California Move: Trip Summary and Statistics

Total mileage: 4596

Gallons diesel: ~315

Average MPG: ~14.6

Well, it only took us two months to get our travel diary entries into blog form. Looking back, it was a bit of a rainbows and roses view of the trip. This is not saying that it wasn’t all storm clouds, but 2 adults, a toddler, and three dogs all sharing 150 feet square feet for a month can wear on all parties. All creatures seemed to have less tolerance for everything. It was nice to get out of Abby and into something a little bit more generously sized. So we survived our journey, and a wonderful time (with a few clouds thrown in here and there).

We made some improvements over our last westward trip (June/July 2015 – hope to get some summary posts up regarding that trip soon).

• The main improvement being that we added rest days. We stopped, relaxed, and didn’t have to worry about jumping into Abby and heading to the next destination.
• We coordinated our food/fuel stops. We filled Abby up just before we arrived the night’s campground and filled up when we stopped for lunch. This allowed us to save time in the morning when we had a long day and needed to get on the road. The single stop during the day reduced our total travel time.
• It was really nice to visit family and friends during the course of the trip.

There are still opportunities for improvement.

• Our travel days were not leisurely. We had a schedule to keep, so if we passed something of interest on the road, we couldn’t necessarily stop and check it out. If we really enjoyed a place, like Big Bend, and wanted to stay longer, it just wasn’t feasible.
• This was a dual purpose trip. We were moving across country so that meant extra stuff came with us that normally wouldn’t have been on this trip. So much extra stuff.
• We also learned that setting the cruise control while towing is not the best option if there are hills/mountains involved (lets just say positive grades). It taxes the engine and transmission and completely destroys gas mileage. We learned that lesson pretty quick.
• Covering 1200 miles in the first three days (~1/4 of the total mileage in ~1/9 trip time) was brutal.

So what was Abby’s state at the end of this? Poor girl was filthy, inside and out, despite our best efforts regarding the inside. Abby smelled of laundry, wet shoes, wet dog, and dog urine (thank you Buster for deciding your bed was an appropriate place to pee when you didn’t want to go out in the rain). Abby’s exterior was covered with Amish country road apples (horse crap), road salt, grease, dirt, and sea spray. A little bit of elbow grease and a truck wash cleaned Abby right up. And freed of the trailer, Abby was down right sporty in handling and acceleration.