Hello Milwaukee Hybrid Group members and friends,



It’s meet time again. As fall is upon us and our mileage will be dropping like the leaves, we need to gather for warmth, knowledge and camaraderie that will help uplift us. We have summer successes to share, things to learn, we need to welcome and offer training to our newest members and enjoy a meal together. What a nice way to spend a Saturday.



We’re over 120 members now and our group has been active in many events around the area. We’ll learn about this groups participation in Hybrid’s Now, Odyssey Day and WCATY. We’ll get the inside info on Wayne Gerdes’ and Justin Fons’ efforts to set the world record single tank distance record in Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago. Chris Schneider, the Hybrid Guru, will be joining us from La Crosse and will be speaking at the meeting. We also hope some of our Illinois members will be coming up for meet again. There is so much we’re anxious to share with you.



Bobb and Jane Cherney will be organizing our pot luck meal again. Please bring an entree dish or dessert to share, if you can. The Cherney’s will supply plates, cups, drinks etc. We’ll meet in the parking lot again about 9:30am for our informal gathering before the meeting. We will once again have personalized driver training after the meet for our newest hybrid owners and for others that want some advanced training.



Milwaukee Hybrid Group Meeting Agenda, No. 7

Saturday, October 28, 2006

10am to 2pm



Oak Creek Public Library (see link below)

8620 South Howell Avenue

Oak Creek, WI. 53154

414-764-4400



9:30 – 10:00 (30min) Outdoor gathering, discussion and vehicle checks

10:00 – 10:30 (30min) Check in, setup and informal discussion

10:30 – 10:45 (15min) Introductions, driving updates and summer successes

10:45 – 10:55 (10min) the 2006 Insight Marathon, World Record

10:55 – 11:15 (20min) ScanGauge 2 particulars, Rees Roberts

11:15 – 11:30 (15min) Engine block heaters, + or -

11:30 – 11:40 (10min) Break

11:40 – 12:10 (30min) What’s in the future at Honda, Chris Schneider

12:10 – 12:20 (10 min) MHG recent outreach events

12:20 – 12: 30 (10min) Non-profit status?

12:30 – 12:35 (5min) Wrap-up, door prizes

12:35 – 1:30 (60min) Lunch and cleanup

1:00 – 1:30 (30min) Driver training



We encourage you to bring a spouse or a friend interested in hybrid vehicles to learn and share. This meet will be the best opportunity for all drivers to pick up tips on cold weather preparation as well as learning about basic and advanced eco-driving tips.



Each of you should be very proud for what this group has become. Your involvement, questions, comments and skills are what makes us successful and will make us grow.



We look forward to seeing you all again. Keep workn’ it.



Bradlee and Justin Fons



http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp...y&qc=Libraries

 

I might be going. I might want to carpool if anyone is interested. I'll know in the next few days.

 

I'm hoping to make it to this Gathering as it will be the first Gathering with my Hybrid since purchasing it in August. I'm also hoping to be the top of the category in "Miles driven to the Gathering" as well as "Highest average miles per week." It appears that I'm about 550 miles away and the car should have around 13,500 miles on it for its 12-week birthday (10/30) for 1,125 miles/week average. Sweet ! I haven't confirmed with my wife if we can make the trip but I'm hoping to make it there. Cheers in advance.

 

Hi Flash,

It would be great if you could come and make the gathering. You would definately be our winner of the miles driven to an event, altough we have had people up from Indiana too. I know it's a long haul but I think that our group is the best in the country. Our last meet we had 39 attending. You'll be suprised to find that I'm a Bucco fan but that's another story. Send me an email at brad@milwaukeehybridgroup if you're coming for sure because maybe we can get together the Friday night before the meet. We'd love to give you some Wisconsin hospitality.

Happy 2 month birthday on your HCH.

Bradlee

 

I just got confirmation that Flash and his wife plan on being at our meet in Oak Creek tomorrow. That's 550 highway miles for some great information, some personal training, some food and wonderful camaraderie.

Darren, we'll look forward to meeting you and your wife. Drive safe. We'll offer you some good Wisconsin hospitality upon your arrival.

We look forward to our members coming up from Illinois and Indiana tomorrow too. Drive safe too.

This should be another great meet. Thank you all for your support.

