By Christine Haines and Paul Pressy
Photo by Paul Pressy
As I mentioned in my last post, some friends of mine are driving from southwestern Pennsylvania to California. While the purpose of the trip is to attend a family wedding, getting there and back is at least half the fun and most of the two-week vacation, so they’ve made it a bit of an adventure and have agreed to blog it for SpinIt.
I received my first post from my friend Paul Pressy four days into the trip. He’s traveling by car, while two others are riding a motorcycle. His first observations are about the price of gasoline, which was about $3.95 a gallon when they left Pennsylvania.
“The gas prices were a lot less than we thought. In Missouri it was $3.46 a gallon and in Oklahoma it was $3.49, then in Texas it was $3.65. The price in New Mexico is $3.67 and diesel was averaging $4.48 to $4.59…..it doesn’t make sense,” Paul wrote.
Given that they are in the heart of our domestic oil country, I would have expected even lower gas prices, but hey, the motorcycle gets great gas mileage and Paul’s driving a little four cylinder, so they shouldn’t have to stop too often. When they’ve stopped for the night, they’ve found some decent prices.
“Hotels are averaging around $59.00 to $69 per night, that’s staying in the better ones and using your AAA discounts,” Paul said.
I’ve found that local hotel managers often offer an even lower price than you can get off the Internet, especially when combined with an AAA or AARP discount.
There’s a downside to that motorcycle fuel economy, as Paul notes.
“The weather is up and down. We drove through five rain storms, and were hit with hail in Shamrock, TX, Monday. Pick and “E” got really wet on all of them…we are now in Tucumcari, New Mexico,” Paul said.
While in Texas, the three stopped by a site Paul visited 45 years ago: Cadillac Ranch. Here’s a picture Paul took there, plus a link to the attraction’s Web site.
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/PicturePages/66AmarilloCadillacRanch-15.html
They have plenty more sights to see on this trip, including the Grand Canyon and who knows what else they’ll run across. I think they’re coming home by the northern route. Keep checking http://www.howyouspinit.com/travelfor updates, and enjoy the journey.
To share your vacation photos and observations, email
chris@howyouspinit.com.
Tags: Cadillac Ranch, gas prices, New Mexico, road trip, Texas
