Just a stargazer

My husband read about this thing called “hypermiling,” and we’ve found that a few changes in the way we drive make a big difference in our miles per gallon. We jumped from averaging about 28 MPG to over 36! Hopefully someday we’ll even hit 40. We used to have to fill up every 300 miles or so… now we get 400 miles on a tank!

I think the thing that makes the biggest difference is driving slowly on the highways. We try to go about 50 MPH. A general rule for hypermiling is to stay at or below the speed limit as you theoretically run into fewer stoplights, which leads me to my next point, that you should anticipate stoplights. If the light ahead is red, don’t speed up to it, just coast and hopefully it will turn green before you have to stop. Yeah, you might bother the person behind you, but you’ll be getting better gas mileage!

The secret to better gas mileage: no speeding on the highways, try to maintain constant speed, and don’t push the gas pedal more than absolutely necessary! Good luck!

I can’t recall many times where I’ve stopped a car to pick up something on the side of the road. I remember my dad stopping to snatch some foamy mats that he put down in our basement so I could practice tumbling when I was little. I used to be able to do back flips down there. Now I think I can touch the ceiling without even jumping.

The other night, we were driving down a very annoying street we call “Sin Haven” on our way home. Something caught my husbands’ eye so he turned around to check it out. I was like “why do you want to go down this street again?” Turns out there was a toilet in someone’s front yard with a sign that said “FREE there’s nothing wrong with it.” It seemed well maintained and clean so we took it apart, dumped the water onto their front yard and loaded it into our car. We took the sign too. It was a strange moment; picking up a toilet on the side of the road at 11:30 at night is not a common occurrance.

Why did we need a toilet? Well, almost any toilet is probably better than the one at our new place. I don’t think the previous owner cleaned it at all in the 20 years he lived there. It is really disgusting. Our “new” toilet can’t get in there soon enough! I can’t wait until it’s installed. Yay free toilet!