well.  Fixing so many things that were on the list of things to do and many that weren't.  I have also helped another niece Talia and her boyfriend Mike with many things at their new house. I enjoyed it all but some things didn't get done and will have to wait until I get back from my trip. 

My plans are similar to last year in that I drive my Mom to FL to be with her sister for the winter and stop on the way at Son Brenton in MD for her and my granddaughter Avery, who share the same birthday.  After leaving my Mom off in FL I am on my way to visit relatives and friends in FL and then heading west to the southwest to meet up with folks there and then to visit other son Clayton in Monterey, CA.  Then back to the southwest to enjoy the weather and hiking.  I have a lot of things on my list of things to do on the road and will be sharing them with you with mostly daily posts. 

Please ask me questions by posting on my blog or emailing me at macaloney@hotmail.com

Oh,  I will be comparing my travel experience and costs with last year.

Now till this weekend.

Brent

Less than a month to 2015 travels

I have been getting ready for Christmas and my trip that is less than a mint away. Getting the Prius ready has been no small task even though it's a small car.  

My hardest job is to become a minimalist by thinking about the least amount of things to bring at the smallest form factor possible.  Even with the rear seats removed space will be a premium.  

Utilization of space available is the game plan.  Finding square items that use less space has been interesting, but accomplished.

I look forward to showing everyone the conversion with no holes being drilled in the Prius, that was also a goal.  I did not want to change the Prius in any way that would be permanate, unless I really had to.  So far so good.

How to have privacy in the rear was another chalange that I only solved this past weekend with some clips I made for the curtains.

I needed to buy some cooking things to save space.  This saved a lot as another goal is to keep from moving things from my sleeping area to my sitting area each time I move.  This is not what I wanted to do for 3 months.  I think I have a good handle on this although not totally resolved yet.

I was asked about a trailer hitch carrier or roof carrier and yes these would be possible, I didn't want to do it as a crutch to carry stuff I use once or twice, or like last year when I shipped things home to make space in the campervan.  My Priusvan will be much leaner but in se ways better.  As a woman who has been using her Prius to do this for years, if a backpacker can carry what they need we in a Prius should be able to figure it out.

Now to packing everything and see what doesn't fit and then the decision on what goes and what stays.

There will be some pictures soon with my solutions.