Left Cedar City around 8.30 after breakfasting in the hotel. Baymont was comfortable and spacious. Again, I-15 was a route we’d driven many times before. Lunch at Whiskey Pete’s in the parking lot was cold pizza (the line for food was too long anyway). We all had a flutter. Waze took us along Pearblossom highway, and we were home by 4.45pm. After unloading, Jeri and I returned the Santa Fe to Burbank airport.
How did the cars do? The Fiat was almost trouble free; the windshield washer stopped working and the trunk latch locked, but apart from that the car gave great service; average mileage over 2,984 miles was 39 mpg. The surprising thing is that for a subcompact, all three of us found it comfortable despite our varying sizes. Not too bad for a nine-year-old car with almost 100K on the clock.
The Sante Fe was very good indeed. Spacious, wide cabin with loads of rear room for all of Beth’s stuff. Good tech; adaptive cruise, Apple Carplay etc. 8 speed transmission with a 2.5L four cylinder gave 30 mpg. Effortless and smooth with a good ride. Thank goodness we managed to swap out the Mitsubishi Outlander for the Sante Fe.
How did we do? Well, doubtless we could have got Beth’s stuff back a cheaper way, but given we had to move the Fiat back to LA and that it can only seat two people with very little luggage, the only option would have been to ship goods via UPS and only have one of us accompany Beth. Not so much fun as taking time and having the three of us share a travelling holiday. The stops in Chicago and the Rocky Mountains were spectacular and a lot of fun. Seven days to do the trip makes sense; you could do it in four, but that is a tough drive with consecutive 750-mile days and no stops. Our way was better.