From our winter home near Kino Bay Mexico to our summer park in Monticello MN is 2000 miles. We averaged 10 mpg, used 200 gallons of diesel at $4 per, and it snowed 10 inches the first day here. Between the sticker shock, culture shock, and weather shock, I had to drink a second Mojito every night. But what a difference 2 weeks makes: it's 60 outside now, sun's out, bass are jumping in the river, and I already forgot about that icky stuff. Keep on truckin'.
My recent 5200 mile trip (mid Jan to end of Mar, OH-AZ-OH), My average gasoline cost was $3.07/gallon. My 2006 Allegro Bay 37DB towing a 2001 Honda CRV averaged 6.96 MPG. Regarding the high cost of fuel, gas prices increased over 4X ($.30/gal to $1.25/gal) between 1971 to 1981. The same 4X increase to the end of April 2008, has taken 29 years ($.85/gal in 1979 to $3.30/gal now). The 11X increase in gas cost from 1971 to now about equals the cost increase of a mid to high range gas class A (1971 MSRP $13,500-2008 $150,000 MSRP)
I guess we can all rationalize and keep on trucking. Still, it's kind of scary to pay close to $300 when you fill a 75 gallon tank. I think the roving type of travel will soon end and people will stay longer at one place.
Precision Guesses
Joe&Jan and--Penny, our city dogpound escapee
2003 Hurricane 30Q V10
2004 Jeep Liberty & VW Cabby toads, Blue Ox, Brake Buddy
The Falcon wrote: I guess we can all rationalize and keep on trucking. Still, it's kind of scary to pay close to $300 when you fill a 75 gallon tank. I think the roving type of travel will soon end and people will stay longer at one place.
Anyone who can afford the price of a new Class A can easily afford to put gas it it no matter what the cost! It does mean an end of Class A ownership by fixed income pensioners like ourselves. We were lucky to be able to convert our Class A into a Class PM (Park Model) before the Class A depreciated to nothing.
Here's a link to a Trip Calculator that I made up as a spreadsheet. I have a few explanations about spreadsheets at the bottom for those who may be unfamiliar with them.
Cells with Orange numbers are for input. Just click on the cell and type in your own numbers.
Cells in black are calculated from the information that you input.
Basically you input the total miles for the trip (round-trip), your mpg for your car and for your MotorHome, the cost of round-trip airfare for everyone travelling. Then the current fuel costs. The spreadsheet will figure out comparative travel costs.
The next part is lodging. You enter # of days and rate per day, and the lodging costs are calculated.
Next is food costs which will probably require different values for car vs MH. We usually just have coffee and cereal in the morning and a quick sandwich or left overs at night. We assumbe we'll eat out every night but often will cook dinner in the coach.
Finally, if you rent a car, either when travelling by MH or by Plane, there are entry points for car rental.
The spreadsheet will calculate all sub-totatls and column totals.
Let me know if you find any errors and I will correct them. The numbers currently in the spreadsheet are based on my coach vs car for a 750 mile trip (1500 miles round-trip).
-----------------
Spreadsheets
A spreadsheet looks like a giant piece of graph paper. Each cell (box) is identified , by column (lettered from A to Z and up -- AA, AB, etc.) and by rows (numbered from 1 to ...)
The cell at the top left is A1. The cell to the right of A1 is B1, and so on.
In the simplest spreadsheet you can enter either text (words), numbers, or formulas into each cell.
The spreadsheet provided by MicroSoft is called Excel. In Excel a formula is entered by first typing an equal sign (=)followed by an identification of the cells to be included and the math operation to be applied.
To add up the first 10 cell-numbers in the first column (the one furthest to the left) you would use the formula =sum(a1:a10)
That means - the cell is a formula (=), the math operation is to sum or add the contents of the cells starting at a1 and going to a10. The range of cells a1 to a10 is placed in parentheses so that the program knows the extent of the range of numbers.
The basic math symbols in this spread sheet are:
+ add
- subtract
* multiply
/ divide
To enter a number click on the cell where it will be placed and type in a new number. Press enter. The program will automatically revise all calculations that involve that cell.
