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I purchased an Anne Rice Vampire Novel!
I got a photo of a Lizard
I didn't get a good photo of a Cardinal
I am packing and leaving on Saturday, September 1 as planned.
I finished working on three group homes making several friends in the process.
I gave my car a "Happy Meal" today of premium synthetic oil with a side of rotated and balanced tires
I installed a wireless router for the dorm I have been living in, for the volunteers to continue using after I leave.
I found and browsed a wonderful Used Book Store, twice.
I crossed the Mississippi River over twenty times with the $1 toll receipts to prove it.
I used a tank of gas per week while I was in New Orleans.
I learned to hold a conversation using fewer syllables per word and fewer letters of the alphabet.
I only got one traffic ticket (so far.)
I stayed here and worked as much as I could or was given to do, for the entire month of August, a personal goal of mine.
I did affect people and their quality of life, yes I did, another personal goal (one for sure and as many as possible after that.)
I know why people leave New Orleans in the summer time, do you?
I saw three forks of simultaneous lighting hit so close to me that there was not enough time to count to one.
I know that New Orleans is still broken and still in need of money and volunteers.
I observed and learned from mentally handicapped people, the residents of the group homes I worked on.
I have logged 3,954 miles on my car since leaving home. (Don't tell AAA or I will be in a heap of trouble)
I am home, the cat is no longer wondering where I am at. My final mileage, about 6758 this Friday, Sep. 7.
The shortest distance between New Orleans and San Jose; via the Grand Canyon (North Rim) and Folsom, CA, is 2,804 miles (actual odometer reading.) The quickest distance via my GPS mapping software is a more southerly route and 2,232 miles, a difference of 572 miles. The shortest route, again according to my GPS mapping software, is 2,148miles, a difference of two tanks of gas or approximatelly $80.
| to |
from |
|
| $22.32 |
$30.40 |
|
| $42.62 |
$37.34 |
|
| $26.18 |
$39.36 |
|
| $31.58 |
$42.51 |
|
| $42.23 |
$32.96 |
|
| $30.59 |
$21.88 |
|
| $25.94 |
$31.37 |
|
| $29.45 |
$42.14 |
|
| $31.44 |
$38.60 |
|
| $30.85 |
$37.11 |
|
| $36.62 |
$19.68 |
|
| $28.79 |
|
|
| $378.61 |
$373.35 |
Total
|
| 2898.5 |
2804 |
Mileage
|
|
This is too weird. It isn't as if I planned this. Looking at the table to the left, the first column is my gas expense to New Orleans and the mileage. Likewise, the second column is my trip back from new Orleans.
You have to appreciate that the trip to New Orleans was via Colorado, always meandering towards New Orleans but with no particular strategy except to go West until I was North of New Orleans and then go South.
On the way back, my only goal was to hit the north rim of the Grand Canyon, pretty much following the route my GPS mapping provided.
Net of it is, there was a 94 mile difference in mileage and only a five dollar difference in the total gas cost. Amazing.
Incidentally, those $40 plus tanks of gas were where I was running on reserve and hoping a gas station would appear
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on the horizon before chugging to a stop. I didn't get less then 22 mpg on both legs. Such an amazing car! A 1999 Lexus RX300 with 100K plus miles, on the odometer. Thanks Toyota!
If your thinking I babied this car to get this kind of mileage, you would have to think again. The speed limit in TX, NM, and AZ is 75 on the interstates and if you weren't hitting 80, the trucks would pass you. I was passing the trucks, going 80 Plus for all three states. Weight wise, loaded to the hilt with a full set of power tools and regular tools and all the camping gear you can imagine and enough clothes to go two weeks before having to do laundry. In another words, the worst possible
condition to get this kind of mileage. The only positive thing I did for mileage, was switch over to synthetic oil.
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And when you are away from home, stuff happens:
My ex Father-In Law, Peter Cusimano passed away recently. God Speed Peter. A good man to have around. He will be missed as he did a lot of good and touched a lot of people in his lifetime. He left the world a better place: WWII Vet, IBM lifer, father of two daughters, Nano and "Big" Nano to a legion of kids. He taught me a lot: about life, about story telling, about cooking sausage. The kind of sausage the neighbors call
the fire dept. when you barbeque it in your back yard. Most of all, Peter was a man who lived and who cared about living, every day of his life.
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