We pulled into the house last night about 7 p.m. almost exactly twelve hours after we pulled out of the campground in Colorado Springs. By 8 p.m. everything was in the house and out of the motor home. By 10 p.m. we were both sound asleep in our own beds.
Statistical information
In total we drove 4,790 miles over 23 days and were in fourteen states. Gasoline prices declined the further east we drove, going back up as we came through Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho on our way home. However, even there prices had declined while we were gone. We bought gasoline in the same two Wyoming gas stations going out and coming back:
| Place | Date | Price | Date | Price | Difference |
| Cokeville, WY | October 6 | $3.519 | October 28 | $2.599 | -0.92 |
| Rawlins, WY | October 7 | $3.379 | October 28 | $2.559 | -0.82 |
I’m pretty sure that much of the rest of the country enjoyed similar decreases in price.
I thought it was also interesting to look at gasoline prices during the entire trip. We bought gas 24 times for the motor home. The price varied from the highest price on October 6th of $3.519 to the lowest price on October 25th of $2.199, a spread of $1.32 per gallon. I thought that perhaps the differences in state taxes might explain some of that spread, but that was not the case. The highest and lowest prices were at the same fill-up, even net of state taxes. I put together in a chart all of the prices paid during the trip and highlighted the highest in red and the lowest in green, along with the state taxes and the prices net of state taxes:
| Date | Where | Price | State Tax | Price Net of Tax |
| October 6, 2008 | Cokeville, WY | 3.519 | 0.324 | 3.195 |
| October 7, 2008 | Rawlins, WY | 3.379 | 0.324 | 3.055 |
| October 7, 2008 | Casper, WY | 3.019 | 0.324 | 2.695 |
| October 8, 2008 | Chadron, NE | 3.439 | 0.423 | 3.016 |
| October 8, 2008 | O’Neill, NE | 3.199 | 0.423 | 2.776 |
| October 9, 2008 | Pacific Junct, IA | 2.899 | 0.401 | 2.498 |
| October 9, 2008 | Belton, MO | 2.799 | 0.360 | 2.439 |
| October 10, 2008 | Springfield, MO | 2.699 | 0.360 | 2.339 |
| October 10, 2008 | Jonesboro, AR | 3.089 | 0.402 | 2.687 |
| October 11, 2008 | Grand Junct, TN | 3.099 | 0.398 | 2.701 |
| October 15, 2008 | Owens Crossrds, AL | 2.999 | 0.386 | 2.613 |
| October 19, 2008 | Ringgold, GA | 2.859 | 0.444 | 2.415 |
| October 23, 2008 | Greenwood, SC | 2.629 | 0.352 | 2.277 |
| October 23, 2008 | Moody, AL | 2.699 | 0.386 | 2.313 |
| October 23, 2008 | Memphis, TN | 2.499 | 0.398 | 2.101 |
| October 24, 2008 | Morrillton, AR | 2.449 | 0.402 | 2.047 |
| October 24, 2008 | Seminole, OK | 2.299 | 0.354 | 1.945 |
| October 25, 2008 | Woodward, OK | 2.199 | 0.354 | 1.845 |
| October 25, 2008 | Dodge City, KS | 2.349 | 0.434 | 1.915 |
| October 25, 2008 | Pueblo, CO | 2.649 | 0.404 | 2.245 |
| October 28, 2008 | Ft. Collins, CO | 2.449 | 0.404 | 2.045 |
| October 28, 2008 | Rawlins, WY | 2.559 | 0.324 | 2.235 |
| October 28, 2008 | Cokeville, WY | 2.599 | 0.324 | 2.275 |
| October 28, 2008 | Pocatello, ID | 2.719 | 0.434 | 2.285 |
This kind of statistical information is always interesting to me. I’m sure that I could run all kinds of statistics on this information, but that suffices for now!
iPhone: The New Guide Book
Usually when we travel we take with us guide books for the various states (or countries) where we’ll travel. This time we used a new method which worked out very well: the iPhone. Except for some spots in Wyoming and Nebraska, we had connection with the iPhone almost continually. As we’d drive through places the passenger would do a Google Search or a Wikipedia Search on the place and read the information to the driver. While we didn’t really have the ability to compare what we found online to what might have been in a guidebook, I’m certain that the Internet information was as good if not better. Further we were able to find information on the Internet on places that would probably never have been written about in a guidebook. For instance, Opal, WY has an entry in Wikipedia. There is nothing interesting about this place and this morning I checked our Wyoming guide books and neither of them had anything about Opal, WY. I think it’s likely we’ve purchased our last guidebook.
We’ll be home for the foreseeable future. We had a great trip and a lot of fun. We accomplished the goals we had set for the trip. We got home glad that we had gone but happy to be back home.