Just don't erase the formulas unless you know what you are doing. You won't affect my spreadsheet but you could damage the copy you have from clicking on my link.
Clicking on a "black" cell will show you the formula up at the top of the screen. If you mess it up, just close the program (click the X at the top right) and re-click on the link. Have fun.
* This post was
edited 04/20/08 05:21pm by UltraKen *
Harvard wrote: Anyone who can afford the price of a new Class A can easily afford to put gas it it no matter what the cost!
That's kind of a foolish statement. We have a gathering planned in 2 weeks and had one cancellation due to the cost of fuel - it was going to be $500 for them to make the trip. That is a payment for many. Just because you have one Class A doesn't mean you can afford 2.
There are 24 hours in every day - it all depends on how you choose to use them.
Bruce & Jill Brown
2008 Kountry Star Pusher 3910
This is a great post and is true in every sense of the word. For us, the quality of life traveling in an RV with our two kids is priceless. We have stayed in hotels and eaten out. Not very healthy I must say and as someone who travels on business, I am not a fan of hotels anyways.. kinda icky after seeing some news magazine shows about how they are kept in some cases.
DW loves prepping the RV for the season and before/after trips. We plan our menu's and stock up what we need from a healthy perspective. We do eat out, maybe on the last day/leg of our trip just to give her a break.
More and more due to the cost of living, I would rather pull into a stop and make sandwiches or something similar. Hey even left overs in the microwave is better than McDees.
I agree with many of you... beats the airports and spending quality time with the family is priceless. I dont get that when I am herding them to and from the airports. Cant take that chaos myself.. and I am a young-un.
Bring on the the $4. Aint stopping us. We will just make adjustments elsewhere in our lives to continue that special time together -- RVing.
I'm sorry - all of this is only political BS. The Oil Cartel is proving it can and does control the world.....I love my RV - I want to be able to drive where and when I want but it is nothing but a all out sin what they are doing to millions of people throughout the world - starving millions. I don't know how anyone with a conscience can do that.
Thomas "Rocket Heart" Emahiser
Anna,DW
Matthew
Alaina
mlbdp wrote: Great post!
We're leaving for Alaska in June and will be gone for 4 months. I've been using your rational with my DW & all the nay sayers.
We too are doing a 4 month Canada/Alaska trip. I've made up my own spreadsheet similar to Harvard's but includes actual mileage I've gathered from using Good Sam trip computer and also mapquest. Diesel in Canada will be (is?) $5.00/gal and the U.S. isn't far behind. So, I've used that as an average and with the total mileage and about 8 mpg, we will be spending close to 5 grand just for fuel; and, RV parks/campgrounds will be another 3K. So, along with those two figures, I've added in another 6 grand for food and miscellaneous spending. I figure if we can get away with $15K for this trip, we will be doing good. At $3750/month, that is just about half of our retirement annuity. Of course we still have to pay the homefront bills (utilities, insurance, etc), so I figure we will be lucky to break even.
Will it be worth it.....you betcha!
Ron
Ron & Sandie
'08 Safari Simba SBD35
86 Toy 4x4 P/U for Toad.
Tow Bar: Sterling
Brakes: Unified
Toys:
Yamaha 660R Raptor (mine)
Honda 350ES Rancher (hers)
64 Fairlane w/351c - 4sp
Both Fed CS Retirees
Hobbies:
DW's: Quilting
Mine: DW
Harvard wrote: Anyone who can afford the price of a new Class A can easily afford to put gas it it no matter what the cost!
That's kind of a foolish statement. We have a gathering planned in 2 weeks and had one cancellation due to the cost of fuel - it was going to be $500 for them to make the trip. That is a payment for many. Just because you have one Class A doesn't mean you can afford 2.
I happen to agree with Harvard. Simple solution. Use it or sell it.
I didn't say not to use it, I'm saying there is a limit to how much $$$ one can spend. Just because you own a Class A doesn't mean there is no limit to the budget...
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