The Final Route

Final Route

On the way home, I stop by and visit the Japanese relocation camp in Grenada, Colorado. This site is where Japanese citizens were held against their will in violation of the U.S. constitution during WW2.

Then:

Now:

The final route was 5474 miles which I did in 13 days.  I burned 118 gallons of fuel for an average of 46 mpg. I usually average about 44 mpg on gas with E10 gas which is what is sold in Virginia. In the west, gas without ethanol is widely available especially at the name brand gasoline retailers. On ethanol free gas, my mpg averaged 53 mpg. The government website on ethanol says that you should only experience about a 2-3% decrease in fuel economy on E10 ( 10% ethanol ). However, it says you should experience a 25-30% decrease in mpg when using E85. This was closer to my experience using E10.

I can can confirm after driving across the U.S. that Americans prefer to drive trucks rather than automobiles( SUVs are classified as trucks with lower mpg requirements ). Roughly 53% of passenger vehicles are trucks. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_vehicles_in_the_United_States#Total_number_of_vehicles

It takes 131,000 BTUs of energy to create 1 gallon of ethanol although one gallon of ethanol has only 77,000 BTUs of energy available. Every time a gallon of ethanol is produced, there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTUs of energy ( http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/01/8.23.01/Pimentel-ethanol.html ).

It costs about half the price in fossil fuels to produce a gallon of ethanol which is why fossil fuels are used to produce ethanol. From a cost standpoint, it would be a glaringly losing proposition to use ethanol to produce ethanol.

If SUVs were reclassified as automobiles with the higher mpg requirements, that would go a long way toward reducing pollution rather than using ethanol which actually has the opposite effect. We could also save money by eliminating ethanol subsidies.

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Tweedledum: "I know what you're thinking about, but it isn't so, nohow."

Tweedledee: "Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."

Tweedledee: "If you think we're wax-works, you ought to pay, you know!"

Tweedledum: "Contrariwise, if you think we're alive you ought to speak to us!"

Dee & Dum: "That's logic!"

Alice: "Well, it's been nice meeting you. Goodbye!"

Tweedledee: "You're beginning backwards!"

Tweedledum: "Aye, the first thing in a visit is to say: How do you do and shake hands, shake hands, shake hands. How do you do and shake hands and state your name and business."

Dee & Dum: "That's manners!"

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