Road Trip ....

Well, Pam and I have returned from our annual Ohio Road Trip (actually we've done this twice).  What a whirlwind week.  Each of these trips has been planned out by the day and I put together a spread sheet showing all the people we would visit, which towns we would be visiting, where I was going to play golf and with whom, where Pam was going to visit and maybe have lunch with a friend or two, in which hotels we would be staying and when we would have to check-out.  I also got to play euchre with Tom, Bill, and Dennis at the Sidney Veteran's Center.  I/we really look forward to that.  We played for about 3 hours and nobody lost a dime.  Either we're getting better at this game or we just didn't keep very good track of points. Regardless, it was quite an adventure.

Before we left, all the crap hit the fan with inflation and gas prices going through the roof, so I wanted to see what this trip was actually costing. Here are the breakdowns:

* 1,652 miles round trip.

* Total cost of gas: $462.11.

* Driving my 2019 Jeep -- great for packing all the "stuff" we needed or might need for this trip.

* Gas mileage: Overall average: 24.5 mpg. (High of 27.1 mpg, low of 20.4 mpg).

* Average gallon per mile cost: $0.28/mile

* Hotels: $501.37 (We used my military and AAA discounts where we could and all of our Hilton Honors Points to keep the costs down).         

* Ohio roads are not nearly as nice as NC roads, so somewhere I picked up a little shimmy when I hit one of their potholes.  That cost me $49.00 to get the tires rebalanced once we got home.

So, what is the bottom line from all of this? Well, first -- we proved we weren't too old to do another of these trips. Aside from that, we got to see some really great people back in Ohio.  Wannie is always fun to visit and she even entertained us with her piano skills (she's really good!!). Chris and Karen, Ken and Pat and Becky and Eric are really long time church friends from Troy and it is always good to catch up with them. Warren, our WWII friend, was turning 96 and he looked great.  My sister, Linda and her husband (Luke) had recovered from their trip to visit us and we had a good time at her grandson's HS graduation party. I had a great time playing golf with my Anna buddies and with Dave. I always have fun with these guys and I played pretty much my average game -- bogey golf. While I was playing golf on Thursday, Pam had a really good visit with Mary and all of the Lima gang.  Friday night, we had a Cassano's pizza night with our old neighbors from McCartyville Road (Jim and Amanda) and I really wanted to thank the 3 boys for delaying their Friday night plans for going out with their friends to stay home for a couple of hours and have dinner and visit with us. Pam got to meet up with her line dancing friends and spend an afternoon dancing and having fun. We then got to spend time with Pam's brother, Lee, and the three of us went to lunch at Tom's Ice Cream Bowl in Zanesville.  That afternoon Pam was able to visit with her friends Liddy and Susan while I drove around Zanesville to see how it had changed in the last year. Later that evening we caught up with my old Command Sergeant-Major (Dave) and his wife (Dreama) for dinner.  I really enjoy that because there are usually stories to be told that I might not have heard before, some of which might even be true !!!

What do you think -- sound like a pretty eventful trip? I think it was. Now you know why I put together a spreadsheet -- to keep it orderly. 

So, other than all the windshield time (which is really pretty boring for Pam), it was a pretty rewarding trip. In fact, we might be making another one in October as one of Jim and Amanda's boys is planning a wedding some time that month.

I don't know if you could go to a travel agent and ask for a trip to include all these kinds of things for only $0.28 per mile (or $127 per day, depending on how you want to look at it). So, given that, I don't think the next trip will be any problem.

There is no such thing as a bad road trip, only inappropriate clothing and not enough shoes.

Hooah