Grand Canyon and Gas Finale

"The Castle Aaaaaaaaaagh. Our quest is at an end!"
--King Arthur, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

We finally made it to our new home sweet home in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada yesterday afternoon. My cat clearly loves having about three times the space she's ever had before. For my part, it feels great to finally be some place permanent again.

The Castle Aaaaaaaaaagh is pretty nice if you overlook the odd taste in furnishings and the ring of vinyl 45s that are glued to the top of the walls in the kitchen. After spending $240 on groceries (stocking a bare cupboard ain't cheap) and $200 on sundry household items that were lacking, we're starting to settle in a little bit.

It was a long trip but I'm glad we did it. I'm especially glad CK had the idea to squeeze in a day at the Grand Canyon this past Saturday. Neither words nor photos can accurately capture the awe-inspiring feeling of seeing this ginormous, six million year old, ten mile wide, five thousand foot deep canyon. I even managed to convince she who hates walking to do a six-mile hike into the canyon -- three miles down and three miles back up. Here she is at the trailhead:


And then at the three-mile marker about a third of the way down the canyon to the river:


That's my fleece and cap behind the sign. CK's obviously not in the photo but I assure you she made it (I was surprised too). What was *not* surprising was that my rather aggressive pace on the climb back up winded her inside of ten minutes. I dubbed it "The Revenge of Marlboro".

At one point we thought Bayne might be trying to find us:


CK kept a sharp eye out for him in the hopes that we could duck him if necessary. Unfortunately Bayne, Chad and Dawn Summers cornered us on a very narrow section of the trail and the jig was up:




The black one is Dawn. Naturally. I was shocked that they all allowed a fat, lazy tourist to get on their backs but I guess everyone has to pay the rent somehow.

Our total time down and up, including a break for lunch, was about 4 hours. Four hours of fresh air, sunshine, rain, snow and hail. Four hours of fantastic views. Four hours of little discoveries. Four hours of fun. We would have been quicker but CK aggravated an old frisbee injury in her knee (she could write a book just on frisbee injuries). The last three quarters of a mile was painful for her and my idiot self forgot that I had some maximum strength Tylenol in my backpack for just such an issue. Doh.

All in all I highly recommend a visit to the Grand Canyon. It is *amazing*.

***

Now what you're all really wondering about. The final tally on gas.

In total there were 54 guesses submitted. The median guess was $531.59. The average guess was $550.76. Including the trip to the Grand Canyon, we traveled a total of 3,463 miles. We needed 158 gallons to cover that distance, averaging 21.9mpg. CK and I are both speed demons and our fuel economy suffered for it.

The average price we paid per gallon was $3.885. If you had asked me before the trip what I thought we would come in at, I would have said (3,275 miles / 25mpg) = 133 gallons times $4 per gallon plus a 10% fudge factor, or about $585. In actuality, the final total came in at $615.32. Looking over the spreadsheet of entries, there were several guesses that were close and deserve honorable mention:

Bayne - $604
CMaso - $609.15
Donkette - $625.50
Rybka - $626
Iggy - $626

But there can be only one winner, and that winner is Atlanta-area blogger Butch Howard! Butch guessed $614.06, just $1.26 shy of the total. Butch, I'll be contacting you via email to arrange to get your prize to you.

Thanks to everyone else who submitted entries. You gave me something mundane but fun to keep track of during our massive sojourn across the country. And after crossing the panhandle of Texas last week, I have a whole new outlook on mundane but fun activities.