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We've already got one hotel room and ill decide Saturday who stays where. Will just be nice to get away as we were last there in October for a couple of days. We'll leave after a later lunch Monday as I've got to be back at work Tuesday morning. We're closed on Monday it seems but luckily, don't work Mondays.
Decided on taking the Hyundai as it's the newest vehicle in the family fleet and truthfully, it's super easy to drive and gets great fuel economy. Since I do all the driving up & back anyways, have no issue driving the kids vehicle. Has cruise control which is great. Probably will take the turnpike to Yeehaw Junction and then go in the back way to St. Cloud. Safer to go in daylight as it's pretty rural out there without many street lights & no gas stations. Would never do that drive at night though. And even though it'll save a good half hour, we're really in no rush at all since it is the holiday weekend.
2023 Hyundai Kona Limited AWD (wife) / 2015 Golf TSI (me) / 2019 Chevrolet Cruze Premier RS (daughter #1) / 2020 Hyundai Accent SE (daughter #2) / 2023 Subaru Impreza Base (son)
Had an unfortunate meeting with a small bird, I hope it was OK - left nary a trace on the car, when I drove back, didn't see any bird carnage. This road is undulating with a rough tar snake surface, so when there's nobody incoming, I move towards the middle/crown, as the edges are especially bad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMEy5zbHXn0
Hearing that makes me think of this classic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW63KKSUyU4
I may have spaced mentioning that I’m off on the Ohio trip now. Just made it to Ohio today, in fact, but not quite to our house yet. About 5,000 miles so far!
We left early in the morning (0200) on August 6th. Drove to Watson Lake, YT the first day. Stayed in a campground there. Second day took us to Buckinghorse River in BC. Third day, we stayed at a campground in Jasper National Park. On the fourth day, we crossed into US at Kingsgate (Idaho). My family went to Wallace, ID, and stayed in a cottage for a couple nights, while I went to my mother’s place in Salem to drop off my trailer.
After a short nap there, I drove back to Pendleton and visited with my father and brother for a couple hours, then drove up to Wallace. My family made up a nice dinner for my birthday and my wife made a wonderful apple pie!
Thursday had us crossing the mountains and staying in Sundance, WY. We pushed to around Des Moines IA and camped last night. Now we’re in Toledo. It was still a few hours to final destination, and made sense to call it a day. 🫣
Stay safe and keep us posted.
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I just did some some quick math and on the cars I’ve owned it is coming up under 400K. I did tons of driving in company cars and rentals but absolutely nowhere near 1M, probably not even close to 750K. I started driving in 1995.
2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Ram 1500 Bighorn, Built to Serve
Over a million, easily. (but, I've been driving for 48 years)
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This also afforded us the opportunity to stop by Hank's Frozen Custard stand near Meadville, PA, followed by a stay at a crazy hybrid RV/Trailer/Campground place near Erie. Thankfully, really nice weather for tenting at the moment... not too hot and not too humid!
Hello, Canada! 8/6/2022 @ ~0930 hrs
Stopped at Stone Mountain, which is just across the way from Summit Lake Campground (another nice place to camp and/or hike).
I keep telling my daughter that she is growing like a tree. Well, turns out I'm wrong. She is growing taller than the trees!!!!
Enjoying a beautiful stream at Stone Mountain
The edge of the ice field covering the mountains of Jasper National Park.
Miniature sunflowers growing as weeds in Sundance, Wyoming.
I'm telling you, they're tiny!
Gatehouse at Pymatuning
Sadly, I can only get mileage anywhere near this when I'm driving at or under 65 mph. In the interest of time, I kicked the speed up to 80 (SL through South Dakota is 75-80 along I-90), and I ended up at around 27 mpg on the day.
I found that I averaged around 18 with the trailer, 27 without it (but with the top carriers on), and I get 40+ strictly highway with the top clear.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Unfortunately, the on-board calculations seem to be all out of whack and extremely optimistic now. Not sure why. Calculated economy based on fills is typically 29-31. So, when on-board says I'm in high 30s or even 40, I'm actually about 25% under that. Still not terrible economy, I suppose. I run 600-700 miles per tank.
