SInce we both brought our old HP12C financial calculators on the road (you never know when you might need to do a quick present value calculation when driving across America), we felt the need to calculate something. So for you number cruncher people, here is our trip quantified:
Number of Days on the Road: 43
Number Miles Driven: 8,590
Number of Fill-Ups: 53
Number of States Traveled In/Through: 22
Number of Hotels/B&Bs Stayed In: 27
– 11 chain hotels
– 7 non-brand hotels
– 5 National Park lodges
– 3 B&Bs
– 1 ranch
Number of Homes Stayed In: 4
Number of Medical Professionals Consulted on the Road: 4
Number of Animal Species Seen/Noted: 37 plus 2 dead horses
Number of Waking Hours Spent in Silence: 0
Number of Books on Tape Completed: 0 (but we got through 2 separate halves)
Number of State Tourism Bureau-Provided CDs: 1 but it was a good one!!!
Number of Meals Missed: 0
Number of Days without an Alcoholic Beverage: 0
Number of Stamps in our National Park Passports: 42 woooo hoooo!!
Number of National Parks/Sites/Monuments Visited: 21
Number of Photos Taken: 4,558 (9.71 Gigabytes)
Number of Strangers Photographed: 111
Highest Elevation Reached: 11,312 Feet Above Sea Level – Monarch Pass, CO
Lowest Elevation Reached: 282 Feet Below Sea Level – Death Valley, CA
Highest Legal Speed Limit: 80 MPH, UT (Sue never exceeded the speed limit!!)
Average Number of Miles Driven per Day: 200
Total Dollars Spent on Travel (Gifts Excluded): $8,781.82
Average Cost per Person Per Day: $102.11
Number of New Taste Sensations: 51
JB – Where are the number of gallons of gas used? Us QUANTITATIVE folks want to determine your fuel efficiency.
You WOULD ask for that! Unfortunately we are missing the all-important number of gallons variable. Next trip we’ll have to be better at data collection!