May 31, 2004

Key West, FL

Darden asked us to meet her in Key West sometime around noon the following day, even though we didn't have any events planned. She wanted to make sure we had some time to enjoy the beach and the quaint area surrounding it.

Scott and I took that to mean 'Sleep in, guys! Take your sweet time!' So, instead of arriving at noon we left at noon only to find that Darden had happened upon a wonderful campaigning opportunity that required our presence by 5pm. The stress level elevated slightly when Scott and I found ourselves in bumper-to-bumper traffic on a one-lane portion of Route 1.But bumper to bumper traffic's no problem in the Prius.Why?Because it shuts down when you're not moving and then pops back on when you start up the car.

We finally arrived with a little time to spare for planning before making our way to Mallory Square, a plaza where hundreds of tourists and locals gather to watch the sunset every night by the ocean. We descended on the unsuspecting crowd, pursuing the operation guerilla-style and driving the car into plaza among the ice cream and margarita vendors.Except we didn't have ice cream or liquor - just postcards. People loved us all the same.Not only were we blessed with a superlative sunset, but we also got 60 signatures on our petition postcards. Not bad for our first event.

The next day we had our official kickoff and first press conference at the zero mile marker in Key West. We were greeted by a photographer of the Key West Citizen and proceeded to give our spiel about the Hybrid Evolution Tour.We also had a Ford Escape SUV set up to go head to head with our hybrid Prius.We lined up the SUV for the Florida leg so we could compare the fuel economy of the two vehicles.Not much of a surprise; the Prius won.

After all was said and done, we commenced to snorkeling where several fish rubbed noses with our goggles to thank us for our commitment to decreasing human oil dependency. They had had it up to sea level with exhaust and spillage.

-- Rebecca