Most of the time when we (er I) plan a trip it is based around the 4Runner. If you’ve looked through this site then you’ve probably already seen some of these adventures. The 4Runner has the ability to be lived out of, and go pretty much anywhere that legal and some places that aren’t. The Hi C not as much. The C has no off road ability, and not much cargo room. Needless to say I was a bit hesitant to plan a 3000+ mile trip using this car, but with the truck in the middle of the a rear bumper upgrade, I didn’t have a lot of choice. None of the 80’s rides have AC, and honestly are all in the middle of waiting for something before I would consider that kind of a trip in one of them. It will happen just not this year.
So did driving a Prius ruin the road trip? Absolutely not. Even if we were driving the truck we didn’t have the time to take back roads and trails, so that part of the equation is a mute point. There were a few times where more power would have been nice. Not needed or probably legal to use, but nice to have.
The C isn’t all about compromise. Being part of the Prius family there is something the C does better than anything else in the fleet. Get great fuel economy.
I usually budget about double that for the 4Runner on a straight freeway drive to and from with out driving around town while we are there. Truth be told I would guess those above mentioned x-mas trips usually cost about three times as much. Being able to see the budget stay at a reasonable price while traveling was actually relaxing.
The exciting drive out:
Day 1:
Day 2:
Day 3:
Day 4:
Day 4 started off a little stormy. Just a little rain and we had a mission, so we jumped in the C and headed back to Lincoln Ne. During our daily commute we listen to a few pod casts. One happened to have a photographer that moved to Lincoln and said something to the effect of it being an un-inspiring place to live and shoot, and then he moved on. I thought we could at least find a little something interesting there to shoot.
First Stop — The State Capital Building
Second Stop — The Sunken Garden
Food for day four:
Day 5:
The Old Market in downtown Omaha was the photography choice for day five.
Of course no trip to Omaha and the Old Market is complete with out a Stop by Drastic Plastic.
Day five food:
Day 6:
The day part of day six was spent with family. The evening part however we got out to shoot, and of course hide the C from any potential storm damage. The news reported hail outside of Omaha, so a downtown parking garage made for a great place to shoot from and keep the C under cover until things blew over.
Day 7:
We had a bit of time to shoot mid day on our last day in town. We headed downtown to the Lauritzen Gardens. We totally under estimated how much time to budget for this place. We also hit it at the wrong time of year. They had a lot of impressive displays, but I grabbed mostly macro lenses and the flowers were slightly past their prime so close ups wouldn’t be good.
Day 8:
On the road again…
Day 9:
All we had to was drive a few hundred miles home with out distraction. Yeah that didn’t happen I saw race cars and we had to make a side trip.
We had come across a handful of haulers headed out to Bonneville. After a quick google search we realized Speed Week was set to happen a couple weeks earlier than we thought. While we didn’t have time to see any real action we did stop by for about an hour to snap some of the tech inspection and set up going on. Oh and of course take some “C Salt” photos!
With the sun setting and less than 100 miles to go. I put the camera away and just made it home to start editing photos. Coincidentally I was back to working on the 4Runner the next day. Obviously the next major trip will likely be in winter and need the trucks capabilities, but the C has certainly proven that it can handle a road trip longer and more exciting than just the daily commute.