Bradlee

 

Bradlee - Thanks. We will be leaving here soon and meet everyone tomorrow at the Library (I sent you an email so please call me if there are changes to the schedule otherwise I'll be touring the upper-Midwest for thrills). I'm hoping to get to Chicago before 10 PM so that we can take in an authentic deep dish pizza but we're looking forward to some more time in WI. The last time that my wife and I were there was with my last car group where we had an outing in the Wisconsin Dells so this is MUCH closer (at least an hour). I just turned 13,000 miles today at 11.5 weeks old but this trip will add almost 1,500 miles so at 12 weeks old my Civic will have 14,500 miles for ~1,200 miles/week. Wheeeeeeee.

As an aside - I will be making a side trip West to Milton, WI where there is a community plot named "Schilberg Park" though it is unrelated to my family but it is worth it to see my name in lights.

 

Thank you to all who attended our meet in Oak Creek yesterday. Although the temps were in the 30’s with a strong NW wind, we had members starting to gather outside at 9am for a 10am meeting inside. As we shared informal discussion and while Justin checked tire pressures on the vehicles, we soon forgot about the cold. Before we knew it we had 20 hybrid vehicles in the lot.

We had 31 members in attendance with owners coming from as far away 550 miles. Darren and Corie pull in from Pittsburgh, PA, Larry from Elkhart, IN., Dan from Mundelein, IL, Wayne and Tom from Chicago and Chris from La Crosse, WI, all come in for the meeting. We had 10 new members attending for the first time and sent out as many owners on personal driver training sessions at the close of the meet. Bob and Jane Cherney and Corie Schilberg help serve the pot luck lunch that was enjoyed by all.


Our meeting was to last from 10am to 2pm, however we ended up leaving at about 3:30pm. We learned about the ScanGauge 2 from Rees Roberts, engine block heaters by me and Wayne Mitchell and about the new cars that Honda will be bringing out by Chris Schneider. Justin Fons was presented with a framed award for his driving excellence in the Insight Marathon. In addition we talked about oil dependency, global warming, and cold weather driving tips and how the Milwaukee Hybrid Group has been making an impact in the area.

All in all it was another great meet. Our next and final meet of the year will be in mid December at this Oak Creek location. We’ll give you more details as they develop. Minutes of this meet will be coming soon.

Thank you for our members and friends who have supported the development of this group. We hope to continue to grow and support all vehicle owners and to educate the public on hybrids, oil dependency and global warming with your help.



Bradlee

 

Hey gang - thanks for letting us join you for the meeting/gathering as we had a great time.

Justin - Congrats again on your share of the Insight Marathon record and your framed award.

Bradlee - Thanks for inviting me. I filled up at home after the return trip and calculated the trip as 1,370 miles in 3 days (or for us Hybrid geeks the trip lasted for 27.2 gallons at an avg of 50.4 mpg though I didn't account for the 180 miles I drove on Friday for work prior to leaving for Milwaukee but this is close enough).

Also, I was wondering how/when/where to apply my "door prize" ($25 BP gas card) and felt it was only right to fill-up prior to leaving for home and use the gas card while the prices were high ($2.25 near Delafield, WI; https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/showthread.php?p=96123#post96123). The pump -actually- shut off around 10.5 gal (47.8 mpg) but this was only $23.72. I decided to "take one for the team" and sacrifice my calculated FE and top off the tank. I hit 11.068 gal for exactly $25 which resulted in 45.4 mpg but applied your card perfectly (thanks). That fill-up lasted me the 630 miles home where I filled up with 11.086 gal at 56.8 mpg for the tank (on snow tires in dry conditions but temps dropping from 50 F to 35 F during the trip don't forget).

I enjoyed my rides in a Prius and Insight and really enjoyed driving them for the first time. My only complaint about the weekend? The time change. I knew the trip would take one hour longer on the return due to the Central-Eastern timezone change that loses us an hour; however, this was the time to "Fall back" so gaining that hour of daylight helped to offset the hour lost during the timezone change except that we stayed near Portage, IN last night and that was West of the timezone change but upon waking our cell phones and the Civic's GPS clock knew the "corrected time." I left at 10:30 AM car time and drove for 60 miles and then the car time read 12:30 PM but I was driving at 60 mph. All of the Turnpike toll booths had clocks hanging there but they were all wrong as none of them were corrected across the entire state (and I "know" that not ALL of IN doesn't ignore the time change). So it was like a timewarp that failed on us as we hopped from the hotel room at an hour ahead, to our cell phone an hour back, to the hotel lobby an hour ahead, to our car an hour behind, to the toll booth an hour ahead ... I don't know if I will be an hour late for work in the morning, an hour early, or on-time. That's the only complaint though. I'll report more later.