Fast-forward to a few hours later. Nora ate all her dinner and, (along with her conniving brother) was a good kiddo this weekend, so she came in from the backyard a bit ago and asked for Oreos and milk. She retrieved them, and we went about our evening activities. A couple minutes ago, she comes over and asks her mom, “Can I get some more cookies so I can share with Tyler, but he told me not to say that.” She took off with more cookies, but Tyler was warned to stay away. Being a good child, he said, “OK mom, but I’ll keep an eye on her milk.”

The first display is the graphical display of the power mode. In this clip, it is showing the drivetrain powered completely by battery power (blue). When the engine starts up, its power will show in orange, with the battery power rolling over to green for Hybrid power mode. When the Hybrid mode kicks off, such as increased acceleration, low battery juice, or the transmission or engine temperature is too low, the display shows complete orange for engine power only.

Moving to the drivers dashboard console, on the left is the RPM gauge sitting at the Auto Start position. In this mode, the engine is off, but sits at Auto Start to indicate to you it will start on demand.

I ran on battery power in the subdivision, but when I pulled out onto the main road, the engine kicked on and I ran in Hybrid power to Eagle road. Once on Eagle, I accelerated more quickly and ran on Engine power to about 50mph. Once there, it slid into Hybrid mode as I held the pedal just barely on to keep the speed constant. When I let off the pedal to turn into Madison Park, the engine shut down and I was back on battery power, pulling into the driveway and spending five minutes exploring more buttons and menus.

Here come the numbers…thanks to Tate for the original spreadsheet he created back in Laramie for his 96 (or was it 98 ?) Dodge…its been hacked a bit, but still rocking-n-rolling for my car lot.

2004 Chevrolet Tahoe, 5.3L Flexfuel, 4WD Soccermomwagon:

Purchased – 11/30/2004
Total Mileage – 67,184
Overall MPG – 16.030
Average Miles Per Day – 33.35
Average Miles Per Month – 1,000
Average Miles Per Year – 12,164
Fillups – 240

2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid (aka, DB’s Pimptastic Ride, thanks MP):

Purchased – 07/08/2010
Total Mileage – 1,818 (5229 total, purchased with 3411 on the odometer)
Overall MPG – 18.377
Average Miles Per Day – 606
Average Miles Per Month – 18180
Average Miles Per Year – 221,190
Fillups – 7

Yeah, ok, the averages per year are a bit skewed due to the small sample size. For measures, the pickup:

2001 Chevrolet Pickup, 2500, 6.6L Duramax Diesel:

Purchased – 07/15/2001
Total Mileage – 85,175
Overall MPG – 19.448 (never going to get it over 20MPG I fear)
Average Miles Per Day – 26.592
Average Miles Per Month – 798
Average Miles Per Year – 9,706
Fillups – 189

The pickup, BEFORE the kids and Tahoe arrived…

Purchased – 07/15/2001, data through 10/30/2004
Total Mileage – 58,848
Overall MPG – 19.749
Average Miles Per Day – 47.933
Average Miles Per Month – 1,438
Average Miles Per Year – 17,495

Time will tell on the Escalade versus the Tahoe. I do not have the ability to breakdown the stats for city versus highway driving, wish I had some ability to track that within a tank of fuel, but generall the Tahoe averaged about 13.5 to 14.5 around the city, then pulling 17.5 to 19 on the interstate, depending on the prevailing breeze. I was a bit surprised the overall MPG sat in at 16, I figured it would be a tad lower, but we have also put it on the road a fair amount the past few months after more city driving over the winter. Have yet to burn through a tank in the Escalade yet putzing around town, so curious to see how things pan out there.

We took it for a few quick spins last night, and we will be writing more about the adventures in Hybrid land. There is a bit of difference…it will usually run on battery power as you sit at stop lights, and start moving. Around the 20-25MPH range in switches into Hybrid mode, quietly and seamlessly (there is a slightly noticeable action) starting the engine and switching into partial engine, partial electric power. Depending on the charge of the batteries, we noticed it running in Hybird mode in the 40-45MPH range. From the mileage John logged, it ran about the 19.5 to 20 MPG range on its journey to Idaho. Quick glances at the current MPG while toting around town looks to be quite a boost over the ole Tahoe.

