This year's roadtrip to FastPass was planned and executed like a moon mission. Having made the drive so many times before, I planned way ahead and got hotel rooms paid for in advance, knowing where we'd be stopping, dividing the three-day trip roughly into two "easy" days (650 miles approx) at the beginning and end, and one "Hell day" in the middle (1,000 miles). Pre-paying the hotels saved almost $700 total.
I also did a cross-reference of my customer list to see who was close to I-40, and thus made a business trip out of it as well along the way. That part of the trip was very successful, except for a technical accident that occurred in Oklahoma that cost us an extra 2 hours of time to remedy. Then, Louis took a wrong turn in Little Rock that same day and before I knew what was happening (that'll teach me to be texting RA and my GF at the same time), we were practically in Searcy, Arkansas, headed for Minnesota in the middle of the night. This cost us 2 MORE hours that same day, which was supposed to be the last leg ("easy" day, right.) So we rolled into Brownsville, TN, at 1:53 am when it should have, and could have, been 9:53 pm.
These were the only mishaps on the trip.
The total stats for the round trip are:
5,361 miles total
Average of 13.6 mpg (driving outbound without boat, return leg with boat)
395 gallons of gasoline for truck
92h12m on truck engine
Now that I'm looking for it, I can't find the paper with the remaining specs and how it comapred to the actual budget, but I will find it and edit this post....:banghead
OK found it:
BUDGET FOR TRIP: $4657.00
ACTUAL: $4408.92
POSITIVE DEVIATION: $248.08
BREAKDOWN:
Total fuel: $1753.60 (budget: $1893.00)
Truck: $1395.10 (budget: $1147.00; over because of side business trips, wrong turns, and mileage while at rally)
Boat: $358.50 (budget: $746.00; much less thanks to Todd Bucknell and ACES-IV)
Food, Wal-Mart trips, oil for boat, ATM's, all misc. crap: $1601.93 (budget: $1600.00) Not bad huh?
Fuel for truck during FP: $196.10 (trips to Savannah, back and forth from Bear Inn to Riverstone, back and forth to marina, etc.) Budget: $82.00
Outbound truck fuel, no boat: $523.17
Return trip truck fuel, with boat: $619.54
All lodging: $1053.39 ($498.39 motels each way [budgeted $864.00], $555.00 Riverstone)
Net income from business activities along route: $5164.00
Made $756.00 over the cost of trip, during the trip, which would have not been made otherwise (if no trip)
The deviation of $56.29 in fuel cost was that I did not add the initial fill-up in Napa, CA the night prior to departure.
I calculated fuel costs for the budget based upon realtime information from the web for each state. The business income derived was entirely speculative but it worked out amazingly well.
So, for those planning a transcontinental excursion to FastPass, I hope these numbers might prove helpful to some degree next year.
I also did a cross-reference of my customer list to see who was close to I-40, and thus made a business trip out of it as well along the way. That part of the trip was very successful, except for a technical accident that occurred in Oklahoma that cost us an extra 2 hours of time to remedy. Then, Louis took a wrong turn in Little Rock that same day and before I knew what was happening (that'll teach me to be texting RA and my GF at the same time), we were practically in Searcy, Arkansas, headed for Minnesota in the middle of the night. This cost us 2 MORE hours that same day, which was supposed to be the last leg ("easy" day, right.) So we rolled into Brownsville, TN, at 1:53 am when it should have, and could have, been 9:53 pm.
These were the only mishaps on the trip.
The total stats for the round trip are:
5,361 miles total
Average of 13.6 mpg (driving outbound without boat, return leg with boat)
395 gallons of gasoline for truck
92h12m on truck engine
Now that I'm looking for it, I can't find the paper with the remaining specs and how it comapred to the actual budget, but I will find it and edit this post....:banghead
OK found it:
BUDGET FOR TRIP: $4657.00
ACTUAL: $4408.92
POSITIVE DEVIATION: $248.08
BREAKDOWN:
Total fuel: $1753.60 (budget: $1893.00)
Truck: $1395.10 (budget: $1147.00; over because of side business trips, wrong turns, and mileage while at rally)
Boat: $358.50 (budget: $746.00; much less thanks to Todd Bucknell and ACES-IV)
Food, Wal-Mart trips, oil for boat, ATM's, all misc. crap: $1601.93 (budget: $1600.00) Not bad huh?
Fuel for truck during FP: $196.10 (trips to Savannah, back and forth from Bear Inn to Riverstone, back and forth to marina, etc.) Budget: $82.00
Outbound truck fuel, no boat: $523.17
Return trip truck fuel, with boat: $619.54
All lodging: $1053.39 ($498.39 motels each way [budgeted $864.00], $555.00 Riverstone)
Net income from business activities along route: $5164.00
Made $756.00 over the cost of trip, during the trip, which would have not been made otherwise (if no trip)
The deviation of $56.29 in fuel cost was that I did not add the initial fill-up in Napa, CA the night prior to departure.
I calculated fuel costs for the budget based upon realtime information from the web for each state. The business income derived was entirely speculative but it worked out amazingly well.
So, for those planning a transcontinental excursion to FastPass, I hope these numbers might prove helpful to some degree next year.
Last edited:
:at the bar
