Alaska 2008

The first day passed without any problems... a good omen for the trip (we hope).

We left home before just before 6 AM in order to get ahead of any rush hour traffic. After the severe storms that passed through the area in the last few days, we were a bit apprehensive about what we would find when we got to the trailer. We had visions of damage from the hail that fell in the area and possibly branches dropping on the roof. Once we got to the trailer storage facility, we inspected the trailer and found no damage. It took us about 45 minutes to get everything out of the truck and into the trailer. We had a full load of perishable food, clothing and miscellaneous equipment. In previous runs to the storage facility we brought up some clothing and canned goods. Maybe my memory is faulty, but I can't believe that we carried that much stuff on previous trips.

Once we got on the road again, it was smooth sailing all the way to Streetsboro, OH. We hit a number of construction sites on I-84 and I-80 in Pennsylvania which slowed us down a bit, but no complaints. Our previous experiences with construction sites in Pennsylvania have not been so good... miles of one lane traffic for 100 feet of work. This time the single lane portions were limited.

The weather mostly cooperated with us. It was quite cool with the high temperature only reaching about 69 degrees F. We had a few rain showers. In one strong, but brief shower, the temperature dropped from 65 to 57 degrees in a matter of minutes. It recovered a bit after the shower but stayed in the mid 60's for the rest of the trip. The wind was fairly strong and hit us head on. That wind and the hilly terrain of I-80 in Pennsylvania combined to increase our fuel consumption. Once we got out of the hills of Pennsylvania and hit the flatter terrain of Ohio, we could see an improvement in fuel consumption.

As I said in the itinerary page for this trip, we purchased a diesel powered truck in January in the hopes that we would get an improvement in miles per gallon and a reduction in the fuel cost per mile. I don't have the data from two previous trips over the terrain we covered today with me, but I think we are doing better in the MPG side of the equation. Fuel cost per mile is significantly higher than previous trips... I don't think I need to go into the reasons why. The truck does pay off in the way it handles the hilly terrain. With a six speed transmission coupled to a diesel engine, climbing the hills was a breeze.

The only stops we made today were for fuel and lunch. We took no photographs and don't really expect to post anything until we get to Rapid City, SD. The cameras are always at the ready. If an opportunity arises to get an interesting picture, we will make an effort to get the shot.