So, I’m leaving DC. Finally. After ten years of bitching and moaning about the DC area I am moving back to my beloved West Coast, specifically Seattle. And do I choose to reflect on those past ten years here, in this blog entry? No, instead I will write about gas prices and fuel economy. Once in the petroleum industry, always in the petroleum industry.
Perhaps another day I will write a reflection of my time here, but that requires actually thinking/pondering/etc, and I have far too much stuff remaining on my to-do list before leaving on July 6. I will say this, though – I am very much looking forward to returning to the West Coast lifestyle, being closer to my family (hurrah for 2.5 hour direct flights from Seattle to Palm Springs) and being within driving distance of In-N-Out (OK, it’s a ten hour drive from Seattle to the northernmost In-N-Out in Redding, but still, that’s drive-able).
As for the drive itself, I am really looking forward to it because I have never driven across the country and it is something that I have always wanted to do (Why? Who knows. A mild form of insanity, probably. Also, good food in the heartland). We are taking the route displayed in the map below, stopping to visit friends and family along the way and explore Yellowstone National Park. Our route is 3,159 miles.
View West Coast Bound in a larger map
One of the things I am not looking forward to, however, (in addition to the 12 hour drive from Missouri to Colorado…zzzz) is the amount of money I will be spending to drive across the country. My Xterra has a laughable fuel economy of 15 city/19 highway mpg so I’ll be stopping at a gas station every half hour to refill the damn thing. I used Cost2Drive to calculate how much I’ll be spending on gas and the website predicted $608.87. It will be interesting to see how closely I can stick to that number. Ideally it would be less, but my expectations are pretty low. Nevertheless, I’ll post the final amount when I arrive in Seattle and have the opportunity to pore over my credit card statement.
Now back to the packing…
Related posts:
- I’ve been driving a mid sized car, I never hurt anyone – Is that a fact? Soooo I’ve been reading all this news about high gas prices in the U.S. Almost $3 a gallon in my home state, eh? From CNN: Oh, of course, as usual it’s the fault of oil companies… Or maybe OPEC…surely they’re just not pumping that oil fast enough! Wait, maybe this...
- West Coast Road Trip Photos from last month’s West Coast road trip. Over 1,400 miles up the coast from San Diego, CA to Vancouver, BC....
- Olympic National Park: Hoh Rain Forest and the coast This past weekend we took a daytrip to the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park, which is a four hour drive from Seattle. I’ve wanted to visit the rain forest since we arrived in Seattle two months ago and figured we should do it while the weather was decent...
From Erin:
Hey, so when you go through Missoula if you have time I think you would both really enjoy the Museum of Mountain Flying. I visited it when I was young, and I loved it. Also Missoula is the base of the Hot Shots smoke-jumper firefighting team, and you can tour their base and see their parachute hanger etc which is cool.
Have a great drive, so excited for you to be the PNW!!!!
From Christine:
Hey! I started following your blog after reading your articles about North Korea, and I see that you’ll be passing through my (relatively new) city on your cross-country journey. If you’re looking for people to hang out with in Denver, CO, let me know!
From Lindsay:
Erin – Thanks for the suggestion…you know I love anything with airplanes
Can’t wait to see you guys…let’s plan a beach trip sometime, because I am dying to hang out on the Oregon coast!
Christine – we should be in Denver on July 13 if all goes according to plan…are you around then?
From Cindy C:
Call me crazy (too) but I’ve always wanted to drive across the country too, it sounds very exciting! And it may be good to make a lot of gas station stops… too much sitting could cause deep vein thrombosis and/or boredom.
This blog post was also a nice American geography refresher for me
(Denver is that far north? Seattle is that close to Canada?). eep.
From Christine:
I should be around on the 13th. I’m @robochristine on twitter, keep me posted