Courtney's and Viannah's Excellent Adventure, Spring 2004

Purpose
Bring Viannah home from her freshman year at Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Trip Logs
Eastbound Log
Westbound Log

Nate, Viannah, and Daylin after our post-finals celebration, 5/6/04.

(The Three Musketeers)

"Breadcrum" trace of the entire trip:

The gap in western Kansas was an equipment malfunction, probably due to interference from the HF rig.  (The two meter amp got too hot to touch!)  The gap in western Colorado is the Rocky Mountains.

Plan
April 29-30 Drive from La Canada, Ca 91011 to Hillsboro, Tx 76645
May 1-3 Hillsboro, Tx
May 4-6 Drive from Hillsboro, Tx 76645 to Lancaster, Pa 17604
May 7-8 Lancaster, Pa - pack up Viannah (KG6GXW)
May 8-12 Drive from Lancaster, Pa 17604 to La Canada, Ca 91011

This went pretty much as expected.  We arrived home after 8 p.m. May 11.  See the trip logs (above) for pictures of the sites and the packed car.  (We also shipped seven boxes via UPS.)

I realized on the final road day what the appeal of such a trip is.  It's not low cost or quick like flying would be, but, for several days in a row you only have to do two things:  You have to Go and you have to Stop.  You get up in the morning, jostle the ovenight stuff back into the overpacked car and get up on the freeway.  Play "Dance with Trucks" for twelve hours then, around sunset, get off, check in someplace new and watch the Weather Channel for a few minutes before lights out.  How Simple!

Price of gas summary:
California:  $2.179, $2.279
Arizona:  $2.079
New Mexico:  $1.799
Texas:  $1.769, $1.759
Arkansas:  $1.729
Tennessee:  $1.789
West Virginia:  $1.939
Indiana:  $1.899
Kansas:  $1.979
Colorado:  $2.169 (87 Octane, 85 Octane was $2.069)
Utah:  $2.249 (88 Octane, 85 Octane was $2.149), and $2.299
California:  $2.279, $2.299

We were told that Texaco will no longer exist shortly.  (My card, expires 12/04, was declined.)  They are now Shell.

Gasoline usage summary:

176.852 gallons, 5862.3 miles, $348.37 total cost = 33.1 mpg, 5.9 cents per mile.
Average cost, $1.970/gallon.

Amateur Radio Summary
Amateur frequencies:  14.176, 7.176, 10.115 Mhz, APRS on 144.39 MHz.
Shortwave schedules daily, generally at the top of the hour from around 1600Z to 2400Z.
Many many thanks to W0RPK, Ralph, for multiple daily status schedules and the APRS hardware and research.
Also worked John, W6GL once on the final road day (5/11) and made a handful of random contacts (QSOs) while crossing Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia single handing.  One of these was with the station at the LBJ High School in Austin, and CW, no less.  A student (maybe there is hope) was on his lunch break.

Unable to monitor the APRS site ourselves (except to see that the equipment in the car was working and to correct any problems that arose), we received many cellphone calls and amateur radio contacts along the lines of, "Hey, you haven't updated in 1 hour, 33 minutes, and 1 second!  What's up?"  APRS coverage, which is purely voluntary, is sparse in sparsely populated  regions, as is cellphone coverage though it is 'for profit.'

Thanks also to all those who followed us across the country and back and who called or wrote in.

n5bf at amsat dot org