Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 12 years and 9 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Not a lot of excitement today, just driving and the anticipation of finally getting back home.

We grabbed a quick breakfast, checked out of our last hotel, and were on the road by 8:30am. At 10:15 we crossed the border back into Florida. After going around Jacksonville to I-10, we took the back routes, cutting south and west to meet up with I-75 around Ocala just after 12:30pm. Two hours later (after a quick stop to pick up grocerie), we were pulling into the driveway. Whew, we made it!

After unpacking and putting everything away, I cooked dinner out on the grill (what’s the Fourth of July without a barbecue?) and we ate outside on the lanai. We ended up being too tired to drag ourselves out again to deal with the crowds and traffic for fireworks, so we just watched some “personal” displays in the neighborhood. Happy Independence Day!

What a trip … over the past 10 days we drove just under 3,700 miles (about 660 miles less than last year) through 17 states, spending about 68 hours in the car (almost 3 full days!). The weather was fantastic, and we had no major problems. It was another successful family vacation roadtrip.

The Gas Cubby statistics from my iPhone are in the photo gallery below. My best tank was Tuesday (Grantville to Boston, 27mpg) but an overall average of 25mpg (with the AC on the entire time) for my 2003 Highlander with (now) over 140k miles on it is pretty good! Gas was expensive, but not as bad as back in 2008 when my cheapest tank was $3.88/gal (this year I didn’t pay above $3.80).