Go west, little Prius, go west...

It would appear, if the internet is not deceiving us, that the roads are reasonably clear and we should be able to make the last leg of our trip today. According to my GPS, we have 725 miles to go today, since we stopped 150 miles short of where we were supposed to stay last night. We will also be investing in a set of tire chains as soon as we find an auto parts store, which will inevitably cause the weather to take a tropical turn and we will not see a single snowflake, let alone chain-worthy ice. It would make perfect sense. After all, we saw nothing but perfect, 70+ degree weather until Des Moines, when Eddie decided to wear shorts, thus causing the temperature to drop 40 degrees between Des Moines and Rapid City.

I'm also thinking that we will make up some of our gas mileage today. You see, we have a large roofbag on the car (it basically looks like the Prius has a giant afro), and it's acting like a sail. So much for taking advantage of the 75 mph speed limit out here -- I've been lucky to reach the speed limit, let alone exceed it. As a result, my mileage has fallen dramatically. After 3 years in a Prius, I'm accustomed to at least 40 MPG. Now, I'm barely tickling 30 MPG. WTF??? How uncivilized. Stupid roofbag. :( BUT, at least it's holding all of our crap, so it can be forgiven.

However, as I said, I think I can make up for some mileage today. You see, we have a lot of downhills after a lot of the uphills -- I always get wicked mileage on those. But also, if there is a significant amount of ice, I'm thinking I can just accelerate like hell until I hit the ice, then take my foot off the gas and slide for miles. Assuming I can do this without hitting a guardrail, parked car, a buffalo, or going off the edge into a deep chasm of doom, I could make it to Seattle without using more than a gallon of gas. For some reason, Eddie is not to keen on this idea. I'm wondering if perhaps he wants to spend money on gas, or burn up gas and singlehandedly destroy the environment, rather than use my money-saving, environmentally friendly, efficient method of travel. That Commie.

So, maybe we won't be making up mileage today.

The cats are all being lazy, storing up energy so that they can put up a fight while being caged and then whine for hours. Actually, they've all been pretty good sports. They just let us know from time to time that they are less than amused. Garfield is still hissing everytime he looks at us, but his enthusiasm is diminishing. He slept on the bed with us last night, so apparently he doesn't completely despise us.

So, onward, going west towards Seattle and hopefully not getting snowed in again. Updates to follow once we're safely there. Or, when we're embedded in a snowbank and manage to pick up somebody's wireless signal. That would be interesting.

Time to get up and get ready to go.

And if you see CNN footage of a blue Prius with an afro careening across the ice in Montana, Idaho, or Washington, you will know that I won the argument with Eddie and we are implementing my "save money/gas/time" plan.