Sep 5 & 6, 2012 Last updated: 9/9/12 1:00pm PT
Day 5 was a day of endless driving. We drove for about 11 hours, from Fresno, CA to Springfield, OR. The speed limit was 70 through most of California, 65 through Oregon. We only stopped for lunch (Carl’s Jr.) and gas. In Springfield/Eugene, we had dinner at Hop Valley Brewing, only because we were hungry and it was walking distance from the hotel. We had stayed here before and eaten in this same building in 2007, but back then it was a German restaurant. We also went for ice cream (again) at Prince Pücklers.
Day 6 was more driving, from Springfield, OR to home, with a stop in Portland to visit Powell’s bookstore and have lunch. Both were disappointing. Powell’s doesn’t seem to have the bargains it once had. Lunch was at Big-Ass Sandwiches, which we saw on the Food Network. It was OK, but not worth the wait in line.
We bought the Ford Fiesta at the end of 2011 because Denise’s 12 year old Oldsmobile became unreliable. The Fiesta is great. It rides like a bigger car (unless you are trying to pass someone while going up the mountain). We did almost 2500 miles and averaged 42.84 miles per gallon over the whole trip (no need for a hybrid here). The best mileage we got was 47.32 and the worst we got was 40.09. We hit 47 twice, 40 twice and had a few 42-44 fill-ups. I was getting so spoiled by fill-ups over 40 mpg that when we ‘only’ got 40, I was disappointed. This great mileage was achieved even with a lot of mountain driving and running the A/C pretty much the whole time.
Here is the car, with lots of dead bugs stuck to the front.
