Category: 2012roadtrip

I was skeptical, but the things actually work well. Twenty-nine days, through some of the hottest parts of the country at the hottest time of year. Vegas at 110-degrees and hiking the Grand Canyon were the biggest tests and the Magic Underwear performed flawlessly. It took only a couple minutes each night to wash and rinse that day’s pair – I found that the hotel’s shampoo worked well for that.  By the next morning, that pair was usually dry from hanging on the shower rod.  If it wasn’t, a brief stint with the hair dryer provided by the hotel typically sufficed to put it right.

And if there was no hair dryer, then it would dry well if placed on top of things in my duffel bag for the days driving.

They’re extremely lightweight and roll up to practically nothing, but they’re quite comfortable, and feel fresh and clean the next day.

But, even though it’s only a few minutes each night, I probably won’t use them again for a roadtrip where I can easily pack more than two pair of underwear without a problem.  Or, if I do bring them, they’ll be the emergency undies in case I run into a long stretch between washing machines.  After ten or twelve hours of driving, even a few minutes feels like a lot of work.

Where space and weight are an issue, though, these’ll definitely be packed and put to use.  Hiking, camping, multi-day kayaking trips … for those, the magic underwear will be along.  Especially for kayaking, where I imagine an hour trailing behind the boat in a mesh bag will do the trick without any effort on my part.

Honestly, for those activities I can’t now even imagine using anything else, and I’d like to find other clothing that cleans as easily and dries as quickly.  I’d pack nothing else. In fact, maybe the next trip will be done with only two outfits of similar fabrics.  That could be interesting.

Well … after driving over 9700 miles in 28 days, I think I can now offer an opinion about the Toyota Prius.

The gas mileage is obviously its most outstanding feature, averaging 46.8 mpg over the 9700 miles.  This is lower than the advertised 50 mpg, but I didn’t baby the mileage.  When the speed limit was 80 mph in Texas, I pushed the little car to 80.  I’m sure if I’d kept my speed in the 55-60 mph range, the mileage would have been even better.

As it is, I’m quite happy with almost 47 mpg. 

There were several segments where I averaged 60+ mpg over 100- and 200-mile stretches.

The Prius handled interstates and steep, windy, mountain roads equally well.  The small size didn’t bother me on the interstates, even when surrounded by large trucks, and it was an advantage on the smaller roads.  I’ve never been more comfortable driving in the mountains than in the Prius.

In fact, the Prius was pretty fun to drive down those roads, with the added thrill of seeing the mpg graph pegged at 100 for 20+ miles in some cases. 

It was far more comfortable to drive over that distance than I expected.  We went through some of the hottest areas of the country at the hottest time of year and the Prius’ air conditioner kept up with no problems.  It cooled the car quickly and kept it that way, no matter 100+ temperatures outside.

Despite two people, luggage for a month, snacks, drinks, and purchases loaded into the car, there was no sense of crowding. 

The driver’s seat, which I sat in for 9716 of the 9717 miles (Aryn drove for a mile before I realized I just can’t be a passenger), was very comfortable.  I had no back or leg pain at all for the entire trip, despite some days where it was all driving for ten or twelve hours between destinations.

The only problem with the car was with the tire-pressure sensors and I’m still not sure what happened.  Sometime after Albuquerque and the first (5000-mile) maintenance, the warning light began coming on intermittently. 

I checked the pressure, but all four tires registered with 30+ pounds of pressure.  It started in Grand Canyon, but the light went away between Grand Canyon and Vegas.  It was off on the drive from Vegas to San Luis Obispo, but came back on for the drive to San Francisco.  Every time I checked the pressure, it seemed okay, staying above 30-pounds – maybe a little low, but not too bad, and with no idea where a station with nitrogen might be in the rural areas we were traveling in.

When it was still on as we left San Francisco, I looked up the next dealer and made a stop.  When I got out of the car in the dealer’s service line, the driver’s side front tire was completely flat.  I’d just checked them when we got breakfast a few miles prior, and it had been, still, 30+ pounds.

