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I pushed the Crosstrek last week... we needed to make a trip to Erie and were running slim on time. My wife gets behind the wheel and says, "I think we need to fill up." I told her to wait, we weren't going that far and had "plenty!" of fuel, so we made the trip, did a bunch of stop/go here-to-there stuff in Erie itself, and were about half way home when I said, "You know, I haven't seen this car show no bars on the fuel gauge before. I wonder how many miles to empty it is reading?" We changed the read out to show DTE, and it just said "--". LOL
I stopped in Girard, PA, to fill up, and we ended up putting in 15.4 gallons.... which is still 1.5 gallons shy of the stated tank capacity.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
A tank size of about 17 gallons is pretty good for a vehicle like a crosstrek.
Probably has some pretty good range.
IIRC, it could regularly run close to 500 miles comfortably. We don't usually get that while on long trips due to having it loaded down (especially with exterior carriers), but it still does pretty good. I think we probably averaged around 29 on the trip down here, with a tank or two well above or below that depending on conditions. Montana is a killer when it comes to fuel economy.
I'm a little surprised, but I think the replacement bumper core I put in there last winter had a fairly substantial effect on the fuel economy. Local driving here, such as a run over to Edinboro or Geneva, used to show at about 36 mpg on the indicator. Now, that's around 33 mpg. I suppose the tires could also have an effect (we had the stock tires on it last time, which were pretty worn out), but those are the only two things that are different from our last trip here with the car.
BTW, I really dislike the tires, Continental TerrainContact, and will definitely not be buying them again. In fact, this is it for Continental. I had a set of their winter tires previously, and they were, hands down, the poorest performers in all categories of any winter tire I've tried (and I've tried nearly all of them). For the TCs, they have terrible traction in cold/icy/snowy conditions (even for an all-season), they don't grip well in muddy conditions (ironically?), and if they don't offer decent fuel economy (maybe, maybe not), then what's the point? My other "all terrain" tires (on the Forester) are Yokohama Geolandar A/Ts, and they are, comparatively, phenomenal. I really like those tires, and they are even pretty decent as year-rounders (in Fairbanks, Alaska!).
If you are taking I-81 to I-70 on the way to Ohio from NC, consider getting off at 522 around College Park, VA.
On I-81, you are headed Northeast to get to I-70 which then goes Northwest.
522 cuts the corner, although the speeds are lower, down to 25 at some points.
It's a good decompression break from the interstate and has plenty of places to fuel up or whatever.
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My gut feeling is that he would be coming from more to the east part of NC.
I'm sure he will let us know.
So, I am in Raleigh now. My brother will come up from Jacksonville, which is on the southeastern shore of NC, to get me this evening (about two hours away, according to him). I haven't planned the trip home yet, but I think I will head up on Sunday (which shouldn't, hopefully, be too busy given the holiday weekend). I did drive down to Denton, NC, a few years ago to pick up my enclosed trailer with the Q7, but that was on the more inward side of NC, so I took I79 for much of that down through Morgantown, WV - beautiful country through the mountains in West Virginia!
I am picking up the 2013 F250 that my brother bought in early July. I paid for half of it with the agreement that I get it for August/Sept in order to assist with our work in Ohio. He just got to keep it a couple extra weeks this year because it's been a struggle to coordinate the trip down. This weekend would have been a bust again, but I just went ahead and bought a plane ticket so that I could do a solo trip while my wife and daughter do other things that she apparently scheduled a while ago (yet failed to mention until Saturday). I just happened to overhear her chatting with a friend about it, and my ears perked up!
Yeah, there is NO WAY I would drive the '76 any appreciable distance without doing a very thorough overhaul on it; it is definitely outside of its element at speeds any faster than 5 miles per hour!
Anyhow, I'll just hang out at his place tomorrow (he works, as do I albiet remotely), then we are going to go through the truck on Saturday morning and change driveline fluids and whatnot on it, hang out for the afternoon, then I'll head out early Sunday for the day trip back to Conneaut.
