The NUMBERS (tm)

We realize, of course, that this blog remains thoroughly incomplete. For that we sincerely apologize, but be assuaged partially by the fact that the final days of our trip consisted primarily of driving and very little sightseeing. That does not excuse our tardiness, obviously, but hopefully it allows you and the rest of our adoring fans to calm your bated breath.

Now that we're back home in Chicago I've been able to assemble some statistics that you might enjoy.

In 22 days, we traveled approximately 6,950 miles, visited 17 states, saw 49 state license plates, crossed and re-crossed 2 time zones, visited 13 (I think) national parks and monuments, and ate over 6 metric tons of nutri-grain and/or nature valley bars. We burned 255.825 gallons of gasoline, a sum nearly 27 gallons, or 12%, higher than we had anticipated. Given that however, we spent about as much as we thought we would on gas, some $956.20. The average price we paid per gallon was in the neighborhood of $3.75, just 7 cents higher than the national average during that period. We averaged a little better than 27 miles per gallon (27.167mpg), which is about 2 miles per gallon higher than the national gas mileage average for all personal vehicles.

We spent a mere $211.04 on campsites over 10 days, an average of $21.10 per night, and in comparison, a staggering $331.00 on three hotels, an average of $110.33 per night. The total cost of lodging for 23 nights comes to $542.04 (almost exactly what we projected), an average per night of only $23.57.

So we did pretty well, as far as dollars go. The final blog posts will be posted in the coming days, so stay tuned!