When I was a child I remember lots of endurance races. The 24 hours at Seebring is one that sticks in my mind. Well now the Fuse has something on those races. I think I will call it the 29 hours to Colorado test.
It was not planned to be that, but I never said I was sane. Our original plan was to leave at 7:00am and make it to just past Little Rock. A 11-12 hour drive. And then on Thursday go from Little Rock to Ft. Collins another 12 hour day. Long runs, at our normal limits but doable.
Well we got off late, very late from Tallahassee on Wednesday afternoon. (A subject for a different article). How are we going to do this and make it to the get together on Friday. Well we thought we would drive as far as we could go, get a nap and go again and repeat as necessary. Not really any other choices.
Then we had another dumb idea. Why not try and do it straight through. One of us could sleep in the back while the other drove. We could always fall back to plan B if we needed to.
I got the Fuse back from the Ford dealership at 6:30PM and went home and loaded up. Forgot a couple of things (including my coat and the bike) and we left. Lets call it Wednesday at 7:15PM to be exact. And then we drove.
Not many pictures because we drove through the middle of the night. Did you know it is easy driving at 0200? You and just a few others on the road. Even most of the 18 wheelers are pulled off in rest stops at that time of the night.
By 0600 on Thursday morning we had caught back up to our first schedule and passed the campground we were planning to stop at. We made real good time. Both Sonya and myself got a several hour nap and Lily slept through the whole thing.
Then for the trip through the Great Plains. Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. Long and boring drives. Speed limits at 75mph and tolls. We averaged 80mph down this part of the trip and the accompanying 12mpg milage. Not my normal 68mph and 16mpg on the east coast.
I did have to perform one maintenance item while we were on the road. I noticed we were at 1/2 tank of DEF and I stopped at a Walmart in the middle of Kansas and added 2.5 gallons. We probably burned 15 minutes on that task.
We pulled in to the Ft. Collins Lakeside KOA just before midnight eastern time.
In the first 24 hours we had 21 hours and 20 minutes of running time. Traveled 1419 miles. From doorstep to campsite was 1700 miles and took us 28 hours 30 minutes. That means we averaged almost 60mph including bio breaks and 79mph during movement.
If anyone questions the toughness of the Ford Transit or the Winnebago Fuse, have them talk to me. I have a story.
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