So the dealer found a tear in the sidewall and I had to buy a new tire, which isn’t a defect in the Prius, but I’m still confused about the warning light (which never came on again), the consistently high pressure, even when the light was on, and the suddenly flat tire.

The second service of the trip (10,000 miles) came due in South Dakota, so I waited until the stay in Grand Forks to have it done.  No trouble found and the tire pressure warning light didn’t come on after that service.

There was a single instance of freeway merging where I wished the Prius had just a bit more power than it does, and some of the uphill mountain driving and in San Francisco seemed to be a struggle, but the car did handle things without a problem. 

So now that the Prius is all broken in, it’s time to start planning next summer’s trip:

Of the twenty-eight nights in hotels for this trip, I booked twenty of them through Priceline.  Checking the forums on BiddingForTravel gave me an idea of what winning bids were like for a given area, rather than blindly trying to figure out where to start the bids. 

In addition, their FAQ about bidding gave valuable advice about how to use the zones in an area to bid and rebid.  I didn’t use their advice feature on this trip – where you can post information about where you want to stay and they’ll advise you on a bidding strategy to get the best price.  On some future trips when I know exactly when I’ll be in each area I’ll give that a try.

We got some awesome deals on this trip, averaging 50% off the list price for the hotels booked through Priceline, which was over $1400 in savings.

The average cost per night was $70 for the Priceline bookings.

In addition, Priceline and BiddingForTravel saved us almost $500 in real money on the nights purchased through Priceline.

“Real” money being what was paid in comparison to what I’d budgeted (different than the list price of the hotel).  A good portion of that savings was eaten up by more expensive stays where I didn’t use Priceline – those stays were often more than I’d budgeted, so I shudder at the thought of what would have happened to the budget if I hadn’t used Priceline.

The biggest impact Priceline and BiddingForTravel had on the trip, though, I can’t stress enough – upgrading from the motels I’d originally planned on made things a lot more comfortable and enjoyable.  Staying at Courtyards and Crowne Plazas is a lot different than Motel 6 and Super 8.

There were only five stops during the trip where we didn’t use Priceline to book the hotel:

Grand Canyon	All the hotels with 2.5-stars or better were above my budget ($160+), so I had to head down to 1-stars.  At that level, I wanted to be able to pick the room, rather than wind up with one queen bed.
Seattle	Not really Seattle, since where we needed to stay was far north of the city (about an hour).  Since I didn’t know the area, I didn’t want to commit to a hotel.  It turned out to be a good decision, because the area I originally made a reservation for was too far north and we wound up about midway between Seattle and Anacortes (where the ferry was).
West Yellowstone	This was a sudden change of plans – had planned to go back to Bozeman for the night, but coming out of the park and facing a 1.5-hour drive we decided to just pay the extra to stay just outside the park. It should be noted that the savings we’d already achieved through Priceline let us make that decision, save three hours of driving, and have a much nicer second day in Yellowstone.
Rapid City, SD	This was a long driving day and we weren’t sure how far we’d make it.  I tried late in the evening to get a good deal in Rapid City when it looked like we’d make it there, but there were none available.  A major fire in South Dakota had firefighters from all over the country flying in, so rooms were at a premium.
Grand Forks, ND	With only one zone, this is an area you need to try booking earlier than the day before to find a deal.  With time and patience, I’d have been able to get a deal here, but didn’t have the time.

Overall, the time spent researching rates on BiddingForTravel and bidding on Priceline is well worth the effort.  They’ll be my first stop for all future hotel stays.

This trip was amazing.  Every day was incredibly full of things to do and see.  On the ride home it seemed like we’d only just started and that we’d been on the road forever.  The Painted Desert seemed like it was months ago.

Once we crossed back into Florida on I75 from Atlanta, we passed the interchange with I10 – our route out of Florida a month ago.  I turned to Aryn and asked, “Want to go again?”

I do.

There’s no place we went that I don’t want to return to and spend a week or two.  I’d been saying that, except for Carlsbad, for most of the trip, but thinking now, even Carlsbad would be fun for a week – exploring the other, non-touristy caverns.  The ones you need a helmet and lamp to go through.

