Crunching the Numbers
2 June 2008
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!