On Tuesday I took a mini road trip, went with a friend up to southern Pennsylvania. (York/Hershey/Allentown) The Escape did far better than I had expected. As per the dashboard display I was averaging 36-38 MPG on the highway with the cruise set on 65 MPH, until my GPS diverted me onto secondary roads in the mountains...
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The dash still shows an average of 34 MPG on this current tank though.
I also think that this run has probably taken me a long way towards breaking in the new LRR tires. I'm thinking that my next trip to Florida should be real good as I won't have hills and mountains to contend with.