My Canadian Pepperette Quest was coming to an end. It was time to drive half the continent so I could get back to Austin. I made my final stop at Metro in Thunder Bay. I was going to see what local products they had and spend my Canadian cash. You could see my car had been up north by all the salt that was on it.
After grocery shopping, I set my GPS and hit the road.
Soon I was in Minnesota and making a quick pitstop at Ryden's Border Store.
After Ryden's, my goal was to try to make as good of time as I could. It seemed the farther south I drove, the windier it got. I fought the wind and made it to the Missouri Welcome Center, where I spent the night.
When I woke up in the morning, it was even windier. By the time I hit Kansas there were high wind warnings out!
I stopped at a travel plaza and the car just rocked from the wind. When I hit the road, my gas mileage was doing horrible. I got under 30mpg! Now, most people still think 30mpg is good, but I've got over 50mpg with my car before.
I wish my car was powered by the wind turbines because on that day I'd be doing well!
By the time I was ready to fill up, my average was a little higher than 25mpg. It was 29.2mpg. That's the worst I've ever seen it in my 2017 Focus. I guess that little 1.0 EcoBoost was really working hard!
Soon I was in Texas and it got a little less windy.
As with any driving in Texas, there has to be a traffic jam. I hit Fort Worth right at rush hour, so that slowed me down a bit.
After Fort Worth, things opened up. The sky got a bit darker too!
Luckily, it only sprinkled a little bit and I was finally home. Victoria got me a big bag of Laffy Taffy!
I was happy to be home with Victoria again. I can definitely see I pushed my Focus a little bit on this last trip. For me, 29mpg was disappointing gas mileage. I wonder if any other driving conditions will do this again. I guess we'll have to wait and see!