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drive west, then east

June 1st, 2006 | general, autos

I just got back from a trip out to Portland. Since moving out there, PDF had been living with paper plates and a sleeping bag…oh and his computer of course. I loaded up a U-Haul 5×8 trailer and then loaded anything else I could into Envoy and was off.

The aero of the trailer + weight of the load + severe weather wind gusts advisories + generally poor SUV mileage all played aa part in averaging 8-11 MPG on the trip out to Portland. The way back was much easier MPG-wise: no trailer + unloaded SUV + gentle west wind helped the MPG to a wonderful mid-20s average. During the trip out I was stopping for gas about every 150 miles. On the way home I could drive 350-400 miles between fill-ups.

I left WI Monday and got to Portland Wednesday. Initially the plan was to start for home Saturday morning. Almost an hour into the journey back I got a tele call to turn around and come back to Portland due to snow in the Idaho and Montana mountains. this turned out to be good for two reasons: 1. the weather coming back was near perfect the whole trip 2. staying in Portland for the weekend gave me time to help PDF buy a TV so I could watch the F1 Monaco G.P. and Indy 500 on Sunday.

Due to my general dislike for hotels I was determined to make the return home a one-stop trip. After stopping in Bozeman, MT Monday night I decided to drive throughout Tuesday night. I made it home at 4:30am Wednesday morning. Rock.

To sum up the trip: The N.D. Badlands are cool. Montana east of Billings sucks. Montana west of Billings is quite scenic. Best Western is better than Days Inn. I hate the Tri-Cities area of WA. It rained almost the whole time I was in Portland, with sun in the forecast as soon as I left.

Total purchases while in Portland: new Snow Patrol CD, Kasabian CD, F1 Racing magazine.

Trip costs: 3 nights in hotels (2 out, 1 back): $232.84
Gas going west: $401.11
Gas coming back east: $271.11
5×8 U-Haul trailer: $283.80

Overall the drive was fun, PDF’s apmt is quite nice, and I listened to lots of CDs. While the Envoy was quite comfy to drive, next time I’d like to make the trip in an Audi A3 3.2S. Oh, and even though it gave me no problems what-so-ever, I’d like to drive the Audi without a U-Haul trailer attached.

3 Comments

  1. PDF
    June 1st, 2006 at 9:33 pm

    You forgot to mention how nice it is to drive through north Idaho, seeing as it takes about five minutes. Give or take…

  2. matches
    June 2nd, 2006 at 7:23 am

    Seeing how fast I could get through Idaho would be my primary reason for even going to Portland. I might just turn around as soon as I got to Washington, and just see how many times back and forth I can make it on a tank of gas.

    Instead of all that, though, I’d still rather spend the extra money and just fly out. I’m not nor have I ever been a fan of driving long (5+ hours) distances.

  3. Leroy
    July 12th, 2006 at 4:14 pm

    You hate the Tri-Cities? YOU hate the Tri-Cities?? Listen, I have to LIVE in the Tri-Cities. You don’t know hatred for the Tri-Cities until you’ve lived there for 16 years with no choice but to say because your parents would never even consider moving to another city, or a city rather. I have such contempt for this rural piece of crap, I created an entire page about it on my Web site: http://www.sorryaboutleroy.com/tricities05.htm. Check it out.

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