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Finally home and I'm beat!
With careful packing, we left the house with all the luggage contained behind the rear seats. About a week in one of them had to be laid down to fit everything.
Our first stop was Yellowstone Park and we reached Old Faithful just minutes before the eruption. Got amazing mileage through the park and after being limited to speeds between 45-55, my miles to empty showed 394 (on just 16.9 gallons remember) after the next fill up. That didn't last long.
The next morning was a Mt Rushmore pitstop, then the grueling slog through SD. Speeds of 80-85 slashed my mileage to 14. The Bestop was deafening, it's comfortable limit is about 75.
Kept grinding out the miles until we reached Nashville. Visited Broadway and had hot chicken at Prince's. Trust their hotness scale, it's accurate. I didn't and suffered through the pain, grabbing a milkshake at Hattie Jane's to survive. Later we watched the fireworks which were pretty badass.
The it was off to Chattanooga, where we took the Ruby Falls cave tour and rode the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway. Cruised up Signal Mountain to look around. Did some touring around the city, we liked it a lot.
Next it was off to the Cherohala Skyway and the Tail of the Dragon on the scenic route to Knoxville. Upon arriving to Knoxville my cumulative MPG average was 17.6, not too shabby.
Spent the next day at Windrock, amazing fun to be had there. Mileage dropped to 17.1 after just that day of crawling around. Did some other sightseeing but Knoxville kind of reminded us of home and we weren't digging it. Then it was off to Sevierville.
Stopped at Buc-ee's and that was a circus event. Never again. Bumper to bumper, no parking, pumps full, got trapped at the pumps by people that left their cars anywhere they could fit to go inside. Pure anarchy.
Spent a couple days at Dollywood. Also never again. They have severe ride reliability problems, stood in line for ages for nothing over and over again. Joe's Crab Shack was the highlight of that stop.
On our way up to the Tri-Cities we stopped at the Forbidden Caverns, and once there we saw the Appalachian Caverns.
We started picking our way north and mileage was looking pretty good, got up to 17.8. I recommend skipping Illinois, just awful from start to finish. Once into Wisconsin we stopped at Ehlenbach's Cheese Chalet and got New Glarus, curds, and a cheesehead. Passed by the Dells but didn't have time to swing into the Super Cel. Kept the pedal down and slept in Minnesota. The next day brought the dreaded South Dakota and 14 MPG back. We stopped at the Badlands and Wall Drug and feed prairie dogs peanuts. The awful mileage lasted all the way through Montana.
I used normal, eco, and sport off and on and noticed zero difference in mileage. Finished with an average of 16.7 over 6k. Never once used 6th as it put me in boost too much.
My grindy transmission survived. Time to start hounding the dealer to get it fixed.
This may be my last trip with it. I'll be selling it later this year as I've realized I'd much rather have a 1G and having both isn't feasible.
With careful packing, we left the house with all the luggage contained behind the rear seats. About a week in one of them had to be laid down to fit everything.
Our first stop was Yellowstone Park and we reached Old Faithful just minutes before the eruption. Got amazing mileage through the park and after being limited to speeds between 45-55, my miles to empty showed 394 (on just 16.9 gallons remember) after the next fill up. That didn't last long.
The next morning was a Mt Rushmore pitstop, then the grueling slog through SD. Speeds of 80-85 slashed my mileage to 14. The Bestop was deafening, it's comfortable limit is about 75.
Kept grinding out the miles until we reached Nashville. Visited Broadway and had hot chicken at Prince's. Trust their hotness scale, it's accurate. I didn't and suffered through the pain, grabbing a milkshake at Hattie Jane's to survive. Later we watched the fireworks which were pretty badass.
The it was off to Chattanooga, where we took the Ruby Falls cave tour and rode the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway. Cruised up Signal Mountain to look around. Did some touring around the city, we liked it a lot.
Next it was off to the Cherohala Skyway and the Tail of the Dragon on the scenic route to Knoxville. Upon arriving to Knoxville my cumulative MPG average was 17.6, not too shabby.
Spent the next day at Windrock, amazing fun to be had there. Mileage dropped to 17.1 after just that day of crawling around. Did some other sightseeing but Knoxville kind of reminded us of home and we weren't digging it. Then it was off to Sevierville.
Stopped at Buc-ee's and that was a circus event. Never again. Bumper to bumper, no parking, pumps full, got trapped at the pumps by people that left their cars anywhere they could fit to go inside. Pure anarchy.
Spent a couple days at Dollywood. Also never again. They have severe ride reliability problems, stood in line for ages for nothing over and over again. Joe's Crab Shack was the highlight of that stop.
On our way up to the Tri-Cities we stopped at the Forbidden Caverns, and once there we saw the Appalachian Caverns.
We started picking our way north and mileage was looking pretty good, got up to 17.8. I recommend skipping Illinois, just awful from start to finish. Once into Wisconsin we stopped at Ehlenbach's Cheese Chalet and got New Glarus, curds, and a cheesehead. Passed by the Dells but didn't have time to swing into the Super Cel. Kept the pedal down and slept in Minnesota. The next day brought the dreaded South Dakota and 14 MPG back. We stopped at the Badlands and Wall Drug and feed prairie dogs peanuts. The awful mileage lasted all the way through Montana.
I used normal, eco, and sport off and on and noticed zero difference in mileage. Finished with an average of 16.7 over 6k. Never once used 6th as it put me in boost too much.
My grindy transmission survived. Time to start hounding the dealer to get it fixed.
This may be my last trip with it. I'll be selling it later this year as I've realized I'd much rather have a 1G and having both isn't feasible.
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