Journey vs. Destination

287.3 miles, 15.836 gallon, 18.14 mpg. That seems very low but as C pointed out, drag forces work on an r-squared order. So going quite this fast requires more power, a squared term if more power.

We stopped in Jamestown, home of the worlds largest buffalo. Must not be that big, as I couldn’t see it from the freeway or the gas station. To that, I saw, HMPH!

North Dakota is ok. Imagine the unending flat and straight of Texas. Now use green paints instead of brown. It is kind of pretty. But after 3 hours, I have stopped the audiobook (Android’s Dream) to play the Ramones.

Gas cost $60.16.

While the counter guy seemed nice as I went in to use the facilities, I decided against applying for the advertised job.

378.2 miles, 15.873 gallons, 23.8 mpg, $57.76.

So, why are we headed to the land of gigantism now? We did just go to the Mall of America…

With all of the stores from all of he malls I have ever been to in my life, plus an amusement park (log ride! Ferris wheel! rollercoaster!), a mini golf course, three story robot Lego construction (form of a robot, sadly not actually robotic), and a theater. And a dozen restaurants, all horrifically generic. Oh, and three large mall-tastic food courts. And a Peeps store. It was gigantic but the theme is less gigantism and more a national cathedral to the national past time (shopping).

But, as we head to North Dakota, the tour books say we’ll see very large animals along the roadway and at our stops: worlds largest buffalo, worlds largest heron, biggest cow ever.

I’ll send pic. But here is the gas one, boring as it is.

We met a friend for lunch in Toledo. It was extra nice of him to come from Ypsilanti (near Ann Arbor) Michigan since adding an hour and a half to our drive was not a happy thought.

Even though we stopped before our goal of Cleveland yesterday, it was a long day, mostly due to the difficulty of driving in the rain through most of New York (which is a surprisingly large state). Today has to be shorter or my tush will rebel.

Anyway, lunch was good, visit was great. It was nice to chat with someone about math and the sadness of innumeracy (our lunch date is a math prof).

Here is some math for you. Match the value in set A with the description in set B.

Set A:
315.6
14.149
52.50
22.3

Set B:
Miles per gallon
Gallons put in the car
Miles traveled since last gas
Dollars spent on this transaction

Hint:

In the longest sentence using the same word over and over again, the word “buffalo” is used as a place, a noun, and a verb (“to bully”).

Despite what the local bison are rumored to have done to out-of-town ruminants, we found their galleria to be a slice of 1997, a decent place to stroll through to stretch cramped legs.

And the gas was obtained with only one buffaloing incident, much less than Boston. (Yeah, I’m going to hold a grudge a bit, you would understand if you’d been there. Well, maybe not, C doesn’t seem to understand my vehemence.)

So, 16.963 gallons, 371.6 miles for 21.9 mpg. A shockingly expensive $67.84 which must not be being used on sign upkeep.