Then there’s the places we didn’t go … Death Valley, Yosemite, Glacier, Grand Teton, Salt Lake, the Great Lakes, the Mississippi Basin … hell, we skipped all of Colorado.  Aryn thought she’d seen mountains after visiting Shenandoah years ago … now she thinks Shasta and Ranier, but she still hasn’t seen a full range of peaks that never thaw.

And that’s all just west of the Mississippi.

Budget & Schedule

So when I got home I downloaded all the transactions from the bank and totaled them up.  I’m amazed. 

When I was planning, I set the hotel budget based on the lowest price I could find in the different cities for one- and two-star hotels … Motel 6, Super 8, etc.  I added 20% for taxes, parking, “resort fees”, etc. 

Thanks to BiddingForTravel and Priceline, we stayed in 2.5- and 3-star hotels … Courtyard, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza.  The total for hotels was $200 more than I’d budgeted without taxes and other fees and hundreds of dollars less than the total budget for hotel nights.

Several hundred dollars under budget on food, as well, and we ate pretty well.  I’d told Aryn we’d be eating all Subway all the time, and there were a few days of that, but we were also able to have some wonderful meals – the crepes in Albuquerque, Fisherman’s Wharf … not to mention Vegas … which I can’t, because what happens at a Vegas buffet stays at the Vegas buffet.

I went over my entertainment budget by $58.91.  Well, $57.09 if Aryn would give me back the $1.82 she has left from Mall of America …

But … damn … we did a lot.  All the national parks, three shows in Vegas, Monterey Aquarium, horses in San Francisco, kayaking, more horses and rafting, all the things we did in Atlanta, not to mention a shopping spree at Mall of America. 

All of the gas charges haven’t cleared yet (they’re still at $1), but it looks like that will be under or very close to the $700 I budgeted.  It was originally $600, but I raised it when we added San Francisco and Seattle. 

The Mapquest estimate for the trip was 8,000 miles – it wound up being 9,717.  This was because of how I put things into Mapquest.  Between San Francisco and Seattle, we went to the Lava Beds and Crater Lake, but I put that into Mapquest as just San Francisco to Seattle.  Also we stayed an hour north of Seattle and our destination for kayaking was an hour north of that.  So there was a lot of driving that wasn’t part of the Mapquest route.

We went over on time too.  We were supposed to be back on 7/24, but arrived on 7/27.  Since there were three free nights built into the original schedule, that’s six nights over on the schedule.  Three were intentional … Austin, Albuquerque, and Vegas had nights added early on.  The other three were just because of things taking longer than expected.

Twenty-five states in twenty-four days was a pretty aggressive schedule to begin with, though, so stretching it to twenty-nine days isn’t too bad. 

Home at last and able to get the paddling photos off the CD from Yellowstone, Day 21.

For the paddle, we met at the outfitter’s store in downtown Gardiner, then shuttled to the put-in which was about three blocks away – then we had to portage the raft down to the water, about 100-yards over a rock-strewn path.  Since I was wearing my Florida beach shoes with soles suitable for sand and shell, the rocks were murder on my feet.

We were lucky again with our group – after the morning horse riding where we were the only ones, we now got to paddle with only three others (a mother and her two sons) in our group.

We got on the river and headed for the rapids, running Class II and some Class III.

Our guide was great and knew how to put the boat right where he wanted it.

Aryn’s been talking about whitewater for months, so this gave her a taste and didn’t seem to put her off, so I expect to see her rolling and spinning soon.

	Miles	MPG	Avg. Speed
Since Day 25	1632.1	47.8	54
Trip	9717.7	46.8	49

Day	Food (today/budget)	Hotel (today/budget)	Trip Savings
26	$22 / $206	$55 / $75	AAA – $66 PriceLine – $1119 Real $$ – $186
27	$45 / $234	$45 / $75	AAA – $66 PriceLine – $1243 Real $$ – $216
28	$55 / $239	$45 / $75	AAA – $66 PriceLine – $1367 Real $$ – $246
29	$45 / 234	n/a

Mall of America	$200 ($0 without a teenage girl)
Atlanta City Pass	$138

Mall of America

I got Aryn up at 9:00 so she could get ready and we could be out of the hotel and to the mall by 10:00.  I’m hoping to be out of there by 12:00 … 1:00 if we eat lunch there, and on the way to Atlanta.  I’ve been there before – it should not take more than two hours to look at the big mall and say, “Wow, big.”

