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In the summer of 2005, a couple of good friends (Raist and LJ) moved to Vancouver, BC. I'd only been to Vancouver once, in 1990 or so, and then only pretty much just in the area of Hotel Vanvouver, where I was staying (for a gay square dance convention there). I did pass through again in 1995 on a road trip with my (then) new Explorer up as far north as we could get (Powell River, BC), then ferry over to Vancouver Island and back to Anacortes andn home. A fun trip, but that's another story.
For this story, I decided to go up and visit over Labor Day, taking Friday and Tuesday off for travel days --- they shouldn't be as crowded as Friday eve/Saturday and Monday would be, and it would give me time to stop and visit George and Emma in Seattle on the way.
With the New Orleans mess putting a crimp in gas supplies, I almost cancelled the trip, but that area doesn't really feed us oil or gas, and if I end up moving to Hawaii, this would likely be my last chance for quite some time. I did, however, resolve to keep to the speed limits (mostly), and as a result, averaged just a hair under 30 mpg over the whole 900 mile trip. In an SUV, even a small one, I'm impressed --- that's the best gas mileage any vehicle I've ever owned has gotten. Even my Toyota Tercel didn't get over about 24.
Pictures and some more snippets about the trip are at:
Seattle portion
Vancouver portion