And Just What Was Our MPG?

The end of the trip became particularly real today when Tim had to report back to work. Don’t get me wrong.  Tim really loves his job, so in one sense he was looking forward to getting back to the park.  However, his returning to work means that the trip is really over and that we won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, except maybe for a long weekend.  I have to admit that I’m still adjusting to not being on the road, but I have no doubt that things will get easier.

Tim Is Dressed and Ready for Work

Last week was a transition time for both of us.  We really didn’t do much of anything except relax.  That was a good thing, as we both needed some down time.  Extended travel can be hard work!

I’ve started to compile a few statistics from the trip that might be of interest to at least a few folks.  Today’s installment has to do with the question we were asked most often on the trip, “How many miles per gallon does the RV get?”  Really, more people asked us about mileage than anything else.  Here are a few statistics related to miles and mileage.

·        We traveled 25,238 miles during the nine months we were on the road, including the 3,528 miles that I drove from Colorado to Maine at the beginning of the trip.  We had guessed that we would drive approximately 28,300 miles.

·         We averaged 91 miles per day.  Our longest driving day was 333 miles.  We had quite a few days when we didn’t drive at all.

·        Our average mileage was 18.7 miles per gallon.  During the trip we had guessed that the average might be closer to 20 miles per gallon.  However, we’re still happy with 18.7 since our original budget was based on 18 miles per gallon.

·        We spent a total of $5,289.07 on diesel fuel.  We had budgeted $7,914 for the trip, based on $5.00 per gallon (we wanted to use a worst-case scenario to be on the safe side).  Thankfully, prices were much lower than that.

o      The lowest price we paid was $3.599 per gallon on January 25, 2012, in Americus, Georgia.  

o      The highest price we paid was $4.699 per gallon on March 22, 2012, in Trinidad, California.

We did much better than we had predicted, and we had money left over for other, more fun, items.  Even though the price of fuel is still expensive, it’s not a reason to cancel a trip.

We Kept a Log of our Daily Mileage and Fuel Expenditures

On a sad note, we received an e-mail today notifying us that Test, our second adopted sea turtle, passed away on June 7.  Test had been at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center for a year after a fishing line had wrapped around her front flipper.  The line had torn through all the muscle and other soft tissue down to the bone, and her entire flipper had to be removed. Test seemed to be doing well until the wound opened.  Despite numerous treatments of antibiotics, as well as a blood transfusion, Test did not make it.  The staff at the Sea Turtle Center is heartbroken, as are Tim and I.  We are just grateful that Karen, our other adopted sea turtle, was successfully released back into the water.