21 MPG (But The Gallons Are Smaller)

For some reason, long journeys always seem to take us significantly more time than friends and relatives tell us they take. This is saying nothing about the accuracy or good intentions of the people giving us travel advice. I think it is just because we are some kind of magnet for traffic delays. As we discovered on Friday, it was obviously a mistake to drive around the Bay Area on the Friday evening of Labor Day Weekend when the Eastbound Bay Bridge was closed (a well advertised source of snarl-ups for the holiday weekend). But the plan to drive home from Tahoe on Sunday afternoon, missing all the returning Monday traffic, was a good one. However, we weren't counting on a man threatening to throw himself off a bridge on in Sacramento on Sunday afternoon (sorry, link needs free registration). This ended up closing I-50 for about 4 hours... and we caught the last half hour of that. The news story of the incident also reports:

The hours-long traffic blockage possibly caused smaller crowds Sunday evening at large regional events such as the California State Fair.

"It's certainly very possible that it affected attendance," said Amber Bagwell, Cal Expo spokeswoman, noting that official attendance figures were to be calculated at midnight but that the crowd was noticeably thinner.

...so it's nice to see that people have kept a focus on the important issues. Today we drove over to Santa Cruz, which is our local coastal resort town. We have very pleasant memories of visiting with Becky's grandparents a few years ago, and we thought Lucy might like the beach. I think we must have previously visited slightly out of season, because this weekend it was very crowded, and the beach was full of beautiful people playing volleyball. Far too intimidating. So, instead we had a walk around downtown Santa Cruz, which really is very nice. They've managed to retain a cosy, old town feel but with a vibrant and friendly atmosphere. A definite addition to the list of "things to do without spending money on a Sunday afternoon"... and the little pizza place we found was excellent. Santa Cruz isn't very far to drive (it took us well under an hour, and Google Maps says it is about 40 miles), but it did underline the need to fill up with petrol quite regularly. This time we bit the bullet and calculated our fuel economy ("gas mileage"). It worked out to be 21mpg, but this is with US gallons, which are 4/5 the size of UK gallons (the difference coming from a US pint being 16 fluid ounces, and a UK pint being 20 fluid ounces). So, that's just over 26mpg in England. I don't suppose this is bad (compared to what we could/should be getting), especially considering we're driving a bit of a tank. Still, if we're going to get another car to drive around the Bay Area, it would be a good idea to get something a little smaller. Whether or not we get another car hinges around my daily commute. Hopefully I can cycle to work from our new house, but the jury is going to be out on that until we're living there... and my bike arrives off the boat. Come in London Express... Your time is up.