Tally Ho!

I always promised I would come back to this. That I would finish Vespa Vagabond. Well, I'm here. I am back!

Late last night, when I dug out my notes and journals from the ride, two loose sheets of paper fell out of one of my journals. Columns of numbers scribbled in smudged pencil. A tally of my expenses from the ride.

If you read Honey Rock Dawn - this post in particular - you've glimpsed my obscene compulsion to organize data. When the ride was over (I don't remember doing this, but the handwriting is most certainly mine, as is the motive) I tallied up my receipts. In categories. With my gas receipts, I made note of the date, the city and state, the cost per gallon at that particular station, the amount of gallons (or fractions thereof) purchased, and the dollar total.

Some highlights ~
First gas receipt: July 28, 2005; San Francisco, CA
Final gas receipt: September 28, 2005; Rockville, CT

Lowest price of gas: $2.369/gallon in Cokeville, WY; August 10, 2005
Highest price of gas: $3.379/gallon in upstate NY; September 18, 2005

Minimum fill-up: 0.220 gallons near Baker, NV; August 6, 2010
Maximum fill-up: 1.493 gallons in Emmetsburg, IA; September 6, 2010

Total spent (two months, 6,000 miles) ~
on gas: $152.95
on lodging: $288.13
on food + misc: $406.38

My remarkable little Vespa used just 46 gallons of gas to cross the continent. I'm so glad I make (and keep) these obsessive charts; I never would have remembered these details otherwise!