I was pretty shocked that there was that much left on my range, as my brother indicated that the truck got closer to 18 mpg with a total range of around 700 miles. I was *hoping* to make it to Ohio as diesel is far more reasonably priced here than in PA or VA (about a dollar cheaper, for whatever reason!), but not fully expecting I would. However, looking at the actual usage stats was a bit more sobering, as it still only got about 19.5 mpg....
Anyhow, it runs beautifully and the tune on it is spectacular. It is smooth, powerful, and doesn't smoke a bit. We changed out the engine oil, transfer case fluid, and power steering fluid while we had it at the hobby shop at Camp Lejeune, but we were not able to do the front and rear axles due to a lack of a drain plug in the differential covers! I was really surprised by that.... I thought having to pull differential covers to change fluid was a thing that went out ages ago. So, I went ahead and ordered some aftermarket Yukon covers that have drain and fill plugs, so at least the pulling will be a one-time deal.
Here is the truck "at home" in Conneaut:
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
On the road trip note, specifically local trips, man one can tell that school has started up again, it seems traffic gets significantly worse this time of year especially in the afternoon.
Monday, 10 hours from San Diego to Redding; Tuesday, 10 hours from Redding to Cheney.
Didn't hear anything about the Jetta, so I'm guessing there weren't any problems.
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
After this year, he's off to a different school for his PhD program. He's applied to:
U. of Washington
Washington State
U. of Oregon
UC Davis
UC Santa Cruz (go Banana Slugs!)
UC Riverside
UC San Diego
Arizona State
U. of Arizona
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
I want to say English Literature, but I’m not 100% certain.
Pretty sure he wants to teach at the college level.
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
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(Time elapsed does not count stopping time)
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Game is at 3:30, so we should get back before midnight.
Averaged about 22.4 mpg in the Explorer for the trip.
That included some horrendous traffic. At one point, it took about 1 1/2 hours to got 10 miles on CT.
No accidents just traffic.
One thing I learned is that my odometer is undermeasuring the miles by 2.5%.
I checked the odometer against the mile markers every 10 miles for 80 miles.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
And, funny thing about the deer! I had a close call with a herd of wood bison up near Liard Hot Springs at about 2300 hours (after driving since 0500 that morning). It was a real adrenaline-pumper, and I had it on video! But, somehow lost it. It really happened, though... honest!
Some people are confused about which lanes to go through, electronic or cash.
Also heard that sometimes EZ Pass transponders were not being read.
Decided look at my EZ Pass reports for the last few months.
Latest report as of Oct 8th was not available, nor was April 8th report but printed off all the other months between those 2.
Illinois was a mess. Got charged for April tolls on the May 8th report, no problem.
Next month and the month after that, each of the April charges was billed and reversed again.
No real harm but a bit confusing.
Most expesive toll was PA Turnpike, just under $20 for just a few hours on it, not even close to the whole length of it..
Regarding tolls, I once got a bill for a 520 bridge toll in Seattle. I called in about it, as I wasn't there - they reviewed the data and found the plate was indeed different and the car in question was a BMW.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
Our jalopy, at some random rest area on I75 through Michigan.
Amsoil, in Superior, Wisconsin, just across the river from Minnesota (Duluth).
Beautiful afternoon on US-2 in, I think, western Minnesota (could have been eastern North Dakota).
Sunrise in eastern Alberta, about an hour shy of Edmonton.
Dawson Creek, BC, and the "world famous" Alaska Highway!
"Greetings, snow!" Near Buckinghorse River Provincial Park, BC, on the afternoon of 10/4.
Above and below.... Gorgeous skies outside of Haines Junction, YT (near Kluane Lake).
Kind of a cool photo with an old-timey feel. Kluane Lake, YT.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
Glad the journey went well, once again.
On the way back, I drove through Lagrange but didn't see any of those nice girls as I stuck to the main street and went by the police station.
A reference to the old CCR song, Stuck in Lodi Again.
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