Every year end, we travel to see all the grandparents. Christmas occurs during the trip and so we take all the gifts with us. We also used to take the stroller because that was the only way Finn (and previously, Connor) would nap during the day (and sometimes the only way they would sleep), so we would put a hard shell carrier on top of the car for the trip. This year we won't be taking the stroller on the trip for the first time since before Connor was born, so the question is: do we need to take the car top carrier? The pros are that the gas mileage is better and the sound of the air rushing between the car and the carrier is unpleasant. The cons are that we might have to mail some gifts home if we run out of room.
Based on data gathered from the past 14 months, the round trip is a little more than 1600 miles, and we make just under 25mpg with the car top carrier (or 65-70 gallons of gas), and just over 30mpg without (or 50-53 gallons of gas). If gas is $3/gallon (it's more than that right now in Burlington and I'm guessing it will be more on the highway in NY, and less locally in NJ and western PA), then taking the carrier costs roughly $45 more, or more than it would cost to mail a couple packages home.
Record-keeping and simple data analysis win! No turtle.
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