Where should I begin with today's entry??? Soo much has happened in the past month so I will begin with some "non-camping" experiences. A regrettable occurrence in the family had us making last minute plans to visit Arizona. We decided to take the VW Beetle instead of flying as the expense would be greatly reduced and overall time would not be that much more when factoring the commute time to and from airports. This was also a great time to test out our new 2.0L TDI Beetle on a 600 mile 10 hour drive. Here are some shots of the car that keeps on amazing me with it's incredible fuel efficiency. Below you can see our bike rack installed as well as the highest average fuel efficiency I have attained
As you can see I finally attained over 70MPG!!! Granted this was mainly downhill at just under 60mph and over a distance of 30 miles. Overall this TDI engine is averaging well over 600 miles per 13 gallon tank which easily surpases 45MPG and all within the Los Angeles area (city/highway combined). I do drive with fuel efficiency in mind but it baffles me that VW's EPA rating for this car is 29/41 city/highway as our real life averages are much better.
Anyway, back to our Arizona trip: We of course made the best of our situation and managed to visit the historic western city of Tombstone. Here we are doing our job at being tourists.....
We then managed to catch a gun fight show that was rated the best in Tombstone! I guess the competition was pretty poor as the acting was terrible....although I have to give them an A for effort.
We learned that this silver mining town had over 18,000 people in it's hay day with over 500 licensed saloons. Certainly a tough way of life back then as our one day visit was enough for us.
We averaged 50.5 MPG on our trip from Los Angeles to Sierra Vista with the AC on full blast to counter the 105+ degree temps also carrying 3 passengers and luggage. The drive back saw an average of 52.3MPG which I attribute to the elevation decrease. I can only imagine the power (240 ft/lbs of torque) and fuel efficiency if this amazing engine were to be swapped into our camper!
What kind of bike rack is that? I have the same car have been searching for a suitable rack.
ReplyDeleteHi there, it's an older model Yakima trunk bike rack. I believe the closest current model is the Yakima King Joe model. It works for occasional use but I wouldn't suggest it if you bike often and/or have expensive bicycles.
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