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...
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.