Another non-RV XC road trip, in reverse

Azjeff

Active member
You all might remember in May when the dealer finally got our new truck in I was on the road from Arizona to Baltimore with a friend in a POS Uhaul van pulling a car trailer. 2400 miles up on the wheel of that 11 year old 100k mile piece of junk. Only good thing I can say is it made it.

Well wife and I just got back from making the trip in reverse bringing daughter's belongs back to Az. There was nothing good about the situation there except the SIL's new job and he's still able to work remote so they decided to cut and run and work things out when his employer decides to call people back into the office.

Last Tuesday daughter flew back to Az, I picked her up from the shuttle at 2 pm. She stayed at our place with the dogs.
Last Wednesday at 6am wife and I boarded local regional jet at local airport and flew to Denver then on to BWI where we were picked up by SIL at 3.30pm local. Straight to Home Depot to pick up a Penske van, this time a 2021 GMC 6.6 gas, 4,618 on the odo with a 16' box and a car dolly to pull the Mazda CX-5. They lived 10 minutes away. Got there and started loading by 5pm and were done at 7.30 just as the Uber showed up to take SIL to motel near airport to fly out Thursday morning for Az. We drove out of the Baltimore suburbs and stopped at Harper's Ferry WV overnight. Hit I-81 South early Thursday down through Virginia and into Tennessee then turned west on I-40 and arrived here yesterday at 11.30am, had lunch and unloaded in an hour. We had overnight stops at Mt. Juliet Tn, Henryetta Ok, and Albuquerque. 2,390 miles with 3 days over 600 and last one around 450. Dash indicated MPH average was 62.1 and MPG looks like 10.3 probably. It ran at 2200 rpm at 70. We ran on cruise between 67-70 and sometimes when needing to pass or get out of a pod of traffic travelling together would hit the speed limiter at 75. 3 hour shifts driving worked out well for gas and BR stops. The biggest question marks on the trip were what the next gas station was going to be like. There are a bunch of dirty run down major brand stations across the US. I'd rate Love's Travel Stops #1 by a long shot followed by Pilot followed by every other brand name. The 2 Valeros we stopped at were just nasty.

We timed it so I drove through the major cities but she drove her share, I'd say it was probably 60/40 overall. The I-40 bridge is out over the Mississippi at Memphis and we tried 2 different detour routes out and back, both slightly annoying and both through less than desirable areas. Nashville was a surprise, it's much more urban city than I'd have thought with tall buildings and new construction obvious. Both of us drove through 1 torrential downpour. Western Arkansas looked nice. Thousands of windmills in Texas and Oklahoma. Places in Texas and Oklahoma so flat and featureless you could watch your dog run away for a week.

It was a good road trip, glad to be home and have daughter back here, and nice to find out we can still do this. We decided 600 miles is about as much as we want to go in a day. Rest day today.
 
MPG looks like 10.3 probably
I would say that's darn good with a completely non-aerodynamic box truck pulling a car. I'll bet it had plenty of power!

I'd rate Love's Travel Stops #1 by a long shot followed by Pilot followed by every other brand name.
After traveling all around the country, I believe the management at Loves should be commended for leading the company in the right direction. They seem to have an edict that all stores will be well lit, large, clean, and have friendly employees. We have found that pretty much all Loves are this way and hands down better than every other fueling stop. I'll bet you lunch that every year each Loves has multiple unannounced inspections, then corporate has a sit-down with the manager to discuss the successes and failures found in the inspection. We don't buy fuel at Loves very often, because they reduced the diesel discount to $0.16/gal for our TSD fuel card, while Petro/TA discount is much better. Petros are pretty good and TAs are generally pretty bad, but do have cheaper fuel.

Glad your trip went well and you are all home safely!
 
I wondered what your thoughts would be about the different places. We did find a sub-par Love's, in south Memphis on the detour route but it was in a neighborhood that was really sketchy. There was a piece of equipment near the doors that looked like one of those mobile spotlight towers they use on road construction, only on top of the mast were 4 surveillance cameras. It said "property of MPD" on it.:oops: Not a place I'd want to stop at night.

It had good power and the tranny programming was spot on, no double downshifts and it would shift up early as soon as the grade was levelling off. I didn't use the Tow button at all.
 
There was a piece of equipment near the doors that looked like one of those mobile spotlight towers they use on road construction, only on top of the mast were 4 surveillance cameras. It said "property of MPD" on it.:oops:
:oops:

I've never seen a camera tree like that.

The truck probably shift just like yours :) Glad it was pleasing to drive.
 
Life's an adventure or nothing at all.. so the saying goes! lol I'd love to drive a 6.6L and compared it to our 6.0L. Our last trip 80% of our gas fillups were Pilots no issues, now Flying J's the two times we used them the pumps didn't work right. Used Maverick once now I love their layout. Stayed away from all the others.
 
Some additional numbers, Gas cost was $701 for $.29/mile. Lowest per gallon was $2.75 in Tennessee and highest was $3.28 in Williams Az.
 
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