Date:         Tue, 3 Aug 2010 17:29:11 -0500
Reply-To:     mcneely4@COX.NET
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET>
Subject:      Re: trip out west
In-Reply-To:  <20100803163237.E693U.1313770.imail@eastrmwml31>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

---- Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET> wrote:
> I just returned to Edmond, OK from a drive to Spokane, Washington and Glacier National Park in my 1991 Volkswagen Vanagon GL Campmobile .  It has a waterboxer rebuild (110K miles at time of installation) and now has 155K miles.
>
> I averaged 18.76 mpg (much worse coming than going, around 18 mpg coming home, over 20 going, also around 18 in driving around Spokane, northern Idaho, and Glacier NP).  Best leg, from Raton, NM, to Castle Rock, CO, 254 miles, just over 22 mpg.  Worst leg, from Grass Range, MT to Ranchester, WY, 204 miles, barely over 17 mpg.  Wind made a really large difference.  Total miles for the trip = 5807.  Prices for gas ranged from $2.559 per gallon at a Flying J in Caspar, WY to $3.039 at a Cenex in West Glacier, MT.  Average price paid = $2.8378 per gallon.

I made a series of calculation errors in the above figures.  The actual numbers (recalculated several times to be sure) look a little better.  The overall mileage was 19.10 mpg rather than 18.76 (still less than the 20.56 on a similar trip last year), and the average price per gallon using total dollars and total gallons (rather than averaging the prices) was $2.767 rather than $2.8378.  Sorry for the errors.  The total mileage exceeds by about 1000 miles what it would be if we had not done a bit of driving around Spokane, and some exploring in northern Idaho that we did not do last year (when we went south into Nevada and visited Great Basin NP rather than Glacier).