At the beginning of this journal, Jeanna posed two 2-part questions, one of which was:

“How much Diet Coke will two cyclists seriously addicted to the stuff require in order to pedal 4500 miles and how big of a hit will their retirement savings take supplying their Diet Coke need?”

The answer is part one: a lot and part two: BIG

As you read this, those of you who don’t know me might think that I am somewhat anal for keeping statistics like these. But my friends know better – THEY EXPECT THIS OF ME 

Anyway, these stats even surprise me. After 13 days of travel, here are the totals:

Serving size - Quantity - Cost
Fountain - 29 - $38.25
12 oz can - 11 - $ 9.47
16 oz can - 3 - $ 3.22
20 oz bottle - 2 - $ 2.68
2-liter bottle - 11 - $19.75
Totals - 56 - $73.36

Four points to remember here:

1. It has been VERY HOT, so we have been drinking more fluids than usual.
2. The above does not include the various teas, lemonades, beer, and yes, even water, we have consumed during our daily excursions.
3. The Fountain drinks usually include lots of refills - especially at meal time (Usually I just ask the wait person for a pitcher).
4. I have had to share SOME of the DC with Jeanna

I will admit that by yesterday, I had become somewhat “Coke’d out”. I had a sweet tea, a lemonade, a Slurpee and a beer before I had my first DC of the day. However, once we made it to the motel, I made up for lost time and polished off most of a 2-liter bottle after dinner. Life was good and all was right with the world again.