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Crunching the Numbers

Philadelphia, PA—Over the course of this trip, I kept track of a lot of numbers: Mileage, itemized expenses, gas consumption, and more. I was curious how everything would add up at the end, and I thought it might be useful information for anyone who wanted to do a similar road trip. If that’s you, and you want your trip to be exactly like mine (which would really require you to go back in time, access my DNA, etc.), these are the numbers you can expect.

Keep in mind that some of these numbers are more approximate than others, and the total expenses listed were mostly split two ways. Also, there are things I wish I had recorded (such as time spent unconscious versus time spent conscious) and things I recorded that I don’t feel the need to publish (such as food and gift expenses). The remaining numbers still offer insights that none of the stories from the road could.

The Core Numbers
Distance traveled 9,398 miles
Time period 747 hours (31 days)
Time spent driving (including drive-through national parks and stops for gas, food, etc.) 166 hours (7 days)
Gallons of gas 304
Nights slept at friends’ homes 18
Nights slept at hotels 13
Expenses
Gas $1141.38
Hotels $1301.88

There’s a ton of fascinating statistics that can be found by using some simple math on the above information. Here is some of the stuff that interested me most.

Averages
Combined gas and hotel costs per mile $.26
Hotel cost per night (not including nights slept at friends’ homes) $100.14
Overall hotel cost per night (including nights slept at friends’ homes) $41.99
Gas cost per gallon $3.75
Miles per gallon 31
Driving speed 57 mph
Overall speed 13 mph
Percentages
Time spent driving 22%
Nights spent at friends’ homes 72%

So there you have it. Feel free to break out the calculator and work out some averages and percentages of your own!