Wednesday, January 16, 2008

How many kitchens was that skillet in?

How many kitchens was that skillet in? Or, what are the trip statistics? [For those of you not into statistics, please remember that I'm a mathematician . . . ]

We're now back home, as of 01/11/08 about 6:30 p.m., having been out on the road since 09/01/07 – a total of 133 days, 132 nights.

During those 133 days, we traveled 12,921 miles passing through 33 states, the District of Columbia, the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of Baja California del Norte in Mexico. That gave us a trip essentially around the perimeter of our country – for the most part we were within 50-75 miles of either the border or an ocean or gulf.

For those 12,921 miles we used just over 784 gallons of gasoline at a weighted average price of $2.956 per gallon and just under 16.5 miles per gallon, for an average price of just under 18¢ per mile driven for gasoline.

Of those 132 nights, we spent 68 of them in 48 different campgrounds at an average nightly cost of $19.17; we spent 58 of them at 14 different friends' homes; we spent 6 nights in motels at an average of $51.24/night. [Motel nights were generally due to bad weather – rain, cold, wind, etc., although the first one was due to a mouse in the house!]

The only problems we had with the camper were with "peripherals" – the refrigerator quit working on propane until I blew the soot out of the burner box/thermocouple area, three drawers came unglued and had to be reglued, and one drawer latch broke and had to be replaced.

Along the way we managed to leave at least eight items in various places – a pair of sheets and a pair of pajamas in a campground laundry, a rolling barking dog toy, two kitchen knives, two jackets, a pair of shoes – but as a partial consolation we picked up an extra Tupperware dish/tray.

As for the number of kitchens that "the skillet" was in, the answer is obvious – fourteen! Due to dietary restrictions and just general fussiness, I cook my own breakfast (see photos) and carry the skillet and makins' in whenever we're at someone's home! Don't worry – that green in the one picture is a Habanero hot sauce, not mold . . .

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