Well, here we are, on another road trip. This time, headed back home to Alaska. As per usual, we were burning the candle at both ends getting ready to leave.
We left at about 0800 on Wednesday morning from Conneaut, OH. The first day saw us to Elias’ neck of the woods on Michigan’s UP.
Our crazy convoy at dusk on the first day:
Dawn of day 2, on the shore of Lake Superior.
Day 2, we went the rest of the length of Michigan across the UP, across the top of Wisconsin, and into Minnesota. We stopped in western MN, at a little place called Wolf Lake.
We’re on day 3 now. At a little place called twelve mile dam outside of Miles City, MT.
Fairly nice weather so far! The sky was astoundingly gorgeous on the UP. So many stars…
It was a bit chilly that morning though:
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
Travel safe(ly).
Thanks for sharing!
2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Ram 1500 Bighorn, Built to Serve
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Thanks, y’all. Still driving; sorry I didn’t pop in earlier. We stayed along US12 in Idaho the night after Miles City. Almost unbelievably, it rained on us ALL THE WAY THROUGH Montana! Like 550 miles; I couldn’t believe it. However, the rain tapered off into Idaho, and the night at “Knife Edge” campground was beautiful (and warm) once again.
There were many large cedar trees in the forest, and it smelled soooo wonderful. I slept well that night.
We slipped into Oregon the next morning, visited my father and brother in Pendleton, then we headed off to Stayton to see my “moms.”
Strangely, both live in the same area now, and they both attended the birthday dinner my bio mom hosted for my daughter (15).
After that, I hastily prepped things for Monday morning tire appointments on the cars, then we repacked for the trip north.
Went to bed early yesterday and got up at midnight. Our goal was to be through Seattle by 0600, which we had no problem doing, and traffic was relatively light for us.
We’re now at Cache Creek, BC, and it isn’t quite noon yet! 🤭
Wife called me from the shower to tell me about it.
I told her to check the spot where she parked to see if there was fluid on the ground there and if so, have someone check under the hood.
She told one of my BIL's and he went out and checked and confirmed more fluid on the ground.
He then went out and bought some oil and a filter and they went to one of his son's house to investigate further.
Son opens the hood and dip stick is not seated and oil in engine compartment.
He cleaned it up a bit and they added some oil.
Wife got back yesterday and dipstick still seated and no additional oil leaking.
I cleaned up a bunch under the hood and checked the oil level which was ok.
Decided to clean the windshield which had some bugs on it, then decided to clean rear window too.
It was hard to clean and I realized there was oil on it and a couple of inched below in on the hatch.
Took a look underneath and there was a bunch of oil under there coating various components.
Went to the carwash and it's all cleaned off now.
I had the oil changed a couple of weeks ago, but I guess my local driving wasn't enough to cause any dripping on the ground. Will have to remember to check the dip stick after next change.
Could have been someone not seating the dipstick. Also possible there was excessive crankcase pressure that caused it to pop out. Given the age of the vehicle, hopefully (and more likely) the former.
Stayed the night in Quesnel, BC. We took a side excursion to see a space aptly named, “Chasm.” Seriously, this thing seems to appear out of nowhere. 🤨
Whew! Busy day yesterday.
Took some time to get to our intended stop, Bell Lodge on the Cassiar, but they snubbed us. Drove into the night and ended up stopping at some random pull off.
This morning, we stopped at Boya Lake for a bit. So beautiful there.
Then, just a short way onto the Alaska Highway, one of my roof panes exploded! Seemingly random; may have had something to do with gusty winds.
Stopped at a pullout to clean up the glass, but we were very lucky that my daughter had closed the sunshade some time earlier. We got some “glass dust,” as she called it, in the car, but the shade caught all of the chunks.
Then, stopped in Teslin to seal it up. We ended up taking all of the stuff off the top of the car, and my wife and son figured out how to squeeze it all into the trailer so we would not have to get it back on top.
Life’s little adventures, eh? 🤦♂️