Well, the follow up run was disappointing, to say the least. Old man winter was conspiring against me and he won; 157.4mi and 5.60gallons or 28.1mpg.
-Both days I fought 20mph headwinds from the west (straight at me) all the way to work.
-by afternoon the wind had died down and became variable at 5-10mph, and shifted slighty south, so no real "tailwind" effect to help make up for the horrendous morning.
-temps were in the low/mid 30's on Mon. and mid 20's on Tues. Afternoon highs were mid 30's both days.
-Some data logging revealed that I am lugging it too much with my 1800rpm shift points as there were far too many spikes in the 90-100% engine load range for my liking.
Between all of this my mileage was pretty aweful.
Over the last 2 fillups I've averaged 31, which isn't bad for this vehicle, but I wanted more. Anyway, I walked away defeated and returned the Vue to my loving wife, who HAPPILY took it and gave me back my ugly gold SL2.