Buying a $2,500 Car and Driving It Home 2,000 Miles (Part 2)
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This is the conclusion to my previous post where I introduced the roadtrip I went on to drive a new-to-me $2,500 2000 Honda Insight with over 190k miles all the way back home 2,000+ miles to MN.
Day 4: Southeast MI to Southwest MI
It was Monday, April 1, 2024.
Kicked off the morning with a walk into downtown Ann Arbor and had an açaà bowl and a crêpe for breakfast. Afterwards, stopped by a local music store to pick up a couple cassette tapes to try in the original factory stereo.
Afterwards, I bid Sadie farewell and began the 2nd leg of the trip solo.
Originally, I was planning on stopping in Kalamazoo as part of a longer route to Grand Rapids. But, unfortunately, Bell’s Brewery wasn’t open so I was far less motivated and opted to go directly to Grand Rapids instead.
The highlight of the evening was picking up a pizza from a local pizza joint which was (wait for it) twenty four inches. That’s over 600mm for the rest of y’all. Thanks to Jacob & Maddi for graciously hosting me. :)
2πr² => over 900 square inches of pie in that box.
Day 5: Southwest MI to the Upper Peninsula
The next day brought (more) rain. I also rolled over 195,000 on the odometer.
I snaked my way northbound stopping to briefly visit with family and swing by one of my favorite breweries: Beards Brewery in Petoskey, MI. Crossing the Mackinac Bridge was slow going because they had one side closed off and were running escorts (effectively rate-limiting traffic speed) for southbound traffic. The bridge ended up being closed to high-profile vehicles a couple hours after I crossed.
I stopped in Manistique, MI to stay with long-time friends Parker & Liz.
Cruising across the Mac-in-awe.
Day 6: Snow Day
The night before they had preemptively called a snow day so I ended up treating it the same and taking a chill day hanging with friends.
This is Greg, the cat.
Looking out onto Indian Lake in Manistique, MI.
Day 7: MI to MN
My game plan for today was to take a more scenic route and cut up through the Upper Peninsula to Marquette and then cut across westbound to Superior, WI and take I-35 south into Minneapolis. I started early (for me) and left a bit before 8am. I stopped for a coffee at Manistique’s local coffee shop, The Grind, and had an incredibly delicious (I still think about it as I write this) Salted Caramel Shaken Espresso.
About 90 minutes of easy driving took me west on US-2 and then north on US-41 into Marquette, MI where I stopped at a favorite coffee shop of mine: Contrast Coffee.
Contrast Coffee still rocking Valentine’s Day decor.
It was another several hours of driving taking me from US-41 to MI-28 and back to US-2 where I stopped at my next destination: Culver’s in Ashland, WI. The journey through MI and WI really showed off the storm from the previous day. I was glad I opted to take a personal snow day—I probably would not have been able to taken the scenic route otherwise.
Snow-covered trees somewhere in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Parked at the Culver’s in Ashland, WI.
The final leg of the journey took me into Superior, WI where I detoured around Duluth, MN to take the scenic route full of twists & curves through Jay Cooke State Park. It’s the closest thing to a mountain pass road you’ll find in the area. From there, it was a straight shot down I-35 and eventually I-35W into Minneapolis.
I got unpacked and crunched the final fuel economy numbers:
Final Numbers
Starting mileage: 193,457
Ending mileage: 195,731
Total mileage (end - start): 2,274
I bought fuel 6 times:
- VA: 8.567 gallons at $3.599/gallon
- NC: 8.038 gallons at $3.399/gallon
- KY: 8.031 gallons at $3.279/gallon
- MI: 9.046 gallons at $3.559/gallon
- MI: 8.332 gallons at $3.679/gallon
- MN: 6.943 gallons at $3.149/gallon
The first and last fill ups were to bring the tank back up to full for a baseline. So, when calculating the roadtrip fuel economy I don’t count the initial eight-and-a-half gallons.
Roadtrip mean miles per gallon: 2274 / (8.038 + 8.031 + 9.046 + 8.332 + 6.943) => 56.301 miles per gallon
Slightly under my previously guess of 56.7, but slightly above the lifetime 56.1 vehicle average.
Here’s the total route traveled:
My approximate route, as shown in Google Maps.
Thumbnail photo credit 129 Photos.
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