"The CAR" continued...

Well, I had the distinct pleasure of picking the Prius up yesterday afternoon, by myself, just me.
I was very excited to actually own this car for the previously mentioned reasons and it feels real good to drive it. Like we are actualizing those reasons.
The Prius happens to be one of those cars that you want to start off easy from any stopped position to see how long you can keep under the power of the electric motor rather than have the gas motor kick in. It is just a little disappointing when the gas motor kicks in ;-} but I get over it rather quickly when I look at the monitor that shows I am still getting 42+ mpg average for that particular trip.
I only had it in my possession for a matter of minutes before I put a container of electrical supplies and my tool pouch in it and headed off to East Haven to help a friend by wiring his new room in his house for him. (Somethings never change??)

I have had a good scare from last night and through the day today but I am getting a little better now.

As I read through the owners manual yesterday I found that it had varying and mixed messages regarding towing the Prius. Varying from, "you should never tow this car with any wheels in touch with the ground" (Geeeessss! I didn't buy a friggin' hovercraft, how the hell am I supposed to tow this behind the RV) to an enlightening, somehow hopeful, picture of the car being towed by a tow truck with the front wheels off the ground and the rear ones on the ground. This what I intended to do via a car dolly. (Which I put off going to buy this morning because I just didn't know if it was OK or would cause any damage to the car) That would be quite the pisser to have bought the car we wanted and not be able to take it. Say a little Prayer! I guess the worse case scene is that we will have to buy a flat car hauling trailer to put the car on, we'll see.

So... with the seeming infinite availability of info on the web I got on and signed onto and into a couple of large forums (one on the Prius and one for RV"S) and started searching for whether any one has done towing successfully or not. Once I figured out how to register and navigate the sites, a little frustrating yet obviously manageable, I found an array of info that ranged from "don't do it to do it this way and there's not much chance for any issues". I guess I had hoped that there was some Prius Guru out there waiting for my question that would offer the "FINAL WORD" on the subject. Rather, it is more like detective work or puzzle making, if you will, heading down the road collecting data that will eventually lead me to the answer. (Please!)

So intent was I, that I tracked down one "poster" on a forum who lives in Madison and called him to talk about it. (It wasn't bad at all, it seems there are only 3 Bob West's in Madison "Wisconsin" and the last one happened to be my guy) Exhilarated to find him and even more that he was willing to talk to some nut in CT, We had a great 30 minute conversation and exchanged emails while on the phone so we could keep in touch. (For me this is part of the excitement of the web - anonymous and spontaneous acquaintances out of the ether) I found out that he had only towed his Prius 20 miles so far but... he had not had any issues or reported damage. He, like us, will be towing his for an extended distance this coming December. Perhaps we'll find out together how it tows.

I am becoming very smart in the ways of RV'ing and towing this week. My education will continue next week as we head out to Grand Blanc, Michigan on Friday to pick up our RV and drive it back home for a short period before we head off for the journey. We will be taking Jasper and our granddaughter, Michaela, who by the way is trying desperately to be part of the year long journey.
Remember there is supposed to be an element of contemplation on this trip!!!