From our driveway to Chicago and back again we drove 5,758.5 miles. We averaged just under 8 hour days in the car and covered about 442 miles for an overall average speed of 58 mph. Of course you know what they say about averages: put your head on a block of ice and your feet in a fire and you are pretty comfortable, on average. Our longest day was the drive from Rock Springs, Wyoming to Grand Island, Nebraska. We covered 629 miles that day in 10:32. Our fastest day was Joplin, Missouri to Tucumcari, New Mexico; we were determined to get through Oklahoma and Texas. We succeeded by averaging over 66 mph. Carla and I will spend more time in that area when we do our full on Route 66 trip.
The biggest surprise to me was that we averaged less than 60 miles per hour. Stopping for gas and lunch is a big leveler from driving 70-80 MPH.
My biggest complaint with my blogging service (Google’s Blogspot) is the inability to easily manage tables. The data below came from a Google Docs spreadsheet but it was nigh on impossible to convert it for use on the blog. So, I had to take a picture of the screen. If anyone has tips on managing tables in Blogspot, I’d love for you to drop me a note in the comments section.
Here are the statistics for our three sections:
We are home and are itching to get out on the road again. Looking back, our Route 66 trip from Los Angeles to Gallup, New Mexico was seven years ago! We need to get out and do the whole drive.
