Winter Trip 08-09 by the Numbers

I got back last night from a road trip that lasted two weeks. I visited (in order):
Atlanta, Georgia
Chicago, Illinois
Columbus, Ohio
Hadley, Massachusetts
Grafton, Massachusetts
Nashville, Tennessee

Totaling up my recorded mileage gives me a number of 4974.7, and I know I missed one recording. Let's call it 5000 miles. It's probably closer to 5300, though, since I tend to gas up every 300 miles. My average gas mileage was 30.29 gallons, with a low of 25.03 and a high of 35.65.

I spent $959.25 on the trip, $276.96 of which was for a winter coat, socks, and gloves that will last a lifetime (so says REI), because I didn't have winter gear, and Chicago was going to be in the single digits. So, if you don't count the winter gear, which I used on the trip but will continue to use, I spent $682.29. Which seems kind of reasonable, but then I'm a spendthrift.

Highest temperature was 80 degrees, lowest was -3.

And, of course, I got to see lots of friends and family. Carmel, Jess, Garin (Atlanta), Nancy Lanoue and Sarah Ludden and the Thousand Waves Crew (Chicago), my mom, stepdad, Liam, Jack, Matilda, Elaine, and Jason (Columbus), Harper (Northampton), Jenn and Michelle (Grafton), and Carmel, Jess, and Garin again, as well as Amanda (Nashville). 17 people if you only count the Miner Drewes family once, and count one extra for the Thousand Waves Crew (which is sort of accurate and also sort of wildly inaccurate). 20 people is a nice round number, let's go with that. You can think of it as counting Mel-Jess-Garin twice, or counting three extra people at Thousand Waves. And I saw at least three people there whose names I knew before I got there, so that works, I think.

I spent two nights at rest areas, and around 4 in motels. I developed a fondness for Sleep Inns.

I listened to the following audio books, either for the first time or a second time:
Blink - Malcolm Gladwell (first time)
Assassination Vacation - Sarah Vowell (first time)
Dreams From My Father - Barack Obama (second time)
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama (second time)
People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn (finished it for the first time)
Gift of Fear - Gavin deBecker (second time)

I also caught up on Rachel Maddow (which I wasn't far behind on) and Fresh Air (which I was), and finally finished listening to the TED conference podcasts. I started to listen to Spoolcasts and realized I really, really didn't want to think about work.

So, to summarize:
5300 miles
6 Stops
20 Friends
$959.25, or $682.29
= $34/friend
30 MPG
2 rest area nights
4 hotel nights
6 full length books
~25 podcasts