Yesterday was the two week mark. We've driven 4298 miles as of yesterday. That means we've driven through Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Oregon. We've managed to avoid the forest fires, but have gotten the full brunt of the heat wave (highest temp was 109, lowest has been 74, averaging about 90 for daytime temps).
On the budget front, we're spending about twice what we thought on accommodations, accounting for 66.6% of our spending so far ($4262 for hotels/inns/housekeeping tips). We've mostly been in moderate chain hotels, except for Hotel McCoy in Tucson https://hotelmccoy.com/ , which I highly recommend if you like quirky/fun mixed in with your stay, and the perfectly ok Dunsmuir Inn in Dunsmuir, CA https://www.dunsmuirinn.com/ with a beautiful location near Mt Shasta. Cheapest hotel was $109 a night and most expensive was $312. Location has been the big driver of costs. I opted for hotels with breakfast included where we could, to save a little, and where parking was free. We've mostly used booking.com and selected for location, and ratings above 7.5. I also never pick the cheapest hotel or the most expensive of the choices.
Gas has been surprisingly reasonable for a driving trip -- 10.2% or $649.97. Cheapest gas was in Texas at $3.13 a gallon and highest was San Diego at $6.35 a gallon. We've mostly driven between 70 and 80 mph with AC running, and mostly been on the interstates. Note for those driving thru the Southwest -- you can go a hundred miles without seeing a gas station, so fuel up when you can, even if you don't need to yet. I will say that the interstates are wonderful in terms of speed, reliable access to gas and bathrooms, but food is still not great. Lots of times, we've had a choice between McDonalds or Subway as the only options for hours.... I dream of someone opening a chain with fast, healthy, low cal options, that would operate in the same locations as competition to the fat/salt/carb fest choices currently out there.
We had a hotel with coin laundry in St Louis, so we washed all our clothes. We've got another coin operated laundry here in Portland, so we'll take advantage of that again. It never occurred to us to bring quarters, but for USA travel, you might want to. I brought a few laundry pods with us, so we didn't have to make a stop for laundry detergent.
Our bottom line for two weeks, all in (food, hotels, travel expenses, tips) -- $6401. About twice where I thought we would be, but worth every penny.
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