We left Arizona for New Hampshire on November 22nd 2013, and returned to Arizona January 4th, 2014
We ran an awful lot of miles in those six-ish weeks.
We started the trip at 31209.5 miles... I took a pic of it, but apparently deleted it.
We ran a rather unusual route, attempting to avoid ice storms, and instead ended up driving in them the whole way:
Kearny, AZ - Departure point
Tucson, AZ
Las Cruces, NM
El Paso, TX - Stopped for the zero night (5 hours after leaving Kearny)
Pecos, TX - Stopped for the first full day, with an ice storm closing the highway
Dallas, TX
Little Rock, AR
Memphis, TN
Nashville, TN
Knoxville, TN
Johnson City, TN - Overnight for day 2-3, Mels Birthday, spent with her aunt and uncle
Waynesboro, VA - Overnight for day four (short day, left J.City late)
Harrisburg, PA
New York, NY
New Haven, CT
Providence, RI
Braintree, MA - Overnight day five
Weymouth, MA - Thanksgiving, spent with my dad
New Hampton, NH - Destination, my aunt Helen
We hit New Hampton New Hampshire six days later, having driven 3151.5 miles:
Then, we spent the next month driving to hell and gone over New England, from Northern New Hampshire to Connecticut and most points in between.
By the time we started the trip back to Arizona:
We had managed to drive 2677 miles.
Our trip back to Arizona was once again fraught with unexpected ice storms most of the way, and complicated with both Mel and I having the flu, so this time we deliberately decided to take it easy. We also chose to avoid the interstate where possible, routing like this:
New Hampton, NH: Depart 12am day zero
Rochester, NY: arrive 7am day one, sleep til 4pm, dinner with friends, depart 11pm
Cleveland, OH: stopped early in nasty ice storm, overnight day 1, departed late, in snow
McComb, IL: Arrive late in nasty ice storm, overnight day 2, departed late in snow
Topeka, KS: Arrive early to avoid new years lunatics, overnight day 3, departed late, in snow
Hays, KS: Stopped for lunch in Blizzard, waited 2 hours, had lunch and departed late in blizzard
Colorado Springs, CO: Arrived 8pm for dinner, overnight day 4, left late after visiting with family
Santa Fe, NM: Arrived 7pm for dinner, overnight day 5, left late after working
Mesa, AZ: Arrive after full day 6, with timezone change, exactly 6 days to the minute after we left NH
Total milage, 3071, total time 6 days, 8 family members and 11 friends visited.
Finally, after picking up our truck from Kearny, we dropped the rental off:
... and THAT is a major reason why we didn't want to take our own truck for the housefinding trip.
Another 9k in mileage and maintenance aside, we would have averaged 16-17mpg of diesel (we avg over 20mpg highway, but city and idling with the heater on aren't great for diesel mileage), which is $0.50-$0.60 percent more expensive per gallon. 535 gallons of diesel at $3.80, that's more than $500 extra in fuel alone.
