A milestone for me!

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Not a good milestone though.  Last Wednesday night I paid $5.039/gal for diesel.  That is about what it is going for in the central valley of California.  The gas station (USA) has a sign that Visa and MC cards will only allow you to do $50 at the pump, but Discover will do $75.  They say to start another transaction if you need more.  However, if you go inside, there is no limit.  So I went inside, I knew it would take more that $75.

I tried to leave my card and the lady said I couldn’t.  I was to tell them an amount to put on the card.  I guessed high, $200.00.  She ran it on my card and had me sign the receipt.  They charged it right then and there.  I asked what to do if I got less.  She said come in for a refund.

I pumped $126 in to the beast and went back in for my refund.  It was kind of weird to do that and I will probably just double-dip the card at the pump the next time.

The good news in all of that was time between fillups.  This fillup was on 6/4.  My previous fillup was on 5/9.  Almost 4 weeks!  I had put on a bit more than 300 miles.  Just back and forth to work.  All of our driving is now done in the Camry Hybrid.  I got over 45mpg yesterday on a trip from Porterville to Visalia (about 30 miles).  I can live with that.

Taking a drive with the Hybrid

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We just got a Toyota Camry Hybrid to replace our 4Runner.  Roxie does a bit of driving for her job, not to mention the 20 miles each way to/from work.  We looked at the Prius but it didn’t have enough of the amenities we had become accustomed to.  Heated seats, dual climate control, power seats, etc.

So, on Saturday (24th), we decided to take a trip through Yosemite.  Remember that this was Memorial Day weekend so we realized that it might be a bit busy.  We weren’t expecting a sold day of rain and SNOW!  We ran into snow at Wawona and Crane Flat.  It was rain everywhere else.  Bridalveil falls was flowing very good and we decided to take the .8 mile walk to the base and back.  I got SOAKED.  No hat and a thin coat was not a good combination.  I felt sorry for the people in tents.  We couldn’t find a place to eat so we had a picnic in the car.

We came back down 120 through Groveland.  On 49 to Coulterville, then down toward Merced via Merced Falls and Snelling.

We went about 350 miles that day and averaged over 30 miles/gallon.

It is a weird thing to drive the hybrid.  When you are going slow you can be on electric only.  Just cruising along with no sound.  You also learn how to maximize the mileage.  There a realtime gauge on the dash that lets you see what your current usage is.

We have gone through two tanks and almost have 800 miles on it now.  Very fun.