2022 Negro League Baseball Museum Trip - Statistics

        Total Trip


Total Days 13
Days on the Road 10-1/2
Total Miles 4096
Average Miles/Day 390
Low Mileage Day 274
High Mileage Day 486

        Gas and Mileage


Total Gas Stops 36
Total Gallons 143.968
Total Gas Cost $572.11
Average Miles/Gallon 29.03
Average Cost/Gallon $3.97
Low Cost/Gallon $3.125 - Laramie, WY
High Cost/Gallon $4.999 - Huntington, OR

        General


Total States Visited 11
Total National Parks Visited 0
Total National Monuments Visited 1
Lowest Temperature 47.8°
Highest Temperature 107.9° 
Lowest Elevation 13'
Highest Elevation 8,671'
Days with Rain 0
Nights in Motels 9
Average Cost/Night $141.29
Low Cost Night $89.20
High Cost Night $213.94
Wireless Connections 8
Wired Connections 0
No Connections 1


Web Statistics


I don't usually look at the website statistics since I don't share the links with anyone and don't usually complete all of the pages until after we returned home. These pages are really for our own good anyway so I'm not that concerned with  how many people view or follow our pages anyway. That being said I did take a screen shot of the new Google GA4 Analytics for our pages.

Final Thoughts and Future Plans


Although we didn't spend a lot of time planning this trip there really wasn't much to plan. We have done this so many times that it's almost automatic. We really only had two destinations. We were going to Mike and Karin's to visit them for a few days and then the Negro League Baseball Museum. All we had to do was decide on routes and destinations each night for the next day. The good news was that we had no rain the whole trip. The bad part was that we had 100 plus degree temperatures several days. It actually hit 107.9 in Nebraska one day.

We noticed several things during the trip. Gas seemed to get cheaper as we went further east. The cheapest we saw was 3.049 although the cheapest we actually purchased was 3.125. The most expensive was 4.999 In Huntington, OR. It's interesting that the most expensive gas was in Oregon and the most expensive hotel was also in Oregon. It's also interesting that a Hampton Inn in Laramie, WY was $150.29 while a similar room in a Hampton in Pendleton, OR is $213.94. Speaking of hotels, when we arrived at the Ramada In in Butte, MT, they told us that the WiFi was down and had been down for some time. They also had no idea when it would be working again. WiFi is really important to us for building our web pages and getting them uploaded. It was especially upsetting that there was nothing on their website informing folks of this. In fact we had spoken to someone at the hotel the evening before to make sure our reservation went through and they could have told us then but didn't. We ended up staying rather then try to find another room at that time of the day. We were hoping to use our phones as a hot spots and get Internet access that way but the 5G and LTE coverage were spotty and we had to wait until the next night to upload our web page. Another thing we noticed is everywhere we went companies were trying to hire workers. We noticed hiring signs at restaurants, hotels, mini marts .etc. in every city we visited.

Our gas mileage was a little low compared to some previous trips but we were on Interstates a lot where the speed limit was frequently 80 MPH. We never really rode at that speed but were frequently 70 or 75 MPH. On a trike that has the rear fenders sticking out there is a lot of wind resistance and it increase dramatically with the speed. In the end I can live with 29 MPG - it just means we have to stop a little more often. We can pretty easily go 150 miles between stops but we can't really go that far without stopping to rest anyway.

I was a little disappointed with the GPS failing with less than 100 miles to go. On top of that I really don't know what failed, whether it was the GPS module itself or the connection to my circuit. I was also confused by the fact that the display showed the logger was not ok instead of the GPS. This is probably my fault since I did all of the programming. I will definitely have to dig into this. I'll also have to figure out how to continue logging the temperature and altitude if the GPS stops recording. Now the time stamp comes from the GPS so it controls everything. My display still shows real time data for volts, amps, and temperature even though the logger is not logging. As far as the current map is considered, I could probably create a track log of the last part of the route but I'm just not sure it's worth it.

I noticed another issue that I still have to track down. The software I use makes use of the EXIF data that is embedded in digital pictures and compares the time the picture is taken to the time stamps on the track log to determine where the markers are placed on the maps. This normally works fine and the software is supposed to place the markers to the nearest time and coordinates. The problem occurred when we were at the museum. The motorcycle was turned off while we were in the museum so no track log was written. At the same time we were taking a few pictures while we were in the museum. I thought the software would place markers for all of the pictures either at the last log point before stopping the bike or the first log point after leaving the museum. Unfortunately the software seemed to spread the pictures out almost at random. The software is RoboGeo and is no longer supported by the developer. In fact the software produces the map using Google Maps V2 API which is also no longer supported and I have to significantly edit the maps produced to support the new V3 API. Nothing's ever easy.

Like the last trip we are no longer using the XM radio. It just seems crazy to pay their current contract price for two weeks a year. Instead we record MP3 files from the XM/Sirius streaming service, load them on my phone, and then play them back on my phone through the FM radio via a digital modulator plugged into the headphone jack of the phone. My phone is mounted on a RAM mount similar to the one my Garmin GPS is mounted on. This GPS is different than the GPS module used to log our trips. The main purpose of the Garmin is to let us know what the current speed limit is if I miss a sign. I did have a slight problem with the balls on the phone RAM mount slipping even though the Garmin mount has never slipped. I may try to dip the balls in Plasti Dip to see if that works.

For the most part the motorcycle was fine. At some point we hit a chunk of tire on the road - long story - which knocked the side cover loose although we didn't lose it, we did lose one of the rubber grommets that hold it on. I have spares at home so I was able to replace it when we got home. The other issue was the lock on the fuel door. It failed and we couldn't get the key into the lock or turn it top release the latch. We were finally able to force the door open and then remove the lock which worked fine. After some research this appears to be a fairly common problem. The lock has a little plastic flap that keeps dust and dirt of falling into the lock. Over time the plastic degrades (the motorcycle is 23 years old) and the pieces of plastic fall into the lock and foul the tumblers. I found new locks on Ebay and have a new one on the way. Both were pretty minor issues. We also had a wardrobe malfunction with my leather jacket (probably older than the motorcycle). The leather zipper pull on on of the sleeve zippers failed and fell off. Not a big deal either and I have already bought some new leather pulls from Amazon and installed them on the jacket.

I guess that's about it. No plans yet for next year but there are a few new National Parks in the west that we haven't visited so that may be where we end up.

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