157 miles in and climbing

So, the Dow dropped 777 points today, but the Yaris went up today, to 157 miles. I took a trip down to Denver and made sure I hit some back roads on the way home. I'm getting used to the car, the size and her characteristics. Though the window space is a still feeling a little cramped, the rest of vehicle seems to have plenty of room for what I need to lug around.

One thing I was really surprised by was how the car climbed the hills around here. When leaving Boulder on U.S. 36, there is a pretty good grade that is about a mile long. In every other car I've owned or driven, downshifting (whether automatic or standard) was necessary, even when ramped up to 65mph or 70 at the bottom. I was at 65mph and I didn't have to downshift on the way up the hill. The car was empty aside from my presence, and was down to about 60mph at the top of the hill, but I couldn't believe it. In fact, I figured I'd just have to downshift to 4th or even 3rd gear, like I have with cars in the past. There was little traffic, and my pace wasn't interrupted, but again, this was a huge surprise. And a nice one at that.

Here's a geeky little photograph with some real images to come soon.