I also hadn’t intended for her to do any shopping, the budget for this trip not including that, but we’re so far under budget on virtually everything, that I decided to give her a little spree.

So I handed her $200, told her to get something pretty, and left her standing at the four-panel list of stores – hands on cheeks, muttering, “… I don’t know where to start … I don’t know where to start …”

I went and got a Cinnabon.

Then I walked around – three levels of shopping, a fourth level with a movie theatre, bowling alley and restaurants, and an aquarium in the basement.  My phone’s pedometer says I did three miles, and that’s without going into many stores or going through the amusement park in the center of the mall.

Three roller-coasters, a log flume, and myriad other rides – used to be branded Peanuts, but now it’s Nickelodeon.

The giant Lego builds.

Saw the Alpaca store (wool items, not alpacas – you can’t buy an alpaca at Mall of America … I think), the oxygen bar, and Corda-boys for all things corduroy.

Also Foot Locker, Ladies Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, and House of Hoops (by Foot Locker).

Around 1:00 I met up with Aryn – she had a lot of bags, but no MoA t-shirt, so we went to the MoA store, where the t-shirt rang up $24.99 and she handed over her last $25 of paper money.  With that penny in change, she left the mall with $1.82 in coins. So we did our part for the economic recovery today.

Back on the road, I stopped about 9:00PM to use the netbook to book a hotel in St. Louis.  Priceline got us the Crowne Plaza downtown near the arch for $55 – others on BiddingForTravel had gotten the Hyatt next door for $46 this week.

I couldn’t read the GPS well as we came into town and took exit 248C instead of 249C, which put us in a bad area of town.  It resembled something used for urban combat training. 

The new version of MapQuest sucks, and couldn’t keep up with my driving to get out of there, so the directions were crappy.  We drove toward downtown, backtracking a few times because streets were closed, and worrying about the car that seemed to have been following us from the interstate.

Finally we got downtown and found the hotel, only to have to drive several blocks in a circle due to one-way streets.  Got to the room at 12:00, looked out the window, saw the arch, don’t have to look at it tomorrow, now, so we can get on the road to Atlanta early.

Atlanta

The stop in Atlanta was to see Twelfth Night at the Shakespeare Tavern, if it could be fit into the time and budget.  With Priceline and BiddingForTravel, the hotel budget was no problem at all, and with a short drive Tuesday and then finishing to Atlanta on Wednesday, we wound up in town on one of the days they perform.

Atlanta has a ton of zones for Priceline bidding, and I was seeing rates of $45-$60 in the BiddingForTravel forums, so I was pretty confident of being able to stay within my $75/night budget for Atlanta.

I started with a bid for a 3-star in Downtown at $40 a night and Priceline counter-offered at $57.  I ignored that and added the three other zones around downtown that I’d prefer to stay in, and offered $45, which got us the Courtyard in Druid Hills, 5-miles from the Tavern, at $45/night.  Marriott’s web rate for these nights – $169/night.

We slept late and left the hotel a little before noon, then went to the World of Coca-Cola, where we drank an inordinate amount of carbonated beverages from around the world, and on to the Georgia Aquarium.  I really hadn’t planned anything other than World of Coca-Cola for the afternoon, but we needed to kill a couple more hours and the Atlanta Zoo has pandas – so I got the Citypass that includes the Aquarium and Zoo, since the Aquarium is right across the street from World of Coca-Cola.

Tomorrow, before we leave, we’ll briefly stop at the zoo to see the pandas.

Shakespeare Tavern was awesome, as always, with a great performance of Twelfth Night, one of my favorites.  I’d swear the actress playing Maria was in Dancing at LusomethingIdon’tremember in Orlando, but can’t be, as it was her first performance.

Home

So, after a lunar month in hotels, we’re finally home.

We started the day with breakfast at the Majestic Diner, serving “food that pleases” since 1929.  I saw it on the drive to the hotel and knew we had to eat there before leaving.  It did not disappoint and we had an awesome breakfast.

