Above: The TDI on the lift after an oil change last weekend.
I’m heading down to San Francisco next week. I’ll be speaking at Macworld Expo’s “Mac IT Conference”… so “why…” do you ask, “is this post listed under “Cars?”
Well, I did the math and the round trip drive should cost about $80*, as opposed to the $300 or so to fly. Go figure.
* roughly 2000 miles all told, which in my car should be around 40 gallons… figure $2.00 a gallon on a 40% mixture of my homebrew.
So I’m tossing about 25 gallons of my pre-mixed homebrew into the TDI’s trunk. Luggage will go in the back seat. I’ll pump half a tank of hot oil into the tank and pull out of Arlington in the pre-dawn darkness Sunday morning. Here is the route I plan on taking.
Knowing me so well, I suggest you guys make some guesses as to:
Total elapsed time, door to door (Arlington, WA, to downtown San Francisco)
Average speed.
Number of fueling stops. (car & driver)
Number of “pit” stops (driver)
Number of encounters with Local Constabulary.
Number of Issued Citations.
Anything else you think I may have left out.
I’ll also (hopefully) have a surprise for the blog if everything works out right. Stay tuned.
–chuck
now my guesses seem so wrong for the speeds I experience here… so knowing the average speed will be high… here goes
1 – 11.25 hours for 855 miles gives… give or take a bit gives average of
2 – 76mph
3 – 2
4 – 3 – that bad food before you go… 😉
5 – 4
6 – 2
Jerome
My guesses:
Elapsed Time: 10 hours, 5 minutes
Average Speed: Driving: 90mph Total Average: 81.4mph
Fuel Stops: 1 full tank, 1 partial.
Pit Stops: 1
Run-ins with the Law: 0
Issued Citations: 0
Elapsed Time: 10 hours and 55 minutes
Average Speed: 85 mph
Fuel Stops: 2
Pit stops: 1 (3 total including fuel stops)
Run-ins with the law: 1
Issued citations: 1
Total elapsed time 12:15 (twelve hours, fifteen minutes)
Left my house at 3:10am, arrived at the SF Marriott at 3:25pm
Average speed 70.666 MPH.
Fuel stops: 3
5 gallons (from jerry can) in Jantzen Beach, Oregon
4.9 gallons from pump in some little Oregon town (the temp dropped radically in the hills below the Siskyous and I needed to thin my oil mixture)
9.9 gallon in Vacaville, CA (5 gallons from jerry can, 4.9 from pump)
Pit stops: 3
Two pee breaks and one look-see under my hood to check my air filter box duct-tape repair job
Run-ins with the law: 0
Issued Citations: 0
BUT, my overall slowish time was attributable to a significant number of Highway Patrolman out on the road, especially in California. More than I have ever seen here. I rolled up behind one, while going 100 MPH but recognized the silhouette of the Crown Vic from 2/10ths of a mile away and slowed up before he saw me. I paced him @ 80 MPH for easily 50 miles. :\
I did have several instances where the detector saved me from certain citation.
Average speeds (which includes stops… which you guys did not factor in!) on a per-hour basis were:
62.5 (I had a ~10 minute interlude where I stopped for a panic wallet search a few miles from my house!)
73.5
77
64
73
65
77
78
65
89
78
46
The first half of the trip was into a 40+ MPH headwind. This and my lead foot caused my worst mileage EVER in my car. 42.9 MPG.
–chuck
hey I did Ok! must have put the mockers on ya Chuck with my guesses
so can we guess going the other way as well?? presume it is slower as its all uphill?
Jerome