The most unusual feel is the brake pedal, and the actions when you are slowing down. With the regenerative braking, the brake pedal does not need much action, but when you near a stop, the pedal becomes more active as regeneration eases off. Things are pretty quiet, although there is a cooling system with a fan that is noticeable when the engine is off.

The kids enjoyed it, they sat in the third row of seats (which we had on the Tahoe, but never had them installed) and thought it was the coolest thing ever, wanting to always sit there. Then they began spitting at each other and fighting like good little kids spoiled by weeks of the grand parents.

Snapped a few pictures last night of the departing Tahoe and the new ride. Also, congratulations to the Hemstreet’s of Redmond for their new vehicle purchase, as unplanned as it was.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/livefromboise/sets/72157624326385963

Now… if they were together, it would kind of be like going to the beach!!

First, touring the front, not much change except the addition of two rocks, one near the patio, and one on the north side, which, IIRC, should not stay there too long. It was warm today, perhaps they called it an early day.

Not much change on the south side, front of the house, although you can see the completed fence work.

Moving to the backyard, the sandbox is now in place, just awaiting sand and ground material to complete that area of the yard.

The past two days, they have put together the water feature (it will become a disappearing river). They have hooked up all the water connections, the pump, and have begun filling up the hole with rocks under the tarp. Today, the rocks arrived and were sprinkled on top of the hill. There is a little bit of water around…they had it running Monday night for a few minutes testing out the connections and such.

Eros was quite curious at the developments, and took a dive into the hole to sniff around and inspect the craftsmanship. She then made a few tours of the yard, sniffing the rocks, apparently some sort of verification process that allows us to continue with the project.

The rest of the work in the backyard has been around the water feature. We now have a HUGE hole in our back yard. The pictures do not do it justice. I had to take two so that you could get some perspective, but the hole is about 4 and a half feet deep. The sand box is in the background and it’s 5 ft long. And we have a big pile of dirt that should eventually turn into a small waterfall.

The back yard patio is completely finished. It is SO much bigger than our other one. I’m looking forward to lots of bbqs!

Today they started on the water feature. It doesn’t look like much now… just a BIG pile of dirt (man, the kids are bummed they aren’t here right now!)… but it should be looking pretty fancy here in a little bit.

We arrived into Laramie around 9:30PM or so, a smidge over 13 hours on the road, and caught the end of the NBA finals as the kids unwound a bit. Nora was quite happy as she received her very own Tinkerbell inflatable bed plus sleeping bag. She laid down in the living room, her brother quickly passing out on the couch in his sleeping bag, and quickly scurried into the bedroom with mommy and daddy as it was scary, so, she slept quite comfortably IN HER OWN LITTLE BED ! Score one Gramps Lance !

Friday dawned a day as you might imagine, but thankfully the kids were in decent spirits and agreeable, getting through breakfast, dressed up, and over to Great Gran’s house without so much as a moan or sigh. Once there, they were very cordial to folks there and those that arrived, introducing themselves as “Hi, my name is Tyler Erben and I am five years old and this is my…”, “Hi, my name is Nora and I am three”. Ok, that did that once or twice, then Tyler was off to play and Nora turned on her bashfulness mode. Nora found pleasure fixing Great Grans table on the back patio, getting underneath it with her diaper in wide view, and performing mechanic like operations, noises, and gestures with some toys. She then wandered around in the backyard, enjoying the pretty flowers.

Around 10:30 or so, we began making our way to the church for services. The kids did quite well, listening as well as one could expect (or even better) for their ages. Nora the past few days has requested to go to the poddie on her own, and done so, going with a dry diaper from Boise to Laramie, and so far today batting 1.000 as well after a little bit of a wet one this morning. Tyler, Nora, and their cousin Reese made it about 15 minutes into the services before their gentle clapping at the songs, and fishing with some flowers (I felt guilty videoing it, but it was awesome) turned into a bit more uncontrolled energy, and we made an exit from the packed church to saunter around and burn off some energy.

After a visit to the cemetery, we had an enjoyable reception at the Laramie Country Club, with Nora enjoying the Chicken Penne Pasta as any good child of mine should, and Tyler, out of the blue, deciding he was hungry and dining on some steak and potatoes, with about five pieces of bread. We kicked off our shoes and dipped them in the pool for a bit, and finally wandered back to Gramma’s house around 4:00 ish, the kids getting to ride in the back of the Tahoe, as seen below as they relaxed before our short drive.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/livefromboise/collections/72157624161804600/