Puzzle for October 23, 2008

In 1987, Canadian Garry Sowerby and American Tim Cahill completed the first trans-Americas drive (driving across all the "portions" of the Americas (South, Central, North)), driving from Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. They used a brand new 1988 GMC Sierra K3500 four-wheel drive pickup truck to travel the 14,739 mile course. The 6.2 Liter V-8 diesel engine powered the trip which took 23 days, 22 hours, and 43 minutes to complete.

At one point, the team had to freight the truck from Cartagena, Columbia to Balboa, Panama to avoid the Darien Gap between the two countries.

So three questions today:

What was the trip's average speed?

If the vehicle got 13 mpg, how many gallons of fuel would they need to travel that far?

And the Bonus Question: If they freighted the truck across the border of Columbia and Panama, does their trip really count as driving across all the Americas?

See The Solution

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