Road trip

Woo-hoo! No speeding ticket from my drive through Wyoming and Montana this year! Of course, much of the highway from Casper to points north were hard packed snow, if not straight ice about a half inch thick. Sadly, no snow fell in Montana on Christmas day. Had a nice visit to see mom. Of course the visit involved a to-do list of things she hasn't been able to square away. Easy stuff; setting up the TV's that were moved around a few months ago, putting a hanging ball to tell her where to stop the car in the carport, resetting the friction belt on the stationary bike. We played some games, enjoyed great food & generally relaxed.

Snow did fall in Colorado while I was gone though. Seven inches on the 25th, then took a break while I drove home on Boxing Day (thankfully) then started up again that night. The snow is still falling now.

So, the stats...

$178.17
Gas money for the round-trip drive. Winner: Exxon. Loser: Airlines that wanted to route me through Phoenix(!) to get me there, at about twice the price.

61.848
Gallons of carbon-based fuel, cleanly and responsibly burned through territory that sees more methane emissions from cattle than my EPA-rated 21/28 mpg Altima could ever hope to fart out. Besides, while Wyoming and Montana beef is very fine grade in my ever so humble opinion, they still cannot trump my Altima's delivery of a mom's favorite, if only, son to her doorstep. Winner: Altima. Loser: At least 12 ounces of Bessie sitting on my plate.

12:15
Hours:Minutes that I spent in each direction of this journey, plus or minus 15 minutes... the log book was doused in water at one point as I made a left turn on to my mom's street, smudging up the pencil'd time entries. Winner: Bic. Loser: My precious mathematical numbers. You know, as opposed to the Alphabetical numbers...

1557
Total miles placed on said Altima, working out to just over 25 mpg (a tic or so better than the 50th percentile of that EPA bit, so there). Winner: ..uh, Department of Transportation I guess, in getting stats bumped up to grub up more Federal Highway dollars. Loser: Mother Earth... You didn't really buy in to that "cleanly and responsibly burned" tripe I typed up there, did you? My friggin "Check Engine" light is on again because it apparently needs a hug or something.

63.55
Average miles per hour including stops for gas and facilities (not bad at all, considering the off-and-on icy roads roughly from Casper to Bozeman, and my now considerably less-than-500-mile bladder... Getting old sucks, I tells ya). Winner: Minimal brake application. Hey, we're talking about getting to Mom's home cooking! Loser: Highway billboards whizzing by. Except those Burma-Shave verses...

MANY A WOLF
IS NEVER LET IN
BECAUSE OF THE HAIR
ON HIS
CHINNY-CHIN-CHIN
BURMA-SHAVE

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LCD Soundsystem, North American Scum