[335dFan]

Day 1 was rather eventful. I drove 749 miles from a SW suburb of Portland to Hill AFB UT, which is just on the south edge of Ogden.

Most of the interstate in Idaho and northern UT has an 80mph limit, so, given the optimistic speedo, I set the cruise control to 85-86 most of the time. I actually use cruise control a lot on fairly wide open interstates, and I even used it going up the long grade east of Pendleton OR. That's an interesting winding part of the interstate.

My mileage was not all that great. The car seems to still have plenty of pep, but wonder if its metabolism is speeding up. Or is that the other way around for the analogy?

First fill up was in Wendell ID at 545.5 miles on the tank, 15.746 gallons, for 34.644 mpg. So I guess part of that was the mountains in eastern OR that I was racing up, and the 85 mph cruising, with some higher bursts. But I still was expecting to be in the high 30s like last summer. I filled up again at the base gas station last night for the final leg to Pagosa Springs today. 208.8 miles on the tank, 6.104 gallons, and 34.2 mpg. Oh well, will see if the mountains and speed had an effect. Didn't seem to last summer.

Here is the one and only pic for the day, which was looking at a nice cloud formation to the southeast from Hill AFB at the end of the day.

[mefferso]

That mileage sounds right in line with my last 1300 mile trip from New Orleans to Abilene and back. Cruise control set from 75 to 90 mph (speedometer indicated) and averaged right at 35mpg the whole trip. The stretches where I stayed 80-85 mph I was getting barely 34 mpg. All hand calculated.

Looks like a cutoff anvil cloud btw. Pretty cool looking.

[335dFan]

Day 2 took me from near Ogden UT to Pagosa Springs CO. HAve provided some pics along the way and of the destination.

I filled up the tank in P.S. Even though it only had 485.5 miles on it cuz I wanted to see the trip mpg and tomorrow we will be motoring up to Wolf Creek Pass at elevated speeds somewhat. So, today was much better mileage. It took 12.031 gals for 40.354 mpg. And I was not babying it.

Tomorrow I will have some pics of the other cars here. Now off to the hot springs.

[Persian Whisperjet]

Great driving up there by Wolf Creek Pass -- lovely area. Thanks for the pics.

[Narcosis]

Man I miss Colorado...

[335dFan]

Day 3 (2 Aug) was spent with the car guys driving up Wolf Creek Pass from Pagosa Springs to the summit. The younger troops in the M3s and M5s passed me when I got stuck behind a Subaru in the slow lane. It was just as well that I was slowed down, for a couple of reasons. I am not as good a driver these days, and since I was tucked in behind them trying to catch up going up that 6-8 percent grade, I wasn't in front when we all got zapped by the local gendarme radar. Unexpectedly no one in that group got ticketed, although the speeds at one point were 90+, but some chap behind me did get one.

Was not so lucky on the way back. Actually I was poking along at or below the speed limit all the way down to where the road levels out. Then I stopped to take some pics. When I started back up for the final few miles back into town, the road was straight and no cars were coming or going, so I got careless. The guy wrote me up for a 79 in a 60; said he got me with his laser. A couple of things were wrong with his story. I did not "see" his laser on the V1 and I had slowed down by the time the limit went from 65 to 65. I find it hard to argue in situations like that. In fact I was going 90-95 earlier, and I expect he just saw me rushing by and did an estimate. I deserved it.

Later that day I spent some nice time soaking in the hot springs in town.

[335dFan]

The group at the top of Wolf Creek Pass.

[335dFan]

Day 4 (3 Aug) I drove from Pagosa Springs to Flagstaff, via Durango, Gallup, etc. I stopped at Meteor Crater between Winslow and Flagstaff. Interesting place. Filled up in Flagstaff, achieving 39.9 mpg, including the high speed runs up Wolf Creek pass, and the short spurts that netted me the aforementioned ticket.

[AzureHaze]

Wow. Good turnout for such a rural area.

Sad trip about the run-in with the law though. Most of the speed limits in this country needs to be increased or we'll never get to have any fun! Responsibly that is.

[335dFan]

Day 5 (4 Aug) I drove from Flagstaff to Kanab UT, stopping at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on the way. For those of you who have driven from roughly Page AZ to Jacob's Lake near the North Rim, you will remember that the road that climbs out of the high desert near Vermillion Cliffs is steep and quite a bit of fun.

I am embarrassed to say that I got schooled in the art of driving by some unknown soul in kind of Ford Crossover. It may have been a Flex. Whatever it was, I could not keep up with him/her going up that road. I don't think it was lack of power. I suspect it was a combination of lack of nerves and lack of knowledge about the road and lack of skill, with the emphasis going to the latter deficiency. Since I already had one ticket under my belt, I had let him pass me on the flatland part and then tucked in respectfully behind him and let him be the rabbit. I had assumed I would just eat him alive going up the winding road ahead since I was aware of it, having driven up and down it one time before many years ago. Wrong-oh. The guy actually made it look easy. I was hoping to see him at the top so I could give him kudos for his skills. Just like with tennis and golf and skiing, the equipment does not make the man. I am sorry I let the clan down.

[335dFan]

Day 6 (5 Aug) was from Kanab UT to St George UT, with the main stopover being Zion National Park. A great hiking park.

[335dFan]

Day 7 (6 Aug) the trip started at St. George and ended in Green River UT, with a fill up in Cedar City and then cross country, stopping at Bryce Canyon National Park and a drive through of Capitol Reef National Park.

The fill up in Cedar City got me 39.15 mpg, from Flagstaff to Cedar City, high altitude, some higher speed runs, but also some poking along and coasting down mountain grades.

As I was climbing to the summit (see pic) from Escalante to Torrey UT, I had some strange limp mode occurrences, two in short order, I was not doing anything strange, the first set of two came about as I gently applied more power on a very slight incline. I have not looked up the codes yet.

The first set were:
4D35
54B8

I cleared them and proceed on. Shortly thereafter I got another single code (4B81) that I cleared and went on my way. Nothing since then. In a subsequent post you can see it did not affect the mileage in any way.

[335dFan]

A couple more from day 7 near Capitol Reef.

[335dFan]

Day 8 (7 Aug), bringing us up to date, was from Green River to Cisco, then down UT-128 along the Colorado River toward Moab, then another visit to Arches National Park, a fill up at Moab, then Canyonlands in the afternoon, then back to Green River for the night.

The fill up in Moab got me 40.272 mpg, including all the altitude driving from Cedar City up to yesterday noon, including the codes that were thrown.

Arches National Park and Canyonlands are worth seeing and hiking if you like to do that sort of thing.

Off to Provo UT today.

[F32Fleet]

Great read!

[Yozh]

Amazing. I wanna go on a road trip now. Parts of the US are beautiful.

PS: about that Ford, always nice to let a "sponsor" speed ahead. I find the "d" to be quite a heavy car on the windy bits and does not inspire a lot of confidence.

[335dFan]

Originally Posted by Yozh

Amazing. I wanna go on a road trip now. Parts of the US are beautiful.

PS: about that Ford, always nice to let a "sponsor" speed ahead. I find the "d" to be quite a heavy car on the windy bits and does not inspire a lot of confidence.

Yozh

I would agree but my suspension and tires are far from stock.