Mustang Marathon Day 2

OKLAHOMA CITY, Ok. -- Cranked out 542 miles today, had one very nice mileage stint, and was happy to get out of the car here.

          First, to clean up yesterday’s final stats: The Mustang averaged 27.1 mpg over the last stint of the day. The total for the day, then, work out to 835 miles and 26.09 mpg.

          Today did not start out well. The hotel’s internet was down all night and they did not expect to have the tech rep on site until after checkout time. I was unable to complete my business last night and got up at 4:30 this morning to finish. That’s when I discovered there was no chance of finishing at the hotel.

          At this point, the decision to leave the broadband equipment at home seemed ill-considered. Unable to return to sleep, I was out of the hotel early and that’s when I had a very nice little run, from a mileage standpoint. The speed limit within the Albuquerque city limits is 65, so I cruised at that speed for 20 minutes. Then the highway opened up, the limit rose to 75 and I ran at that velocity for more than an hour with the air conditioning off.

          Just before the car turned into a hot box, I pulled off and topped the tank and discovered the ol’ girl averaged 29.7 mpg for that little period. Not bad. She must have sipped fuel at better than 30 mph during the slower segment.

          I should mention that the mountains in the Flagstaff area and in New Mexico are really rugged, but they are very pretty as well. Rumbling through there in the Mustang was great fun. There were so many climbs and drops that I felt like a high-speed version of Sir Edmond Hillary.

          Rolled through Texas next and enjoyed the drivers there, as I did last year. They pay attention to conditions, drive within the speed limit and understand how to share the road. Those are all rare and delightful things these days.

          Then came Oklahoma. The speed limit here is lower, 70 mph, and that is probably a good thing. Wow.

          Wednesday’s leg is another long one, about 720 miles or so, to Indianapolis. I need to time the trip so I hit St. Louis at a good time in terms of traffic, so I’ll work out the start time tonight. It’ll be early, I’m sure, due to the distance to be covered.

          That said, the stats for the first parts of today’s run: Stint 1 you know about. Stint 2, longer, with the a/c running and the car rolling along at 75 mph, 26.66 mpg. Those stints combined: 27.74 mph.

          Thanks for reading.