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So we made it back in one piece and I am am somewhat gutted by the mileage we got during our trip. Granted, we had many miles to drive, lots of things to see and we didn't want to drive too much time in the darkness to avoid hitting a deer.
I believe we averaged about 37 mpg, which isn't bad, but given the high altitude (5000+ ft) and warm weather (80s) and theory of higher energy content non-ethanol gasoline in CA, NV and UT I was hoping to break the 40s consistently even when driving fast (65+ mph).
Here some factors I attribute to the missed goal:
1) Even a little bit of weight affects our car. 200 lbs of luggage is roughly 6-7% of our car's weight. With only 128 ft-lbs helping to lug 3200 lbs over mountain passes the engine has to work hard.
2) We had to keep the A/C on for a good chunk of the time. My wife was roasting in the sun...
3) Cross-winds! We had strong winds from the south-west which is a major factor when driving at high speeds.
4) High altitude. To keep some level of performance the engine had to be kept in a lower gear around town (2nd and 3rd instead of 3rd and 4th) and passing and passes had to occur in 3rd and 4th gear. I feel for any Civic owners in the Rockies! Strangely after 400-600 miles or so it seemed the car felt spunkier again. Maybe just my mind playing tricks on me, or maybe the ECU re-mapped itself to compensate?
The non-ethanol gasoline was a let-down. No change noticed. The altitude made much more of a difference to "engine feel", or as I like to call it - elasticity. Here in western Washington it feels lively and elastic. In Wyoming the engine needs revs to be motivated to pull the car.
On our trip back home we averaged 73 mph over 14.5 hrs, so I think we can be satisfied with 37ish mpg. Comments welcome. (Previous commnts appreciated!)
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