I just got back from taking delivery of Laura's grooming van. What a trip, two days driving in the rain, two days getting the van roof converted, and even seeing some snow and sleet. In April.
Highest price paid for diesel: $4.20 a gallon in New Waterford, Ohio.
Lowest price paid for diesel: $3.77 a gallon in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Nicest surprise: Paying less than $4 a gallon in New Jersey, and having someone else stand in the rain to pump the fuel (no self serve in the Garden State)
I topped off the 35 gallon tank in Knoxville, drove I-75, I-24, I-59, I-459, I-65, and Alabama 55 back to Florida. Drove right by the exit for Albertville, wish I could have stopped, Stephen, but I did think of the Bama Six Gun as I scooted down the slab at 70.
Hand calculated, that van gets 19 mpg with the bubble top on. I did throw some Diesel Kleen in the tank when I took delivery, the more I ran that truck, the better it ran.
My wife knows a groomer who had a gas powered version of the E-350 as a grooming van. She got 9 mpg. She traded it in on a Dodge Sprinter and gets 21 mpg, but that thing is even smaller than the E-350 grooming conversion.
As for the strike, I saw two bobtail tractors parked on an overpass over I-80 in Pennsylvania with a strike solidarity sign stretched between them. That was it. The road was full of trucks, and there was no shortage of RVs in line at the diesel pumps at the Flying J.
We'll take in the shorts and keep paying these higher prices while those in power dilute the value of the greenback. THAT is why prices are going through the roof. Our money isn't worth squat. As for selling the trucks we own, why? No one is buying them. Use them less, but hold on to them and use them. I'm waiting for the biodiesel plant planned locally to come on line so I can put some B-20 in the tank and support our local soybean farmers.
The best part of the trip? Getting home, having filled the tank in Knoxville, and still having a quarter tank indicated when I pulled in the driveway in Crestview. Sweet.
