Hypermiling experiment: Failure?

Ok, so I haven't been posting my experience with hypermiling lately. Does this mean the experiment has failed? Well, if my HS science teacher were to get involved, she might think so. (She was quite a character! I remember one time my friend asked to go to the bathroom during her class. Her response? "But you just went last Tuesday!" She, of course, meant during science class last Tuesday. She considered those 50 minutes a day "her time" NOT ours. Needless to say, that became quite the joke among my friends and I.) She would certainly not have approved of my little hypermiling experiment. I just haven't been able to continue collecting data.

Life has interfered significantly with the tracking of my results. My lifestyle will alternate between stretches of barely leaving the house (I work at home), to long road trips for work where I will have 6-7 gas receipts stuffed in my checkbook at the end of the week (among various other snack and meal receipts, sometimes hotel receipts). In the beginning I would take a second to write down the mileage on each receipt, promising myself to return later to actually calculate the mileage. As the weeks went by (and the receipts piled up!) without ever having done so, I gave up on writing the mileage on them as well. By the time I sift through the papers in my checkbook, I simply want to get rid of the clutter as quickly as possible (and before my pre-schooler and toddler scatter them around or need me for something else!).

As a result of this experiment, I would say I have come to some conclusions.:

• First of all, for me, I will never be able to perfect the art of hypermiling (or turn it into an obsession, as some do) without MPG monitoring equipment that will be able to tell me my "real time" MPG as I'm driving (as well as calculate averages, etc.)
  
• Secondly, the techniques used by hypermilers require you to really pay attention on the road. I travel remote roads frequently for long stretches of time, with little more than scattered farmhouses and an occasional tree or cow to look at. My mind tends to wander during these times. I think I only did any real conscious hypermiling for extended stretches once or twice on these roads.
• Third, there are significant differences between highway hypermiling and city hypermiling, both in terms of techniques and results achieved (speculating here somewhat, since as I mentioned above, I didn't track very much data before coming to this conclusion).
  
• Finally, just being aware of the gas mileage effects of certain behaviors (like speeding up to a red light only to slam on the brakes) will have some effect on your driving style, if you want it to. Even though I don't religiously hypermile, my driving habits have changed for the better. I guess in that way it's not a failure.