Then off to Zoo Atlanta for Aryn to see the pandas. 

It took some searching, since they were still in their sleeping areas, but we finally tracked them down.

They offer a panda encounter there for $150, so if anyone’s looking for a gift idea for Aryn’s birthday, there you go.

We had to get on the road, so weren’t able to go through the rest of the zoo, but I think I’ll be going back to see it … as well as for Shakespeare Tavern’s 2012/2013 season. 

We got back to Orlando around 5:30 and I dropped Aryn off at the house before grabbing some groceries and heading home to apologize to the Big Bad Wolf for leaving her for a month.

She was not amused.

	Miles	MPG	Avg. Speed
Today	353.5	51.6	45
Trip	8085	46.6	48

Food (today/budget)	Hotel (today/budget)	Trip Savings
$50 / $206	$45 / $75	AAA – $66 PriceLine – $1039 Real $$ – $166

Probably my last post until we get home.  Got up at 7:00 for the second oil change of the trip, then visited my grandmother again before having lunch with my aunt and uncle. 

We left Grand Forks and made a brief stop at Lake Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi so that Aryn could see the start of that river.

Then we headed for Minneapolis and another spectacular Priceline deal using BiddingForTravel.  I got the Crowne Plaza North for $45 for the night, compared to $139 via their website. 

Tomorrow we’ll spend a couple hours at Mall of America and head for home.  We’ll stop in Atlanta, hopefully, to catch Twelfth Night at the Shakespeare Tavern on Thursday night and then be home on Friday.

	Miles	MPG	Avg. Speed
Today	181	49.7	37
Trip	7732	46.4	48

Food (today/budget)	Hotel (today/budget)	Trip Savings
$36 / $192	$60 / $75	AAA – $66 PriceLine – $945 Real $$ – $136

Somewhere, one of my relatives has a picture of me with the big fish, so had to get one of Aryn too.  Trystan will be subjected to it when I bring him here.

We spent the morning visiting my grandmother, then had lunch in town and headed up to the lake cabin. 

Memories are funny things.  The GPS didn’t recognize the cabin’s address, so I had to try and figure out how to get there from memory – keeping in mind that I’d only ever driven there one time as an adult, that in the early 90s.  Other than that, I’d traveled the route as a kid curled up in the backseat of an Oldsmobile, trying to pass the time of the six-hour drive to get there – turns out it’s only about an hour, but it seemed longer as a kid waiting to get to the lake.

But from the highway in Erskine, I made not a single wrong turn on the way there. 

We spent the afternoon visiting with my cousins there and took a spin around the lake in their boat.

Then I decided to try to find the older cabin, the one I’ve never driven to and only have the child’s memories of riding in the car to go by.  We headed down the road to the general area and I used Google Maps to get a general idea of which road might lead toward the part of the lake I thought might have the cabin on it.

As soon as I made the turn, I knew it was right and put the map away.  The way it curved instead of being straight, the place to turn, and then the still gravel road that led to the cabins were eerily familiar.  Found that one with no wrong turns either.

There was a car at the cabin, but no one answered, so I snuck Aryn around to the lakeside for a quick peek and she was able to see the sheer, boulder-strewn cliff my grandfather set up a rope for us kids to swing out over. 

And the lake where my dad once yelled, “Grab that raft and follow me,” to swim across, taking the raft for the return trip so I could swim back.  Google Earth now tells me that’s about 1/2 a mile across.

Then we stopped at my aunt’s house, where my grandparents used to live when I was young, and looked around.  Apparently barns shrink over time, because I remember the barn there as being more like forty-feet tall and a hundred-feet square … but I was young and impressionable.

	Miles	MPG	Avg. Speed
Today	654	43	60
Trip	7550	46.3	49

Food (today/budget)	Hotel (today/budget)	Trip Savings
$55 / $197	$60 / $75	AAA – $56 PriceLine – $945 Real $$ – $121

All Pictures

Mostly driving today, a short stop at Mount Rushmore, then on the road north through South Dakota to North Dakota and then east to Fargo before heading north again to Grand Forks.