You Get What You Pay For

So I whip by the Wawa for the free air on my way home, and find the
machine to be broken. The air compressor pumps, but there are ao many
leaks between it and the end of the hose that more air leaked out of my
tire than got put in. I think I actually lost air on the first tire, so
I gave up and went home.

Luckily, there's a Wawa near my home, so I stopped there, also. This
free air station was in great shape and accurately inflated and checked
the pressure in all my tires.

Lesson learned: check the free air machine to make sure it'll work
before putting the thing near your tires!

My handy dandy meter confirmed that all four tires remained near 40 psi
since June 1, so my fuel economy variations should be blamed on other
forces, such as driving in stop-and-go traffic in town and on my way
home from work.

Things look good this tank. I'll hopefully make it well past 400 miles
before the near empty light comes on, and probably get to about 430
miles this tank before I fill it up tomorrow morning.

Checking the Tire Air

It has been more than six weeks since I pumped up my tires to 40 psi.
The tank right after I did it, I saw my fuel economy increase 1.5 mpg,
but since then it was the same as average, for the most part.

I wonder if that "spike" in fuel economy was due to wishful thinking or
if it was actually better for that one tank, and my tires went back down
to a "recommended" pressure of 34 psi.

There is a Wawa sort of on my way home from work. Wawa has free air.
The day I pumped it to 40 psi I actually paid 75 cents at the gas
station to use that air.

I think Exxon has free air, too, but there isn't an Exxon nearby that's
on my way home from work.

Off to the Ballgame with Kids in Tow

Yesterday we went to RFK stadium in Washington, DC to see the Nationals play the Astros. Seven of us (two dads and five daughters) made the 56-mile trip in just over an hour, with the trip computer recording average fuel economy of 23.8 mpg.

On the trip home, we found out too late that the Interstate had been shut down for hours due to a hazardous material spill. While it was "all clear" by the time we left the game, we still needed three hours to get home, lowering the trip computer's fuel economy number to a pitiful 20.4.

Sitting in idling traffic absolutely ruins your fuel economy.

On the plus side, we had a super time. Not only did the Nats win, we got to see Craig Biggio play an at-bat for the Astros, and outside the stadium we saw Teddy Roosevelt! He let us take a picture with one of our homemade signs:

So overall it was a really good day for all involved.

Tank 123 - 16 July 2007

Filled up at the Fredericksburg Costco this morning with 10.896 gallons
of gas, at $2.729 per gallon.

I went 409.7 miles, which made for fuel economy of 37.60 mpg this tank,
which is a little bit above average for the year.

My mileage likely took a big hit on my commute home last Friday (Friday
the Thirteenth!). That trip home took 110 minutes, which was 35 minutes
longer than my average Friday home commute time, and almost double what
my average time is to get home in general.

There was lots of stop and go and "idle speed" driving. For about 8
minutes and just more than half a mile, I was able to have the engine
turned off and just coast slowly down the hill along with the traffic.

I think I could regularly achieve fuel economy averaging 40 mpg or more
if I was able to just use my car to drive TO work and not drive it home.

So far in 2007, I have spent $598.99 on gas. Last year at this time, I
had spent $656.61 on gas. Even with all the news on high gas prices, my
gas cost more last year, so far...

Is this thing on?

It has occurred to me that perhaps the reason that nobody reads this
(and I mean nobody, I checked!) is because of the relative infrequency
of updated posts. Since the main point of this blog is to report my
fuel economy, that means one update every 8 days or so.

This does not bode well for those who crave daily updates from their
regular Internet destinations.

So what can I do to attract the audience I apparently desire with so
much intensity?

Daily notes with no apparent content won't do it.

I used to cc: all my notes to my brother to another blog until he
discovered it several months later. He at least thinks my regular notes
are entertaining.

Perhaps observations from my daily commute? But most people have a
commute, so this will not be news to them, other than perhaps I
experience something they have already seen and it conjures up a fond
memory.

My point is, although nobody reads this blog, I will try to inject some
entertaining bits between the fuel economy posts.

If not entertaining, than hopefully diverting, or distracting, maybe...

Tank 122 - 5 July 2007

Made it to the Woodbridge Costco this morning, and considered driving
around the parking lot once to push my miles this tank to over 400, but
did not as I realized how dumb that idea was.

So I went 399.9 miles this tank, and pumped in 10.775 gallons (at
$2.619/gallon), making for 37.11 mpg. This is slightly lower than my
overall mileage for 2007 (which currently is 37.13 mpg).

The mighty Corolla is being used for more trips around town on
weeknights and on the weekends, which lowers average fuel economy.
Also, my trips home have been taking longer, and as my recent "minivan
commute" taught me, stop and go traffic really, really messes up your
mileage.

Interestingly, gas was about 6 cents per gallon less than this time last
year. With all the talk about gas prices, I thought they'd be higher.

I must not complain, however, as gas was $2.999 and $3.099 over my
weekend trip to New York. Central and Northern Virginia must be a good
place to be if you want gas that's cheaper than most.