The 10th trip south was longer than the 10th trip north (TN_10), both in miles and time. It knocked some items off my bucket list. And Marlene and I arrived home still liking each other. I call that a success.
By the numbers:
- 11 days, 10 nights, 8 hops, 2,482 miles (310 miles per hop).
- 129 extra miles due to trips to casinos, two trips into Nashville and a trip to Hershey Chocolate World.
- 76.3 gallons of fuel consumed (34.2 miles per gallon).
- Total fuel cost: $223.04 ($2.92 per gallon).
- 8 nights in a hotel: $737.31 ($92.16 per night).
Highlights:
- Visiting our cousins in Louisville KY. I see my cousin frequently as he lives near me half the year but had never visited him at his Louisville home. Marlene hadn’t seen her cousin in over 30 years. Both visits were very nice.
- Visiting the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville PA. Somber but beautiful.
- Visiting Hershey’s Chocolate World in Hershey PA. Fun with chocolate treats.
- Visiting the Ben & Jerry’s factory in VT. Entertaining with delicious ice cream.
- Visiting Nashville TN. Seeing Lower Broadway in full swing at night was a treat.
- The Drury Inn in Nashville. This was our most expensive hotel but worth every penny.
Lowlights:
- Finding Fort Ticonderoga closed. Disappointing as this was one of the reasons I routed TS_10 through Vermont.
- Losses at the casinos. Marlene did okay but I did poorly at all of them.
- Some disappointing Wyndham hotels. I expect a certain quality from all the Wyndham brands, but some of my choices – the La Quinta in Tallahassee being the worst – were not the quality I expected.
Planned and actual routes:
The plan and actual only resemble each other in that they both were routed through Louisville with a stop at Hershey PA. Everything else changed. Most notably, we started via VT and NY. We also made the last stop Tallahassee rather than Destin FL.