Out standing in a New Hampshire field: This is the luxurious Lexus RX 450h.

The fact that one in five Lexus RX crossovers sold is a hybrid substantiates the fact . . . and after driving one from Washington's Dulles International Airport (located in Chantilly, Virginia, 26 miles from downtown Washington) all the way to Maine, we know what we're talking about when the topic is the RX 450h

For a thousand miles, the interior was comfy!

Our Saphire Black Lexus gave us 24.9419 miles per gallon for a 10-day run of 1,169.9 miles from the 26,000-acre airport, through the hills and valleys of Northern Virginia all the way to Harper's Ferry just over the border in West Virginia, then over the hallowed ground of the Manassas Battlefield, to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the 760,000 square foot facility next to the airport that is a companion museum to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's National Mall Building.

If not gorgeous, smart-looking is the way we'd describe the Lexus RX 450h hybrid.

In all of our driving of the RX 450h -- a 4,853-pound Hybrid -- it displayed a genteel bearing as we traveled turnpikes and back roads in search of history. After leaving the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area, we zoomed on, up Interstate 95, over the George Washington Bridge, past the Big Apple and on to tiny Chester, Connecticut, to take the ferry across the Connecticut River to Hadlyme . . . and on up the hill to the Gillette Castle.

All aboard: Here, with Gillette Castle in the background, we're on the Chester-Hadlyme Ferry.

This is the gasoline end of the hybrid!

Putting the horsepower to the ground is a continuously variable automatic. It's the kind of transmission that you forget: It's silky smooth, never hunting for a gear and providing good pull (or push) even when the road gets twisty, and you're on and off the throttle, hustling the car.

Other than a few pieces of chrome -- and quiet operation -- who'd guess it was a hybrid?

The standard items include push button start/stop; dual zone automatic climate control; power tilt and telescope steering column; power this and that, including windows; electrochromic (auto-dimming) inside rearview mirror; roof rails; real wood interior trim in either bird's eye maple or brown walnut; reclining, sliding 40/20/40 rear seat; leather-trimmed steering wheel and shift knob; shark-fin antenna; vehicle stability control; traction control; 4-wheel power-assisted disc brakes; collapsible steering column AND brake pedal . . . and lots more. Pull out your reading glasses!

Here, at the Franklin (N.H.) Falls Flood Control Dam, we see the stylish Lexus from the rear.

In this case, our car came with the Comfort Package ($825), the 12-speaker Premium Audio System ($110), the 19-inch aluminum alloy wheels ($660, standard are 18-inch units); the Bi-Xenon High Intensity Discharge headlamps ($1,175); the Navigation System ($2,440); the Premium Package ($2,400), and the Tow Prep Package ($330). After the delivery, there's a processing and handling fee of $875 . . . and -- ca-ching, the final total is $52,303.

Plenty of cargo space -- 40 cubic feet!

We don't need the $2,575 navigation system . . . do we? Well, for years now I felt that way, basically zooming from one part of the country to another with nothing but a pile of paper maps. But, there are a bunch of advantages to having the navigation system that comes with the RX 450h . . . with weather and traffic updates as you travel along. And, say, you're outside of Washington, D.C., moving northeast. Just take I-95, right? Well, we were traveling along I-95, when a voice from the Nav system said to take 295 . . . and we did. The traffic thinned in the morning traffic that was thickening to the rush hour.

We've now been converted -- having a Navigation system is a very good thing!

Getting from point A to point B on the Interstates is easy, but what happens when you have to find a specific address? This is where a Navigation system comes into its own . . . taking you right to your destination.

History: In 1938, there was rain for days, and flooding. This dam was built to stop future flooding.

The Lexus Nav system has a button on the console, next to the joystick that maneuvers you through a wide range of functions on the monitor, that says Map Voice. By clicking this, you can get the upcoming instruction . . . right now, and have the car in the right lane for the right-hand turn.

And, what about music? Should you spend $1,610 on the Mark Levinson 15-speaker, 330-watt Premium Surround Sound audio system? Well, how much do you like music?

While loaded with many standard items, there are a lot of options, like 19-inch wheels!

Aaaahhhh! These are not easy questions, dictated as always by the size of the money roll in your pocket.

Rude Connecticut Yankees: It took a minute to get this shot, only 15 seconds for blowing horns!

But we also saw -- in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia -- the armory that John Brown, the American abolitionist, captured in an 1859 raid which started a searing verbal debate that erupted into our Civil War . . . and the first battleground, the Manassas Battlefield . . . where J.E.B. Stuart earned his nickname and changed the course of the battle. Stonewall Jackson gave the South a victory by his refusal to fold.

Gillette Castle: Built by an actor who played Sherlock Holmes, it sits above the Connecticut River.

And, really, we're happy with the RX 450h. In all the time we had it, it never put a foot wrong. It was comfortable, day and night, on Interstates and while charging along two-lane blacktops, with a bunch of twisties thrown in to keep your attention. The car does not have overwhelming performance, going from zero to 60 (according to CAR And DRIVER) in 7.1 seconds, to 100 in 17.7, the quarter-mile in 15.5 seconds at 94 miles per hour with a top speed of 117.

Not too big, certainly not too small, the Lexus RX 450h is just about right!

But for getting the things that must be done on a daily basis, from carting kids to school or planning a weekend trip and having the room to take your stuff with you, for fun and pleasure -- the RX 450h is a dream come true.

What's it like inside the RX 450h? Fine -- is the short answer. It is quiet, unless you're listening to the 15-speaker Mark Levinson audio system, which you can play loud if you know where you're going. If you play it loud, though, you won't be able to hear the directions from the navigation system. Still, even with the radio playing softly, you can hear virtually every note, every word. We call that spectacular.

No, the Lexus was not as fast as this SR-71, but it took us to the museum!

Ultimately, we made it all the way to Maine, saw friends and family, and then three hours before our jetBlue flight back to Oakland left from Logan, we dropped the car off -- with a full tank of gasoline, just the way we had gotten it -- at The Boston Globe, and caught a cab. The cab ride was not half as much fun as driving the Lexus!

The Air & Space Museum has everything from World War II figher planes to space shuttles!

In the coming weeks, we will be adding links to more of the historical parts of our journey -- the Air & Space Museum, Harper's Ferry, Manassas Battlefield, sights from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Gillette Castle . . . so check back for both the words and a wide range of great photos.