When I drove home yesterday from my son's house in Sherwood, AR, I reset my average miles per gallon to zero as I drove up the entrance ramp to the highway. I reset it again as I got to the top of the exit ramp in Texarkana, AR. I had driven about 145 miles at that point, I maintained a speed of 65 mph in the right lane for almost all of the trip, although when I passed a truck or two, I got it up to 75. I was in no hurry and wanted to see if I could beat my old best of 40.5 mpg.
Turned out I got 43.9 mpg this time around. My car is a Toyota Corolla, 2016 base model, that has never had a tune up (one is due in about 8K miles or less). I thought that was good enough mileage to mention here. At 75 mph, I get about 37 to 38 mpg. Quite the difference but man you gotta be patient to drive 65 mph on a 75 mph highway. Of course, I am retired so why hurry! Also, there was almost no traffic; so, it did not inconvenience anyone; had there been traffic, I would have been driving the speed limit or very close to it.
If I had been driving a bit faster, I am certain I would have annihilated the coyote that sprinted out of the darkness just several feet in front of my car and maybe also would have hit the very young fawn that was on the shoulder and had apparently been headed into the roadway until its mom called it back. It was just turning around to head back to mama doe when I saw them both and could see the concern on the mom's face and in her posture even while I was moving along that fast. Lucky for them, great mileage for me and no damage to the front of my car either.
All the best,
Glenn B
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