I drove the 200+ miles from the Aerie to Parsippany yesterday in the Toyota Tundra. Terry had offered me the Aveo with its excellent 30+ mpg but I knew I would find it a bit cramped. Okay, I would find it a lot cramped. Especially since I was going t be going to the Bolt Hole before returning to the Aerie.
In an effort to squeeze as much as I could out of the 5.6 liter V-8 engine, I held my speed to a relatively consistent 65-67 miles per hour. Any slower than that and the Priuses would have run me off the road. I let most everything pass me and kept an eye all around for anyone making sudden maneuvers as I wanted to avoid those clowns like the plague. I filled up the tank in Mansfield, PA ($3.94 per gallon) and again in Parisppany, NJ (also $3.94 per gallon--which was a first--NJ is usually $0.10-$0.15 cheaper). The distance was just about 230 miles and I used 11.6 gallons. So I managed right around 20 mpg.
Today I did the same thing traveling the NY Thruway to the Bolt Hole and got about the same as, if not slightly better than, the 20 mpg. I stopped to get fuel at the local Stewart's and paid $4.15 per gallon. For regular.
Across the parking lot was an Amish gentleman and his four little children. He had ridden his horse drawn buggy in to purchase a few gallons of kerosene. If it wasn't for the time it takes to travel 200 plus miles, that horse drawn buggy looked like the smart means of travel.
At approximately $4 per gallon and 20 miles per gallon, I'm paying around 20 cents per mile just for fuel. And I can't eat my Tundra if it breaks down.
Then again, I don't think that little black buggy has much of a payload and adding a couple of draft animals might actually slow you down to a crawl. A trip of 200 miles might take a week.
3 comments:
I was envying you your "low" gas prices, until I saw what you paid at the Stewart's. Ours is $4.09 to $4.11, all across Anchorage. If it weren't for the 10-cent discount we get at the local version of Safeway, my Expedition would spend more time in the driveway.
Try about 10 days with a horse maybe more unless you want it to keel over and die before you get there. As I recall reading - about 20 miles per day was a great trip. You might do better if there were horse changes along the way. ;-)
Last time we went to the midwest, we rented a car and drove from Chicago to St. Louis rather than take a layover... we got a Passat and it averaged about 33mpg we were rather astounded with that.
Best part was, we got out of the airport and it only took about 5 hours total to get down to the parent's house... with a layover it would've taken at least that long just to get from one city to the other to allow changeover time and then the flight would most certainly be cancelled. LOL.
20 mpg is excellent for a Tundra. A lot of people struggle to get 17mpg. Way to baby it.
BTW, I'd much rather have a Tundra than a horse and buggy. I'm pretty sure it's cheaper to fuel a truck than it is to feed a horse (at least if you live in the city and have to park your horse at someone's stable).
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