Road Trip from Santa Clara, CA to Hyattsville, MD
Last modified : 12 November, 2025
In this post, I’m sharing data from my cross-country drive from Santa Clara, California to Hyattsville, Maryland. Along the way, I stopped in West Lafayette, Indiana to see family (a detour of 60 miles). I drove a 16 foot Penske truck and kept track of fuel stops, miles traveled, and costs throughout the journey.
The truck was relatively lightly packed with lots of room. I could’ve should’ve could’ve used a smaller 10 foot truck, except for the fact that I needed to transport my motorcycle, and 10 ft trucks don’t have a ramp. Maybe I should have bought my own ramp. The rental cost for the truck was $3308.46. I chose not to insure the truck separately because Penske was asking for almost $600 and my car insurance already covered rental vehicles. I also drove the truck extremely carefully and almost always 5-10 miles below the speed limit on cruise control.
🚗 Trip Summary
- Starting point: Santa Clara, CA
- Destination: Hyattsville, MD
- Distance traveled: 2,924 miles
- Fuel consumed: 242.83 gallons
- Total cost: $738.89
- Average fuel economy: ~12.0 mpg
- Average cost per gallon: $3.04
- Average cost per mile: $0.25
🗺️ Fueling and Mileage Log
| # | Place | Miles to this place | Gallons to this place | Cost to this place | Cumulative miles | Cumulative gallons | Cumulative cost | MPG (segment) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara, CA | – | – | – | 0 | 0 | $0.00 | – |
| 2 | Fernley, NV | 284 | 25.533 | $82.70 | 284 | 25.533 | $82.70 | 11.1 |
| 3 | Elko, NV | 259 | 22.079 | $75.93 | 543 | 47.612 | $158.63 | 11.7 |
| 4 | West Valley, UT | 224 | 18.651 | $58.55 | 767 | 66.263 | $217.18 | 12.0 |
| 5 | Laramie, WY | 396 | 30.504 | $88.13 | 1,163 | 96.767 | $305.31 | 13.0 |
| 6 | Big Springs, NE | 198 | 14.283 | $40.84 | 1,361 | 111.050 | $346.15 | 13.9 |
| 7 | Lincoln, NE | 294 | 25.588 | $75.71 | 1,655 | 136.638 | $421.86 | 11.5 |
| 8 | Chillicothe, MO | 213 | 17.741 | $49.66 | 1,868 | 154.379 | $471.52 | 12.0 |
| 9 | Macon, MO | 60 | 0.167 | $0.49 | 1,928 | 154.546 | $472.01 | 359.3 |
| 10 | Hoopeston, IL | 295 | 30.970 | $95.36 | 2,223 | 185.516 | $567.37 | 9.5 |
| 11 | Centerville, IN | 177 | 13.155 | $39.45 | 2,400 | 198.671 | $606.82 | 13.5 |
| 12 | Morgantown, WV | 318 | 26.139 | $78.39 | 2,718 | 224.810 | $685.21 | 12.2 |
| 13 | Hyattsville, MD | 206 | 18.019 | $53.68 | 2,924 | 242.829 | $738.89 | 11.4 |
📝 Note: The Macon, MO stop was a very small top-off, hence the unusually high calculated MPG for that leg.
⛽ Observations
- The best fuel efficiency was between Big Springs, NE and Lincoln, NE at nearly 13.9 mpg.
- The most expensive fuel stop was in Hoopeston, IL at $95.36.
- The total cost of fuel for the entire trip came to $738.89.
- The trip averaged around 12 mpg.
Hope this helps any future movers.
All content on this website is licensed as Creative Commons-Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Opinions expressed are solely my own.