10/17/10: Trip in Review
5,965 miles averaging 36.4mpg. Not bad for a 12 year old car with over 180,000 miles already on it.
We crossed the continental divides 7 times. Seven? How did we get home if we crossed a line an odd number of times?
Turns out there are several continental divides, including a divide basin where water doesn't run anywhere.
We saw a sign in passing saying "Continental Divide" a third of the way across North Dakota. "What!?" I wondered. I asked the elderly greeter at the State Museum in Bismarck. It turns out that we'd passed its complement without fanfare in Minnesota, entering the Hudson Bay watershed, and then exiting it again in North Dakota. Yes, we were on the downhill side of the continent toward the North Pole for a few hundred miles without knowing it!
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Mileage Details: We left home in our 1998 Mazda Protege with the odometer reading 178,960. 163.8 gallons later we end up at 184,925 miles. Gas prices ran from $2.75 to $3.67, depending on location. We did see $3.99 regular, but didn't have to buy, up there.
We also got a couple of tanks of 85% octane; better in the mountains than lowland regular at 87%.
We stopped to see 7 state capitols: Bismarck, Helena, Sacramento, Carson City, Salt Lake City, Cheyenne, Lincoln.
We neglected to stop for 4 others that were practically on the way: Des Moines, St. Paul (we stayed overnight only 4 miles away), Olympia, and Salem (drove through).
We took 3,329 pictures and video clips on the road. So be happy that we're only showing you the few that I find most evocative.
When we got back I had quite a few order waiting for me. Even though I had put an "out of studio till..." note on MrTitanium.com.
Although I had put an "out of studio till..." note on MrTitanium.com \(http://mrtitanium.com/art4sale.html\), several people placed orders that I filled over the weekend.
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This wasn't a vacation so much as a journey. Exhausting and interesting.
Larger image and brighter thumbnail of overall trip (edited in 2021!)
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