Like a Living Room on Wheels

Two weeks ago GM gave me a Yukon Denali Hybrid to drive from Los Angeles to the Venetian in Los Vegas for SITScation, a small conference for new bloggers. The conference was lovely, storming the party of Blog World Expo was fun and networky, and staying in the Venetian was indulgent. I learned how to place a bet at the sports book when I bet $10 on Notre Dame and I won even though they lost because they beat the spread. Ha!

But the true luxury of this roadtrip was the vehicle. I really wished I was using it for a family trip because the first thing I noticed (well, besides the sheer size of it) was the drop-down video screen, the DVD player, and the two sets of wireless headphones that came inside. We could plug our kids in and not have to hear from them the whole time. While roadtrips are great for family bonding, sometimes you just want some quiet already.

What I got instead was constant entertainment from my friend Katie, as we shared our life stories on the long drive. The size and cushiness of my seat, the smooth ride, the purring, sometimes soundless engine, all conspired to make me feel very comfortable. The hours passed quickly.

Once we got to Vegas, that's when I got nervous. The Denali's retail price was over $64,000. If I so much as dinged the thing, I have no idea what would happen. Did I mention that it's enormous? We were sitting up so high in comparison to our normal little cars that we actually ducked when driving up the ramp inside the Venetian's parking garage, because we were afraid we wouldn't make the vertical clearance.

Black leather seats. Onstar. GPS with a sassy voice that made me name the car "Supafly." I started to tell people it was like driving a home theater.

As far as gas mileage, here is what I can tell you. I failed to do the math. I guess I was tired or something because at the times when it would have been appropriate to write down the miles and the gas pumped, I did neither. The car itself told me that it averaged 18 mpg for the trip, but I have to say I feel like we did better. We started with a full tank, and only had to put 3/4 of a tank back in to make it home.

If I had a spare $60K hanging around, I probably would not spend it on this. If everything else was taken care of, however, and I had a family of hockey players, well, at least it's a hybrid.